With the constant evolution of the gaming world, new technologies are constantly finding their way into the hearts of gamers. The advent of online gaming has also brought new horizons to both mobile games and high-end triple-A titles, effectively extending the reach of this industry. Thus, there's no question as to how the global video game industry is estimated to reach a value of over $200 billion in 2022.
The amalgamation of gaming with advancing technologies doesn't end here, as now we have a fairly new contender looking to change the gaming world as we know it.
Who else could it be but NFTs? With the NFT market reaching an estimated value of $44 million , we can't deny that it's here to stay and dominate several industries in the world. What started from digital art pieces is now set to take the gaming world by storm as NFTs aim towards the area of rare in-game items and collectibles that gamers o so cherish.
But in order to know how NFTs will achieve this feat, we must find out what they actually are.
What is an NFT?
NFT is an acronym for Non-Fungible Tokens that are developed and programmed similarly to cryptocurrencies; thus, NFTs are cryptographic assets based on blockchain technology. However, they differ from cryptocurrencies because each NFT has a distinguished digital signature which prevents them from being traded equivalently hence the term "non-fungible."
The perception of these NFTs in modern media is reminiscent of physical collector items; however, in the digital medium. Thus, owners of NFTs get a digital file with exclusive ownership rights. This ownership is easily verified with the use of blockchain technology. The widespread hype of NFTs has attracted all kinds of audiences, of which gamers are also a part; according to a Forbes article , the NFT market is estimated to grow up to $231 billion by 2030 .
NFT Gaming
Now that we know what NFTs are, we can understand NFT gaming in all its intricacies. NFT gaming has been one of the biggest technology trends of 2022, which was hard to ignore for both gamers and developers. These NFT games, aka blockchain games, were fueled by NFTs that took the shape of in-game assets that became a part of the in-game content.
These digital assets were brought to gamers as in-game rewards and achievements that were rare, unique, and indivisible while possessing value outside the gaming ecosystem. The global NFT gaming market has thus gained success and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.56% during the forecast period from 2022-2027.
How NFTs Will Change the Way We Game
Decentralization of Games
The integration of blockchain technologies and NFTs in gaming will lead to the creation of a decentralized gaming environment. This means that gamers will gain a level of authority that exceeds that of the developers and game studios.
This heightened level of authority will allow the gaming community to make more informed decisions regarding these NFT games. This will allow gamers to decide how the NFT games will be shaped following their needs, thus creating a customizable user experience that will eventually put the gamers in the driving seat.
Allowing Players to Earn
An aspect that has caught the attention of gamers across the world is that of pay-to-earn games. These NFT games provide players with the opportunity of earning real money by owning valuable in-game assets.
Digital assets and cosmetic items have been a part of the gaming industry for quite a while now; however, with a gaming ecosystem that utilizes cross-platform NFTs, these items are tokenized from in-game assets to transferable assets in the form of cryptocurrency, which can then be exchanged with other digital assets or even real money.
These NFTs also function as investments as gamers can hold onto these digital assets and wait for their value to be multiplied in the case of events such as the increase in popularity of a certain NFT game.
Safe and Secure Gaming
With hackers running rampant in the gaming world, the security and protection of these in-game assets have become an area of great concern. However, NFTs prove to be an impenetrable safety shield against these hackers as the uniqueness of NFTs makes it much more difficult for them to be stolen or duplicated.
Gamers can rest assured that blockchain's transparency ensures that any transactions regarding these NFTs are completely reliable and secure, thus making the gaming world safe.
Trends To Look Out For
NFT-centered Mainstream Gaming
As of now, NFT gaming is quite limited, but we can expect it to easily find its way to big studios and triple-A titles soon. Evidence of this is how Sony filed a patent to use digital collectibles in its console gaming ecosystem.
Following this tech-ambitious step of Sony, other gaming giants will soon follow suit. This initial venture shows that the gaming landscape is sure to integrate NFTs on a much larger scale than ever before.
P2E Becoming a Means of Livelihood
We previously explained how players are able to earn as they play with NFT games; this can bring about a completely new source of livelihood for gamers across the world. Even now, we are seeing hints of play to earn becoming a means of livelihood through NFT games such as Taunt Battleworld and WAGMI.
sdlccorp has estimated that gamers have been earning $500 per month through NFT games; this shows that the future of both gamers and these pay-to-earn games seem to be quite bright.
Conclusion
With both gaming and NFTs on the rise, they were likely to interlink at one point or another. This gave birth to what we've explained NFT games to be. NFTs have truly altered the way we game as we enter a new age that brings numerous benefits to players across the globe.
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