May it be a positive assumption or a negative presumption, NFT is the topic that has everyone talking. But first, let’s see what exactly an NFT is and how it impacts the video games industry. NFTs can be traded with cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin is one of the many available cryptocurrency in the market.
NFT or non-fungible token is a digital asset minted to a blockchain. In simple words, NFT allows us to have digital ownership of any particular item. It helps in signifying the proof of ownership with only one official owner at a time. A good example of this is if you searched for a digital artwork on google images and just saved one of the many images from the results, nobody can trace it back to its original creator or owner and many people would have the same copy of that image. But NFT will help in identifying the original owner and making sure that only one person has its ownership at a time and the transfer of said ownership is legal and only to one person. This makes the item unique and authentic to its owner. In video games, NFT works in a similar way. Let me elaborate on that further.
How do NFTs work in video games?
Publishers are the only people who earn money through video games. Free to play games, as well as fully priced games, have microtransactions. This means that in the case of paid games, the player is not only paying the full price of the game but also purchasing currency to buy items and cosmetics in that game. If players want to earn money through that game, they would have to sell their disc which would mean losing possession and access to that game. But NFT is a technology that changes this.
NFT-enabled games would mean that every item in the game is unique and players can trade this item for another item, in-game currency, or real-life money.
Trading is not a new mechanism in video games. Many games have had it for a long time. Games like Warframe allow us to freely trade the items we own with in-game currency to another player, but this is limited in two ways. One is that you are not the only person to sell that particular item, another player might have it too, so it is not unique to us and another is that it only allows us to trade the item for in-game currency.
NFT will change this. It would enhance this trading mechanism and enable it to provide its true potential. The item you buy or earn in-game will be unique to you and no other person will have the same exact item. You can freely trade this item with another player for in-game currency or real-life currency and every transaction will be recorded in the blockchain, making it impossible to tamper with.
How do video games based on NFT earn money?
Since NFT games are on a blockchain, everything is transparent and quantifiable. This means that whenever a player makes a transaction of NFT the company gets a small percentage of it. Other than that, these games have their own native NFT token which can be exchanged for money.
What was the first game to include NFT?
The first game to include NFTs is the shooter Ghost Recon Breakpoint from the iconic Tom Clancy franchise.
The monetization setup is the following:
- On the Quartz marketplace, players can trade in-game NFTs they have earned through playing the game.
- These NFTs range from weapon skins to limited-edition gear, called Digits. Therefore, they are standard customization items, but this time they are tokenized, so they can be exported outside the game.
- The NFT marketplace is run on the Tezos network, a fast and eco-friendly proof-of-stake blockchain. This means that the native cryptocurrency for NFT trading is XTZ, currently worth $4 per 1 XTZ.
How to earn money with ease through NFT?
To earn money via NFT, you have to first link your Crypto wallet to an NFT Marketplace. Once your wallet is linked, all the funds from NFT transactions will collect in it. After that, you just have to convert the cryptocurrency into money on exchange platforms like Binance, Gate.io, CoinDCX and many more.
What are the best games that include NFT?
- Axie Infinity
Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity is a blockchain game based on Ethereum. The objective of this game is to breed and battle creatures called Axie. No two Axies are the same, each has its own unique characteristic. The strengths and weaknesses of every Axie are different.
Effectively, three digital assets run Axie Infinity’s multi-billion dollar economy:
Smooth Love Potion (SLP) for Axie breeding
Axies as NFTs — the core of the economy. Their price can range from $60 to over $300 on the Axie Infinity NFT marketplace
Axie Infinity (AXS) token — the native governance token of the blockchain game. Sometimes referred to as Axie Infinity Shard tokens.
Players can also buy NFT land in-game. This is the most expensive transaction in the game.
- Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is the first blockchain game to be released, Robbie’s Immutable X. It is a trading card game. The goal of the game is to collect all the different cards. These cards are NFTs, which are traded on Immutable X Marketplace. There are four rarities of these cards- Meteorite, Shadow, Gold, and Diamond.
Currently, it has a revenue of 6.45 Billion USD as per the Statista report.
- Guild of Guardians
Guild of Guardians is an action RPG with ‘Diablo-style’ gameplay and it is set on the Android as well as IOS platforms. It will offer a single-player as well as Cooperative multiplayer experience. Every squad has four heroes but the player can only control one of them. Each hero has a different look and stats. The goal of the game is to collect all the heroes.
The Guild of Guardians token is represented as gems in the game. Players earn these gems while playing and they can use them to stack, vote, and trade items in NFT Marketplace.
Conclusion:
NFTs in video games can be a pretty positive thing as it allows the user to earn money simply by playing the game. Making each cosmetic and non-cosmetic item unique and tradable without any restriction makes earning those items more rewarding. The items you earn by playing the game have more value as there are no copies of the same item. Alongside that, it gives grinding the game a purpose. Use of NFT is still to be tested thoroughly while also keeping in mind that a lot of gaming companies have already decided to stay away from this technology. And then there are regulators who have different opinions which at some point leads to compliance testing requirements for your games.
