Blockchain Tech and Video Games, what is all the Fuss About?
Nowadays the trendy buzzwords in the tech world are NFTs, cryptocurrency, blockchain, DeFi, and more. And the video game industry has also picked up with the newest trend as it did in the past with others.
What’s Up With Blockchain Tech & Video Games?
In the past, the gaming industry hopped on the bandwagon with the success of genres like battle royale which gave birth to PUBG and Fortnite. We also saw the industry embracing the trend with Pokemon GO and League of Legends. How about now?
Currently, blockchain technology has attracted massive attention, investors, developers, and publishers amid a plethora of confusion and murkiness. The concepts that are behind the trendy concepts have already been realized in video games.
In the past three years or so, investors have poured a lot of money into the gaming companies to pursue blockchain games. The glittery concept of decentralized databases combined with NFTs is what attracts investors nowadays. Big gaming companies have assured their stakeholders that they too are keeping up with the new trends.
EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson said that NFT’s, “an important part of the future, and its still early to kind of figure out how that’s going to work.” Similarly, Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot terms blockchain as a revolution and Ubisoft plans to become a key player in this domain.
Despite all the hype, no gaming company has explained how blockchain technology is or can become a revolution in gaming. NFT enthusiasts propagate that users can own digital assets, fashion items, avatars, and more with the freedom to use it from one game to another using blockchain tech to prove ownership.
But what a player owns is just a sequence of alphabets and numbers. Moreover, why would digital objects of rival companies work on each other’s platforms?
A possible and practical realization seems in a way where only one gaming company with multiple games of its own will allow this feature. It seems like gaming companies are investing in blockchain technology because one day it might become something big.
What’s Up With Blockchain Tech & Video Games?
Zynga’s new hire VP of blockchain said, “I think it’s part of the fabric of the industry long term,” he said. “In the short term, I think it’s going to be a meme here in a minute. I’m OK with that because I think the underlying fundamentals are positive.”
Axie Infinity is leading from the front, its mechanics are complicated but it assures players can buy monsters, groom them and later sell them for real money. However, the game requires a user to pay $1500 upfront to get started.
