The realization of blockchain technology’s utilities across industries has resulted in significant improvements in business processes across industries. According to a study, blockchain could transform at least 58 big industries in the coming years. From building resilient supply chains to tackling counterfeiting, the use cases of blockchain continue to increase with industry adoption. Blockchain has revolutionized several industries over the past few years and gaming is one of the biggest among them. Play2Earn gaming is blockchain’s gift to gamers seeking to take up online sports professionally.
Source: https://wall-street.com/how-blockchain-is-transforming-the-online-gaming-world/
The value of the global gaming market stood at $173.70 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a value of $314.40 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 9.64%. There are over 3.1 billion gamers globally and the number is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. The mobile gaming industry alone is predicted to reach a valuation of $272 billion by 2030. All these stats are a testament to the increasing popularity of gaming. Metaverse, a virtual world powered by VR and high-end graphics, is uplifting digital gaming with virtual reality. The total value of the global metaverse industry stood at $47.69 billion in 2020 and is forecasted to reach nearly $829 billion by 2028. The rise of the Metaverse industry has been anticipated by big tech firms including Facebook. In fact, Facebook changed its brand name to Meta in October last year with CEO Mark Zuckerberg referring to Metaverse as “the next frontier” after social media.
Source: https://itmunch.com/top-gaming-cryptocurrency/
As blockchain continues to bring a significant change in the gaming industry, play-2-earn (p2e) gaming has emerged as a fascinating concept that looks set to dictate the transformation within the gaming space in the coming years. The play-2-earn gaming model puts users/players at the centre of the benefits associated with the game. The model empowers gamers to have complete ownership over the digital assets they acquire with the gaming environment. The focus has been shifted to earning from entertainment. The market revenue of the crypto gaming industry stood at $321 million in 2020 with nearly 41.9 million gamers owning crypto. According to a study, 80% of the gamers owning crypto are interested in using cryptocurrency for gaming purchases. 67% of these gamers hope to see more opportunities for using crypto in gaming.
Play2Earn Transforming Gaming Business
Play2Earn gaming model incentivizes games by allowing them to own in-game products like tokens and NFTs that have real-world value. Players are rewarded in form of cryptocurrencies and NFTs for contributing to the ecosystem. The fact that these rewards can be converted into FIAT cash makes play2earn a lucrative model.
Play2Earn gaming model has transformed the face of the gaming world with monetization. There are two main ways gamers can earn from play2earn gaming.
Farming: Gamers can earn tokens and in-game rare NFTs simply by interacting in the game environment.
Contributing to the Ecosystem: Play2Earn gaming allows users to play, create and earn. Gamers have the opportunity to create custom NFTs such as wearables, game skins etc that are tradeable. These NFTs can either be sold on popular gaming marketplaces like VulcanDex, or gamers can earn when other players use these NFTs.
With blockchain technology at the heart of play2earn gaming, it has the potential to decentralize the gaming industry, putting gamers in control of assets. According to the World Economic Forum, play-to-earn could bring digital identity, assets, and ownership into players’ hands. The success of games like Axie Infinity is a testament to the increasing impact of play2earn on the gaming industry. It took the game just a few months to achieve the milestone of 2 million daily active users. A report by Forbes predicts that the market value of the video gaming industry is going to increase by 30% by 2023. The report further predicts that the emerging trends within the gaming industry can pump the market value of blockchain-enabled open economies to $200 billion, making it the fastest-growing segment.
Positive Impact of Blockchain Gaming
Nearly 50% of crypto transactions are related to gaming and the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies is going to boost the blockchain gaming economy significantly. There are several benefits of blockchain gaming over traditional gaming. Let’s have a look at the most significant ones
Ownership of In-game Assets for Gamers: The introduction of blockchain in gaming to bound to enhance the transparency in the entire ecosystem. Blockchain gaming, with the help of p2e games, puts users in control by providing them with the ownership of in-game assets depending on the interaction and contribution. Platforms like Vulcan Forged and RedAttack allow users to win rare NFTs in form of rewards in exchange for their contribution.
Enhancing the Value Projection of Intangible Assets: Blockchain gaming has attracted millions of users towards crypto investment. The prices of gaming tokens have witnessed exponential growth due to increased participation. The price of the $AXS token surged 50% in Feb 2022, after Axie Infinity revamped its reward structure. The value of intangible digital collectibles or NFTs increases manifold after a game is created on the blockchain.
Monetary Benefits: With the emergence of the crypto gaming industry, gaming has shed its reputation as merely a source of entertainment. It has evolved as a profession where gamers can make a fortune just by playing and contributing to the refinements. Gamers and researchers can leverage blockchain technology to create exciting games or modify existing ones. They can earn rare collectibles in exchange for their contributions. Players are also rewarded for interaction within the gaming platform. Besides this, investing in the native token of gaming platforms has also proved to be a beneficial exercise so far.
Improved Payment Methods: Since cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology and payments in blockchain gaming are made in crypto, making payments has become a really secure and fast exercise. The involvement of cryptocurrencies in p2e has made payments convenient for users as well as platforms.
The Role of Metaverse
The emergence of Metaverse has added a distinct flavor to blockchain gaming. Gaming is all about interaction and user experience and Metaverse has enhanced it significantly. Metaverse games are getting popular among gamers and the key reason behind this is the highly immersive digital world where users can interact easily. Metaverse is a unified and interoperable VR space where users can communicate freely through advanced computer interaction. The involvement of VR takes the engagement experience to a new level. Companies like Decentraland and Sandbox are defining the role of Metaverse within the gaming ecosystem. Realizing the potential of Metaverse, Facebook was also jumped on the bandwagon with a changed brand name- Meta. According to a survey, 59% of industry experts believe that gaming will dominate VR investments for the next few years.
Final Word
Combing cryptocurrencies and gaming has enhanced the financial value of the gaming industry exponentially. The crypto gaming industry is still in its starting phase. With the continuous refinement of the underlying technology and increased involvement of virtual universes on Metaverse, gaming has the potential to dominate the rise of the crypto industry. Play2Eearn gaming has put players in control of the changing dynamics of the gaming industry. The concept of rewarding has attracted millions of gamers to own crypto. P2E is set to dictate the future of gaming for sure.