How Play to Earn Gaming is Transforming the Game Industry

The gaming industry has evolved a lot since the last few decades. During the initial years, most high-end and premium games had a paid model. Players would have to pay to buy the game and only then could they acquire the official license. Without it, they wouldn’t have access to any component of the games. Later on, pay-to-play games started declining due to the emergence of free-to-play games. As the name sounds, gamers wouldn’t have to pay any upfront money to access the gaming components. Although in-house game characters or weapons had a price tag, but the base versions were free.

Free-to-play games are still popular across the gaming industry today. However, there has been a paradigm shift recently with Play to Earn gaming on the rise. The term implies that these games are rewarding for gamers. You can earn real-world rewards once you complete the missions or win the levels. It can be either in the form of crypto tokens or NFTs. Whatsoever it may be, play-to-earn games have opened new opportunities for both players and developers worldwide. That being said, we will further explore what this play to earn gaming is all about and how it has created a revolution in the gaming industry.

Table of Contents

What is Play to Earn Gaming?

Definition and Concept

The gaming industry has adopted advanced technologies and practices, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and many more. But what truly opened up a new world of opportunities was the integration of blockchain technology. It enabled developers to create games solely for the blockchain ecosystem and the metaverse. The play to earn gaming has become a great way of incentivizing players by providing rewards in the form of real-world assets and NFTs. All the rewards earned can be traded, sold, or transferred within the gaming ecosystem. Hence, players won’t have to purchase most components from their pocket.

Every play to earn gaming is developed on a specific blockchain network. It allows users to track digital ownership of the in-game assets by leveraging the immutability feature. Once you win an NFT in the P2E game, the ownership details will get added to the ledger. It cannot be forged or manipulated later on, thereby ensuring absolute transparency and integrity. P2E gaming models offer rewards in different forms, like:

In-game tokens like Axie’s Infinity SLP
Crypto tokens that can be traded further on different exchange platforms
NFTs like skins, characters, weapons, and more

How P2E Differs from Traditional Gaming Models?

Understanding how traditional games differ from P2E models is crucial for both players and developers. Only then can they make the best out of this new trend in the global gaming industry.

Factors	Play to earn gaming	Traditional gaming models
Rewards and monetary values	In play to earn gaming, players can win NFTs, crypto tokens, and even real-world assets. All these can be used within the games or can be traded on marketplaces.	Awards given in the traditional gaming models are restricted to the in-game environment. They don’t hold any real-world value.
Asset ownership	One of the major reasons P2E games have become popular is due to the complete ownership. Gamers receive skins, characters, and weapons in the form of NFTs. These have unique identity, thereby providing players with absolute ownership.	In traditional gaming models, multiple players can own the same skin or character. In other words, there is no form of asset ownership. For in-game purchases, the IP rights will rest with the game’s developer.
Marketplaces and economics	Most play to earn gaming models are based on real-world economics. NFTs or crypto tokens earned can be sold or traded off at marketplaces or within other game communities.	The economy of a traditional gaming model usually depends on DLC and purchase fees.
Game development community	Developers use the decentralized ecosystem to build P2E games. Blockchain, smart contracts, and other such key elements are involved in the dev process. Also, community governance rights are given to players to decide or vote on any aspect.	A traditional gaming model is solely under the control of developers. They decide the features, layers, characters, gameplays, and other details.

The Rise of Play to Earn Gaming

Popular P2E Games Driving the Trend

With the growing trend of play to earn gaming, it’s time you add some of the games to your list. After all, these are a great way of getting incentivized with real-world rewards.

Axie Infinity: Sky Mavis is the creator of Axie Infinity, a popular P2E game in the entire community. Here, players are rewarded with crypto tokens for creating, breeding, and acquiring fantasy creatures known as Axies.
The Sandbox: This is a wonderful platform where players can create their NFTs. These can be further traded at different marketplaces. The platform also allows players to use their NFTs in other games through proper integration.
Gods Unchained: Another excellent P2E game driving the industry trends is the Gods Unchained. Players are incentivized with crypto tokens upon completing the missions.

Global Adoption of P2E Gaming

Different geographical regions have already adopted play to earn gaming model. These include Latin America, Southeast Asia, and some countries of Africa. What’s more, these games have become an alternate income source for players across the world. They can gain rewards and trade or sell them further to increase their liquidity and make profits.

Role of Blockchain and NFTs in P2E

As we are discussing play to earn gaming, knowing its deep-seated connection with blockchain and NFTs is crucial. Below we have described how these two elements of the decentralized ecosystem shape the P2E gaming mode.

Blockchain ledger allows players to trace the ownership history of all the assets gained in the games. Also, it increases transparency and security for all the users. In other words, every transaction recorded on the ledger becomes immutable.
NFTs are created to represent characters, skins, weapons, and other components to be used in the P2E game. These have real-world valuations and can be traded on different marketplaces.

How Play to Earn Gaming Is Revolutionizing the Industry?

Empowering Layers

The P2E games have proven to be extremely beneficial for players. They can now become major stakeholders in the gaming community by holding voting and decision-making rights. For instance, players can determine what type of NFTs will be awarded. They also have the right to vote on the crypto token circulation within the gaming environment. On top of everything, players can purchase, sell, or trade the real-world assets earned in the P2E games through marketplaces. So, they won’t have to be limited within the in-game communities to use their rewards.

Shaping the Future of Game Development

1. 1. Developers need to know more about blockchain technology, smart contracts, and other components of the decentralized ecosystem. Only then will they be able to create and deploy play to earn gaming software.
  2. They will draw power from the salient features of the blockchain ledger, like immutability, data transparency, and so on.
  3. Also, P2E games will pave the way for creating innovative gaming experiences for the players. Developers will have to think out of the box to make their incentive model unique and appealing to gamers.

Building Inclusive Gaming Communities

One of the major ways in which play to earn gaming has shaped the industry is by implementing inclusivity. In other words, players from all economic backgrounds can play these games and earn rewards. They won’t have to worry about emptying their pockets to acquire the game’s license and receiving no real-world reward in turn.

Future Trends in Play to Earn Gaming

AR and VR integration will further provide an immersive virtual experience to the gamers.
Games developed will be more specific for the decentralized ecosystems. These models will rely on the community governance mechanisms, especially that of DAOs.

Conclusion

It’s indeed true that play-to-earn gaming has raised the standards high across the entire gaming industry. Players would no longer have to compromise with the in-game rewards. Instead, they can use the NFTs or tokens earned to invest or trade in marketplaces. Besides, these games will open new opportunities for developers in terms of blockchain integration and decentralized development practices. Web 3.0 India is at the forefront of this revolution, enabling seamless blockchain-powered gaming experiences and fostering innovation in decentralized game development.