Three billion people in the world are consumers of some or the other form of video games, according to a report by DFC. That accounts for almost 38% of the global population. Now, even though these statistics are inclusive of both those gamers who actually spend some amount of money on either willingly buying new trending games, providing monetary support to other famous video game streamers, buying products or power-ups in the game to enhance their character performance and those who only play free games.
The fact of the matter is that the video game industry is one filled with opportunities for game developers and other persons involved in this sector. In 2019, the worth of this industry in total was speculated to surpass 300 billion dollars by 2025 according to Forbes. Now, adding the word ‘cryptocurrency’ in the mix only further increases their appeal. But how does it do that? Are cryptocurrency and video games really that good together?
Why think about cryptocurrency and video games at all?
Think of any video game you might have seen or played. As a consumer, you probably find the challenges in the game entertaining and want to excel in your virtual adventures as far you can.
So, when the game dangles the chance to buy an extra-special weapon in front of you, you do seriously consider it. In this case, though, either it tells you to pay using some tokens which are part of the game itself or using actual money.
Mostly, it is the former. And it so happens that you find yourself short of the tokens required to buy said item. Now, getting back to the topic in question. The ‘tokens’ in the game are the equivalents of cryptocurrencies.
The coins in the game are the ticket to buying other virtual assets in the game. Further, those assets would remain yours until you choose to trade them away to some other player. Using these ‘tokens’ is also a lot less time-consuming than paying with fiat currency.
The biggest reason as to why providing this option of coins inside the game itself is better from the game developer perspective, is that the consumer might instead end up selling off their assets on the grey market.
This would very obviously be disadvantageous for them. Hence, in order to ensure that they do not lose profits, a few video games have started introducing actual cryptocurrencies in video games that can be used to buy and sell items as per the consumers’ wish. A huge number of blockchain-based games have surfaced in recent times, allowing tokenization of the weapons or assets the customer wants to buy.
What’s in it for the average gamer?
During quarantine, it was found that people found themselves turning towards gaming more than ever. As stated before, it’s a booming industry. The benefits gamers reap are quite a few as well. For one, there is less hassle in buying anything.
Take Enjin, for example, which builds on the fact that it allows access to non-fungible tokens for everyone, meaning that it allows blockchain innovators to generate unique assets of value with special features that gamers can buy/use. These items are embedded in a secure chink of the blockchain system. So now, you can buy particular skins for your character, virtual pets, and other items with a simple click in the game itself.
Not only do these games have digital wallets, but they make the whole digital experience a lot more customizable according to the user’s taste.
The several uses of cryptocurrency and video games
Here are the areas where cryptocurrency and video games can be assimilated seamlessly.
In-app purchases
This is one of the most common uses for cryptocurrencies in video games. It includes services regulated by the app itself, which allows the purchase of items in the game. In the crypto industry, it can also include buying items using cryptocurrency or buying crypto coins themselves. They can also be used to facilitate the user to upgrade their protagonist in the game or get a premium version of the game itself.
Advertisements and Banners
As another area of monetization, game developers (especially in mobile-based games) habitually use the concept of advertising in games in order to generate profit. This could also include rewarding mini-games, which give the user some incentive to download the service the game is promoting.
Rewarded Surveys and Videos
Another very common branch of usage includes surveys and videos. These require the user to fill in a very simple survey or watch a video promoting one of the video games’ partners. After these seemingly easy tasks, the user is rewarded with some amount of token money, which is used in the video game.
Trading within the game domain
Another very interesting part is where the users are allowed to set-up their own mini-shops all inside the virtual world itself. Although this arena is still being explored, there are a few things that have already been done pretty similar to this.
This includes being able to use certain assets brought in one game in another game, using virtual storage to access said item. The same may also be sold on some other platform in order to earn a cryptocurrency.
Things you should keep in mind regardless
The cryptocurrency industry in itself is at a beginner stage. It still needs time to stabilize in order to be termed as a very profitable sector of investment. Other than this, there lies the legal part of all this trading. While cryptocurrency and the blockchain system are weaving their ways into the video gaming world. There are also ways to get out of hand if several users simply refuse to follow the stipulated guidelines.
Furthermore, with several different cryptocurrencies being invented every day, it would be hard to keep track of which ones are actually worth buying and which ones aren’t. In the end, it all boils down to the very same game of speculation and safety in the virtual world, where it is much harder to garner profits using deceit rather than the truth.
Concludingly, nobody can surely know where the world of cryptocurrency and video games is running to. But rumor has it that it’s largely going to keep increasing its consumer base, whether or not cryptocurrency continues its bull run or not. This may be due to the fantasm surrounding the virtual world. Or perhaps, people just like trading digitally far more than they do physically.
Maybe, in the future, we will be finding ourselves doing a lot more than just buying items online in games for the fun of it. We might be running full-on businesses there too. Perhaps, we are already doing that at some level.
