Web3 has revolutionized several industries, including gaming. With a major shift from traditional gaming platforms, Web3 games allow players to engage with games in innovative and decentralized ways.
Web3 is changing the gaming landscape. It is inevitable. Whether it succeeds in taking over technology as we know it or crumbles and fails, the future of gaming has shifted forever. Whether you’re for it or against it, it is worth looking into the evolving ecosystem.
But where does this sudden growth come from?
Most of this can be attributed to the development of technology and exponential growth. How we interact, communicate, gather, produce and consume information, transfer value, and build communities online are all being changed by technology.
The question remains – how will blockchain technology affect the future of video games? Let us help you. In this article, we shall give you a simple guide and explain how the gaming category came to its formation, where we are today, and why the industry is booming.
Level up: The new evolution of gaming
Three billion. That is how many gamers there are in the world, spending $200 billion a year on consoles and in-app purchases like NFTs. This category is bigger than movies and music combined and shows that we are spending more and more of our lives in virtual worlds. That is crazy, right?!
No wonder gaming is one of the most popular and fastest-growing industries in the world today. This is obvious to everyone who wasn’t living under a rock. Thanks to technological advances, games have become more accessible and immersive than ever before, attracting people from all walks of life.
Web3 games, backed by blockchain and cryptocurrency, come with an immense potential to transform the world of gaming.
Since the invention of the world’s first video game (which, by the way, was invented by a physicist), the video game industry has gone through several evolutions – each improving upon the previous generation of gaming.
Now, as we enter the era of Web3, gaming will change again. Unlike previous evolutions, where games changed by:
- How they were played (e.g. arcade vs. computer vs. console),
- Graphics (2D, 3D, and quality), or
- Experience (storylines).
This time the games are changing in terms of what people can actually take away from the game. The relationship between people and games has generally remained the same over the years. Players invest their time and money, and they receive an experience in return.
In Web3 games, players also invest their time and money, but there is a huge difference when compared to “regular” games. They are rewarded not only with experience but also with digital assets that may earn them more money than they originally invested in the game.
Hybrid Gaming – How Is Blockchain Affecting The Gaming Industry
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The growth of Web3 games
Blockchain gaming activity has grown nearly 2000 percent from the previous year. The overall statistics are quite impressive. More than 1.1 million unique active wallets were connected to blockchain games every day in the first quarter of 2022, accounting for more than half (52%) of total blockchain activity.
For those who are unimpressed with the infancy or lack of maturity of Web3 games, it may be helpful to know that 2.5 billion US dollars were raised by games and metaverse projects in the first quarter of 2022.
That is more than half the total amount raised in this category in 2021 (4 billion US dollars). Therefore, the various game projects around the world have a ton of funding to create and eventually release a top-notch offering for the public.
Key features of Web3 gaming
Web3 gaming is basically decentralized gaming, where the rights and ownership of the operations in the game are shared between the users and the platform. It is supported by and thrives on many features, including:
1. Play-To-Earn
Players can acquire non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies through various aspects of play-to-earn (P2E) based games, which allow them to earn virtual assets ranging from in-game currency to NFTs and cryptocurrencies. These tokens and cryptocurrencies can be sold or traded on the open market. Players can also earn fiat currency as a reward by completing in-game tasks.
There are multiple ways for someone to earn rewards, such as by collecting in-game currency that can be exchanged for real currency, minting NFTs and virtual assets in-game, wagering, and scholarships.
2. The integration of old games
Another fascinating aspect of Web3 gaming is the integration and upgrading of more traditional game models into the Metaverse and Blockchain platforms, giving these games a decentralized mode of operation. Every player has a game that he or she is more attracted to than others.
Therefore, Web3 offers players of classic and well-known games the opportunity to extend their experience by integrating these games into the Metaverse. Here, players can create their avatars and trade game assets and collectibles with other players.
3. Self-sovereignty and ownership
Self-sovereignty is the aspect of Web3 that gives users and players control over their virtual goods, their personalized gaming experiences, their activities, and their intellectual property. It allows users to transfer their acquired gaming assets from platform to platform and retain ownership of them.
4. Player-centricity
Leveraging on factors like old-game integration, play-to-earn, and self-sovereignty, the Web3 gaming ecosystem is customized for each player based on their preferences.
Players benefit from participating in Web3 gaming in a variety of ways: they can earn money from their game items or play their favorite games in the metaverse by integrating them into the platform. Both aspects of player-centric gaming benefit players as they seek to earn money with their in-game items.
5. Transparency
Based on blockchain technology, Web3 games are highly invulnerable and nearly impossible to hack because they rely on voting consensus to change the game process. Every activity is recorded in the blockchain, giving the Web3 games a high level of openness and transparency.
6. Zero downtime
Because Web3 gaming platforms, which rely on massive data storage infrastructure, are self-sustaining, they are highly scalable and require very little maintenance, so they rarely crash.
Ways to make Web3 games a reality
NFTs
NFT is a technology that enables scarcity and ownership of digital assets, much like any other digital currency. They can be put away in the wallet and transferred from one wallet to another.
In blockchain-based games, in-game assets are converted into NFTs, enabling asset ownership. Like how in any role-playing game, there are different types of assets: such as common, special, uncommon, epic, and legendary.
In the blockchain-based game, NFTs will define rarity. The best players will be able to collect the rarest NFTs and sell them to other players. Players will be able to keep the NFTs outside the game and they’ll be theirs even if the game stops working.
Tokens
Tokens will be the currency around which the economy of the whole game will be built. Every participant in the gaming ecosystem (be it the team developing the game, the community supporting the game, or the players playing the game) will be incentivized through these tokens.
As the value of the token increases, everyone benefits. This way we have aligned the incentives for everyone who makes the game great.
As businessman Charlie Munger once said: “Show me the incentives and I will show you the results.” Players earn and reap the benefits of their hard work in the form of tokens inside the game and can exchange these tokens for real money through exchanges.
Blockchain
Blockchains are open, permissionless, and immutable. Anyone can interact with it and can build on it. Just like Lego has building blocks and one can put a block on top of another. In the same way, the openness and permission-free nature will allow one to build one game on top of another and make the gaming ecosystem interoperable.
The actual concept of the Metaverse is driven by the concepts mentioned above and the metaverse will be built with the concepts of Web 3.0. Metaverse can also be seen as a kind of second life experience.
Players create avatars to represent themselves virtually and interact with places, objects, and other players. Through blockchain, items can be transferred between different games and game universes, creating a digital multiverse.
At the same time, the gaming industry will increase the number of blockchain users from 100 million to two billion.
Web3 games: A glimpse into the future
Although Web3 still faces significant challenges in adoption and implementation, the transition has already begun. We believe these reasons and many more should encourage Web2 gamers to take the next step and learn more about Web3 games.
By incorporating metaverse and blockchain technology into the gaming industry, Web3 gaming has completely reshaped the competitive gaming landscape and led to a virtual gaming democracy.
This is just one of the innovations that are integrating user content ownership into the evolving internet, and we hope we have helped you understand some of it.
Trust us on this one – it is no longer a question of what, but when. The industry is flourishing. The Web3 gaming revolution has already begun. Now is the time to jump in and take advantage – the sooner, the better!
