Blockchain games have been increasingly receiving user attention in recent years. The growing popularity of trends like Play to Earn (P2E) is not only disrupting the traditional gaming industry but also opening up a new trend where users can play to earn money. So what’s special about Play to Earn? Let’s find out with Weakhand in this article.
Types of Business Models in Games Today
Video games have changed the entertainment preferences of an entire generation of users on a global scale. Since the first game appeared called Tennis for Two in 1958, the gaming field has exploded and taken the world by storm with typical games such as: League of Legends, Minecraft, … . with tens of millions of players globally.
Currently there are many different game genres, but the following are the business models in games at the present time:
Types of business models in games today
Pay To Play
Pay to Play is a pay-to-play model that requires players to purchase the game before they can download and play. Membership packages such as: Xbox Game Pass, EA Origin Access, etc. require users to subscribe to a fixed monthly subscription to have access to the list of games in their subscription.
Developers will receive a percentage of the total user subscription fee depending on the level of engagement and attention the game brings. This is a quite popular model with many famous games in the world such as: Assassins, …
Free To Play
Free to Play, as its name suggests, does not require users to pay any fees to participate in the game. The game is free to download and play, but if players want to buy premium items in the game, they must pay to own them. Additionally, game makers can also make money through in-game advertising.
This business model has become popular with gamers and it is estimated that about 80% of revenue in the gaming industry is generated by games in this segment.
Currently, almost all mobile and PC games use the free-to-play model with some typical titles such as: League of Legends, Apex Legends, Pubg, Valorant,…
Play To Earn
Play to earn is a new gaming model that recently appeared on blockchain platforms. Users perform tasks or participate in in-game activities to earn money paid in project tokens. Some popular games in this field include: Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, The Sanbox,….
What is Play To Earn?
What is Play to Earn?
The concept behind Play To Earn games is simple: Players participate in in-game missions and activities to collect Tokens or NFTs from the platform. Users can then sell them on open markets for cash.
Unlike traditional games, where the assets in the game belong to the manufacturer. The relationship is one-way when users participate in gaming and pay for in-game assets without gaining any money in return. Play To Earn titles release assets in the form of NFTs, and players can participate in gaming to earn or buy and sell NFTs on NFT Marketplace platforms.
Another feature of Play To Earn games revolves around the idea that the more users participate in gaming, the more money they have a chance to earn. This is explained that, as more people participate in gaming, in-game items will become more scarce and have the potential to increase in price in the future.
Background of the Play To Earn Model
CryptoKitties – The first Play To Earn model in the Crypto market
The Play To Earn model has been around for a long time, with the first game being CryptoKitties published by Dapper Labs and launched on Ethereum in 2017. CryptoKitties is a game where users collect, breed and buy and sell cats. Digital.
Each CryptoKitties is unique and represented by an NFT. Players can participate in breeding and trading them on the NFT Marketplace with prices depending on the rarity of each NFT. CryptoKitties has become a phenomenon in the Crypto market when it caused the Ethereum network to clog due to a sudden increase in the number of transactions.
Axie Infinity – The person who paved the way for the appearance of Play To Earn
CryptoKitties appears to be the first game that allows users to play for money. However, at that time CryptoKitties’ gameplay was quite simple and partly due to the expensive Gas fees, it had not yet become a real trend.
The appearance of Axie Infinity is completely different when it comes to technology, transaction costs, etc. This immediately created a strong boom and made Axie Infinity one of the most successful games. in the Crypto market.
This has been proven with over 2.8 million daily users and generating a trading volume of over $3.8B USD at its peak, Axie Infinity has become one of the dominant monetization titles in countries such as : Philippines, Indonesia,… Part of the reason for the strong boom of Axie Infinity seems to be the impact of Covid 19. People can stay at home to play games to make money to cover their lives and generate additional income. import for their families.
Operating Model of Play To Earn Games
The combination of blockchain technology and the play-to-earn business model has created a new industry where games build their own in-game economies, assets, etc.
The operating model of Play To Earn games at the present time
Most Play To Earn games adopt a model that rewards players in the form of project tokens and in-game items are encoded as NFTs. Users can participate in games to earn rewards and buy or sell in-game assets on NFT Marketplace platforms.
For example: Axie Infinity is a typical Play To Earn game in which players need to own Axie NFTs to participate in the game. These Axie Pets can be bred or fought to earn rewards in the form of SLP tokens. Additionally, players can trade Axie NFTs on the Axie NFT Marketplace.
Some Popular Play To Earn Game Titles
There are many Play To Earn games in development at the moment, here are some popular Play To Earn games:
Some popular Play to Earn game titles
Axie Infinity
It is no exaggeration to say that Axie Infinity is one of the most successful Play To Earn games ever. To participate in the game, players need to own 3 Axie Pets to be able to compete with other players. In addition, at the present time, Axie Infinity deploys Axie HomeLand allowing players to transform their Axies into farmers participating in farming missions in the game.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is a Play to Earn game with the card game genre. The player’s goal is to build a deck and defeat opponents in PvP matches. Like other games, players own in-game assets and cards in the form of NFTs, and users can buy or sell them on NFT Marketplaces.
In addition, God Unchained also implements a DAO model that allows users to use GODS tokens to participate in voting for in-game development. Since users can play for free or start playing at a low cost, God Unchained has received a lot of attention with more and more players signing up and building their digital NFT decks in the Game.
Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a Play to Earn game with a galactic setting in which players will compete for resources and dominate territory to dominate the galaxy in the game.
Even though the game hasn’t been released yet, with careful investment it creates an extremely attractive gameplay with fierce battles. Star Atlas is expected by the community to be one of the next games to create success like what Axie Infinity has done.
The Sanbox
The Sandbox is a virtual metaverse where people can unleash their creativity and monetize the in-game experiences they develop. In addition, players can also buy and sell virtual assets in the game such as: Land,…
The Sanbox is developed by studio Pixowl and headed by Arthur Madrid. The game was launched on May 15, 2012 and took 8 years to develop. The Sandbox has had a brilliant and explosive success, especially at the end of 2021 with the Metaverse wave appearing in the Crypto market.
Mines of Dalarnia
Mines of Dalarnia is an action-adventure title where players mine and combine various in-game objects, improving their skills and equipment to unlock the secrets of the Mines of Dalarnia universe while Find rare relics and antiques.
Mines of Dalarnia is developed by two blockchain startups, Workinman Interactive and Chromia Studios. The game launched in November 2021 and immediately created a huge buzz with more than 50,000 daily players, the price of DAR Tokens and NFTs in the game also had very impressive growth.
Limitations of Play To Earn Game Titles
The boom of Axie Infinity in particular and Play To Earn titles in general in 2021 is generally from in-game monetization speculation rather than players participating in actual gaming. Most games also encounter a disadvantage: there is too much inflation from tokens used as rewards to NFTs used as in-game assets.
Knowing that creating more rewards for players when participating will attract more users to the platform. But when it fails to attract new people, the economic model in the game almost breaks down and as a result, NFT and Token prices drop dramatically, leading to the project gradually dying over time.
At the present time, there are many game projects that pay more attention to playability and improve the economic model in the game. New games will gradually overcome the mistakes made from old games and I believe that Blockchain games are still growing very strongly and we can see a boom in the near future.
summary
Summer 2021 is truly the time for Play To Earn games to take the throne with rapid growth. Although in 2022 we have seen a slowdown and seemingly freezing of the Gaming Blockchain field, with the recent large investment from funds, perhaps the Gaming field still receives a lot of strength. It’s attractive and I believe that GameFi will continue to grow and explode in the near future.
