People have always thought of video games as something people do when they don’t want to get ahead in their careers. And there’s a good reason for this belief: video games don’t make much money. But the world moves at a very fast pace, and this passive habit changes into an interesting way to make money. Professional gamers have always been able to make money by winning competitions or getting money from streaming. But now anyone who likes games can make money by playing them. So, people in the P2E game development industry are looking for new ways to make a lot of money from their hobby. This idea is becoming more and more real every day as this niche grows in popularity and new technologies are made.
Here we put together this guide to help you figure out what the future of NFT play-to-earn games is and what trends you can expect to see in this field in the coming years. First, let’s talk about what P2E games are.
What does “Play-to-Earn Gaming” mean?
Play-to-earn gaming, also known as P2E, is a broad term for a group of games in which players can win real money by playing. Most of the time, these games use blockchain technology to give players stable and safe ways to make money.
Using blockchain technology, game developers can make unique in-game items that can be traded between players. Once players earn these assets, they can export the coins or NFTs they’ve earned to a wallet, which lets them convert them into fiat money like U.S. dollars later. Most of the time, players who earn NFTs in a game sell them to other players or collectors, or they download them to an NFT marketplace to sell them to speculators. Let’s look at how blockchain can make games different.
What’s Next in GameFi?
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) has been popular with gamers for a long time because it lets them dive into a fully immersive experience. But the technology took a long time to develop and grow. And it hasn’t been used a lot in different fields, like P2E games, until the last few years. But VR is still a small part of the gaming industry as a whole (less than half of all game sales come from VR).
Video games have been getting more and more popular for many years. During the pandemic, people have been looking for new ways to socialize and have fun. This has only made the trend grow. Now, gaming is a bigger business than both movies and sports put together.
Even though virtual reality hasn’t lived up to all the hype, big tech companies like Valve, Sony, and Facebook are trying to use it to move the industry forward. Even though there are some interesting products on the horizon, companies need to solve problems first.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Do you remember how popular the game Pokémon Go was around the world? The game sold more than $5 billion worth of copies, and it was the first time people played games with AR features. And it went really well. The real key to success is to combine the virtual and the real, so that players can enjoy both digital characters and real places. One reason why A.R. is used more in modern P2E games is because of this.
Artificial Intelligence
The idea of putting AI into games has been around for a long time, and things are moving quickly and interestingly in that direction now. This is because NPCs are now made with “behavior trees,” which are a more complex way of thinking about how they should act. This lets them make decisions that are more complicated and interesting. In the future, Gamefi games might use more advanced A.I. But game designers have to think about a lot of things before it can become a standard.
Cloud Games
The cloud is another part of Gamefi’s future. Gamers will be able to play games that are streamed from the servers of companies. This will happen in the same way that Netflix lets people watch TV without a DVD on their laptops.
Cloud gaming will make it less important for users to have their own hardware, so they can play on any device they want. Sony and Microsoft, two of the biggest names in video game consoles, have both made their own cloud gaming services. Cloud gaming can be a great opportunity for this niche, and experts say that with over 23 million players, the industry will bring in $1.6 billion.
Graphics
Most people who play video games today don’t like the cool graphics. Even though graphics used to be terrible and have come a long way since then, people still want the best experience. And this can be done with ray tracing, which is an algorithm that mimics how light behaves in the real world.
Experts think that this technology could change the game in the next few years for many good reasons. But not every game, especially indie games, should use this method.
The Metaverse
Even though it’s a buzzword in most industries today, it seems like Gamefi would benefit the most from using it in their field. We are still a long way from having metaverse game development, but big companies have already done a lot of great things in the real world. Roblox, for example, lets high-end fashion brands like Gucci host events in games like Fornite. So, players can dress up their characters and watch virtual shows without leaving the game.
Some interesting P2E games to keep an eye out for
Stepn
Stepn was made by the app developer FindSatoshi Lab. It was built on Ethereum. It is an app for smartphones that lets people make money by walking, jogging, or running for a certain amount of time every 24 hours.
This game also has augmented reality, which became popular in 2015 with Pokemon Go. The sneaker is a key part of the app that affects how much money a player can make. The GST is added to a wallet that the user creates in-game or imports from outside channels.
The first thing players do is buy an NFT sneaker so they can play. Then, they can also upgrade their shoes in different ways to make more GST from each walk. The sneakers stand for an NFT token, which can be traded on secondary markets in the future.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a metaverse game in which players compete by having their pets, called “Axies,” fight each other. This game was also made based on the Pokemon franchise, which has an open-ended storyline set in a digital pet universe. In order to make money, players can do quests on their own or with other people. Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens are what Axie gives to players as a reward. These tokens can be traded for real money or other tokens. You can also use these tokens to breed Axis.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is an NFT-powered game that is made up of a metaverse with seven planets that are meant to represent a digital version of Earth, but with a different economy provided by its native Trillium (TLM) game tokens. With NFTs, players in this game can own and trade any item they find in this virtual world. Players can mine for TLM, play against other players, or just do quests in the game. Alien Worlds also has its own decentralized finance (Defi) features that let TLM players bet on one or more planets with their holdings.
Bottom-Line
One of the most popular industries today is the one that deals with games. People used to be skeptical about playing games, but P2E space changed their minds and made it possible for them to make money by playing their favorite games. We put together this guide to help