P2E

Play-to-earn falling out of favor after ‘massive shift in priority’ — BGA survey

Gameplay improvements will be the biggest driver of blockchain gaming adoption in 2023, according to a survey from the Blockchain Gaming Alliance.

A new survey has found that the blockchain gaming industry is experiencing a “massive shift,” with the once-popular play-to-earn (P2E) model falling out of favor and focus shifting to improving gameplay experience. 

The survey results were included in a newly released annual report from the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) on Jan. 12, conducted with 347 professionals representing 252 projects or companies in the blockchain sector.

According to BGA, most respondents were young adult males working for blockchain gaming companies in middle and top management positions. 

One of the trends from the report was an apparent shift in how blockchain gaming executives viewed P2E as a driver for blockchain gaming adoption.

Chart showing factors that could impact blockchain gaming adoption. Source: BGA

In 2021, the report found 67.9% of respondents agreeing that P2Es would be the most significant growth driver of blockchain gaming. The latest survey found this number shrinking to just 22.5%.

Instead, gameplay improvements were seen as the biggest driver for adoption in 2023 with 35.7% of respondents saying gameplay improvements will be the industry’s top priority.

Pedro Heddera, head of research and analytics at DApp insights company DappRadar, cited P2E’s fading out as a result of “falling crypto prices and upcoming free-to-earn games,” paving the way for the new generation of Web3 games, adding:

“2023 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year.”

Rowan Zwiers, the co-founder of Web3 consulting company Blockminds, stated in the report that despite the previous hype achieved by P2E games during the first generation of blockchain gaming, the industry is currently in the midst of a “drawback to normalcy.”

Zwiers said that P2E games have “proven themselves unsustainable” but showed the need for the development of the next generation of more advanced blockchain gaming dynamics.

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Meanwhile, Felix Hartmann, the chief investment officer of Hartmann Metaverse Ventures, said that “cheap point-and-click browser” P2Es are no longer getting the funding they used to get as “capital has gotten smarter and more demanding.”

Hartmann suggested that venture capitalists are turning their attention to a better experience for gamers. He noted:

“More cutting-edge game studios integrating Web3 and AI into Unreal Engine-based, high-fidelity games are seeing more traction.”

Despite the decline in popularity for P2Es, co-founder of Mirai Labs, Corey Wilton, said that the “lovers” of the original P2E model will always exist, but it is clearly more profitable to create games that “capture the casual everyday gamer.”

The report highlighted that poor gameplay and the problem of understanding blockchain gaming concepts were the most significant issues in blockchain gaming.

Related: 2023 will see the death of play-to-earn gaming

However, according to a section of the report supported by DappRadar, the blockchain gaming industry is still growing significantly despite the extended crypto winter.

On-chain game transactions reached 7.4 billion, growing 37% from 2021 and a staggering 3,260% since 2020.

Key Takeaways for 2022. Source: DappRadar x BGA Games Report 2022

The report stated that the crypto winter had not impacted the number of blockchain gamers for existing games.

President of the Blockchain Games Alliance, Sebastien Borget said this indicates to him that the industry is “putting players first,” more so focusing on the benefits of blockchain to the gaming industry over the volatile market.

Function over fun? Analyst says P2E games don’t need to be ‘fun’ to retain users

Play-to-earn games struggle to retain users, which is exactly why one analyst says they need to focus on function over fun.

Play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain-based games gathered investors’ attention in late 2021, with Axie Infinity leading the pack with over 2 million active users. In P2E games, players are awarded crypto or nonfungible tokens (NFTs), as they progress throughout the game. These digital assets can be sold using marketplaces and cryptocurrency exchanges, generating income in a decentralized manner.

However, there is a large discrepancy between P2E and traditional PC and console gaming experiences. In that sense, crypto games are a couple of decades behind due to the restrictions imposed by blockchain technology.

Yes, most crypto games lack a decent user experience

Although the promise of AAA-level crypto games eventually developing exists, so far, most of the launches gravitate toward digital trading card battles, decentralized finance (DeFi) disguised as role-playing games and collectibles.

Unsurprisingly, crypto games critics focus on the lack of fun, or a comparable user experience versus the traditional market, as pointed out by analyst Udi Wertheimer.

According to Anton Link, the CEO of NFT renting and leasing protocol Unitbox Protocol:

“Unlike most Web2 titles, fun is not what play-to-earn gamers aim for. Their main goal is to make a profit and be the first to gain new valuable experience that they can effectively use as a guild or cybersports team member to monetize their time.”

In terms of adoption, the traditional gaming industry beats the movies and TV entertainment by a large margin. A recent report from Newzoo suggested that the video games market will reach $200 billion in 2022, a 5.4% increase year-over-year. In addition, the report states that the gaming segment entices 3 billion players, far higher than the estimated 320 million crypto users worldwide.

Even if Wertheimer’s remarks are correct, meaning the demand for crypto games will remain sluggish, capturing a mere 0.5% of this segment equates to 16 million users. Moreover, there’s nothing impeding someone from seeking some form of revenue in P2E and, separately, enjoying traditional games on consoles, PCs and mobile apps.

In regards to the potential expanding P2E user base, Anton Link, the Unitbox Protocol CEO said:

I think NFT blockchain games and the GameFi sector will be the key drivers of the industry in the next few years – and will also become a vehicle for the mass transition of new users to the crypto industry through new NFT-based DeFi products.

There’s a considerable difference between collectible NFTs and in-game avatars, armors, weapons, land and spaceships. Likely the prejudice against P2E games comes from the 67% decline in NFT trading volume from May 2022 to July 2022, according to data from DappRadar. Furthermore, Axie Infinity has been plagued by a massive $600 million Ronin bridge hack on March 29.

DeFi-focused games could generate income for many

There’s plenty of valid criticism for the crypto gaming industry, and forcing users to buy items or tokens sits near the top of this list of complaints. However, one should note that the multiple DeFi applications are disguised as games, such as DeFi Kingdoms, Farmers World and Sunflower Land. In these cases, expecting free compensation without any initial investment would be weird.

Despite the challenges in onboarding users and creating sustainable in-game economies with sufficient incentives, Link explained that “It will only be a matter of time before institutions start lending against NFTs.”

He elaborated with:

“Once the institutional lending infrastructure is in place, we expect the demand for NFTs to rise as well, as institutional money can flood into the country due to the additional utility that comes from securing their NFTs.”

Maybe, in the near future, players will no longer have to buy digital monsters and spaceships before adventuring in P2E. Even though there’s valid criticism for the crypto gaming industry, a 10x increase in active players to 16 million is not far-fetched. More importantly, this growth and the new models supporting it do not need the same user experience provided by traditional games that don’t require interaction with blockchains.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

34% of gamers want to use crypto in the Metaverse, despite the backlash

According to Globant, 34% of gamers are interested in conducting crypto transactions in the Metaverse, while 16% have purchased NFTs in the past.

Despite a backlash from a vocal part of the gaming community, a new survey has revealed one-third of gamers have expressed interest in using crypto in the Metaverse.

And, more gamers than not believe that the Metaverse will have a positive impact on gaming.

The survey was published on Wednesday by institutional software developer Globant. It was conducted by YouGov and polled 1,000 adult PC, console and/or mobile gamers last month, with 34% of respondents indicating an interest in conducting crypto transactions in Metaverse.

The concept of play-to-earn (P2E) in the Metaverse is also relatively well received by gamers, with 40% of respondents stating that they are “interested in pursuing a mix of both the ‘playing’ and ‘earning’ aspects of the Metaverse.” While 11% indicated they are more interested in earning, and 49% stated they are only interested in playing.

More than half (53%) of respondents also stated that they would happily work in virtual game worlds if they were able to earn digital currency from their labor.

In terms of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), 16% of gamers stated that they have purchased at least one in the past. However, it was unclear whether they were gaming related NFTs.

More than half (52%) of gamers believe the Metaverse will change the video game industry and “a plurality of 41% think that the Metaverse will have a positive impact on the industry (vs. 25% who disagree).”

Notably, however, despite 40% of respondents associating blockchain tech with Metaverse, only one blockchain-native platform made the list of the most recognized Metaverse brands.

The most recognized is Meta at 73%, followed by Fortnite creators Epic Games at 27%, Roblox at 21%, Ethereum-based The Sandbox at 15% and Pokemon Go developers Niantic at 10%.

Some die-hard gamers have voiced distaste for crypto and NFTs on numerous occasions, often in response to major companies and brands announcing such integrations into their product lines.

They criticize the environmental impact of the technology and suggest that it negatively impacts the gaming experience, but the core rationale appears to be a belief that companies are just looking for cash grabs in a similar vein to the controversial in-game microtransactions.

Related: NFT volume sees yearly low in June, but first-time buyers remain consistent

Recently, video game developer Mark Venturelli launched an attack on NFTs during Brazil’s International Games Festival in a presentation titled “Why NFTs are a nightmare.”

Venturelli argued that the introduction of speculative economic activity via NFTs will end up ruining the experience for people who just want to play games for fun, as “organized groups” will take over as they work to profit at scale.

Volumes surge 205% in Axie revival as co-founder claims project is ‘healing’

Interest in Axie Infinity appears to be picking up again following the launch of its new NFT land staking feature and ongoing upgrades to the Origin battle game mode.

Play-to-earn (P2E) Metaverse game Axie Infinity appears to be on the mend, with its NFT sales volume pumping 205% over the past seven days.

The project’s co-founder Jeff Zirlin echoed such sentiments via Twitter on July 8, after he stated that the project was “healing” in reference to the strong adoption of NFT land staking, the Ronin bridge being back up, and a notable uptick of game downloads and NFT sales.

According to data from CryptoSlam, Axie infinity generated $1.3 million worth of sales over the past seven days from a total of 23,100 buyers, marking a 205% increase for the week.

One of the contributing factors to the sudden increase appears to be the surging appetite for Axie Infinity land NFTs following the launch of staking support on July 4. The staking feature enables land owners to earn weekly rewards in the game’s native AXS token. At the time of writing, roughly 91% of the 16,794 circulating supply has been staked, according to data from the Ronin Chain explorer.

The project also launched the second phase of upgrades to its new game mode this month dubbed “Origin,” which had 600,000 sign-ups as of mid-June. The game is in early access mode ahead of an eventual global launch, and it enables users to collect, trade, and battle each other with their playable Axie monster NFTs. The upgrades were said to have fixed a host of bugs in-game.

The increasing NFT sales volume is likely due to the Ronin bridge relaunching on June 28. The bridge is a sidechain built for Axie Infinity which enables users to transfer assets between the game and the Ethereum mainnet. However, it had been offline since late March following the infamous $600 million hack.

Despite this, the 205% surge in volume over the past week only places Axie Infinity as the 18th highest selling NFT project within that time frame, a far cry from its chart-topping days in late 2021.

The Axie Infinity eco-system has suffered from a long downward trend since it peaked in interest in November. That month saw the project generate a whopping $753.9 million worth of NFT sales, while its native AXS token hit an all-time high (ATH) of $164.90. As of June, its NFT sales for the month totaled just $3.1 million, while AXS is down 91.4% from its ATH to trade at $14.18 at the time of writing.

Axie Infinity NFT sales volume: CryptoSlam

With player retention and gaming longevity being seen as crucial issues for the project, the Axie Infinity team has been exploring ways to expand the ecosystem of late.

Related: Play-to-Earn vs. Move-to-Earn explained

In a July 9 blog post, the Axie Infinity team noted that its vision is to create an “entire gaming universe” with comprehensive lore similar to iconic series such as Star Wars, Final Fantasy, or the Lord of the Rings.

As part of the push, the team will be rolling out content focused on building up the story behind the game’s fictitious world, “Lunacia,” in partnership with gaming-focused decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Strider.

The team also stated that it recently launched three new programs aimed at fostering community growth called the “Lunacian Codes, the Creator Program, and a fellowship collaboration.” The first two focus on rewarding users via referrals and content creation, while the latter provides funding for 200 fellowships as part of a creator academy.

Volumes surge 205% in Axie revival as co-founder claims project is ‘healing’

Interest in Axie Infinity appears to be picking up again following the launch of its new NFT land staking feature and ongoing upgrades to the Origin battle game mode.

Play-to-earn (P2E) metaverse game Axie Infinity appears to be on the mend, with its nonfungible token (NFT) sales volume pumping 205% over the past seven days.

The project’s co-founder Jeff Zirlin echoed such sentiments via Twitter on Friday after he stated that the project was “healing” in reference to the strong adoption of NFT land staking, the Ronin bridge being back up and a notable uptick of game downloads and NFT sales.

According to data from CryptoSlam, Axie infinity generated $1.3 million worth of sales over the past seven days from a total of 23,100 buyers, marking a 205% increase for the week.

One of the contributing factors to the sudden increase appears to be the surging appetite for Axie Infinity Land NFTs following the launch of staking support on July 4. The staking feature enables Land owners to earn weekly rewards in the game’s native Axie Infinity (AXS) token. At the time of writing, roughly 91% of the 16,794 circulating supply has been staked, according to data from the Ronin Chain explorer.

The project also launched the second phase of upgrades to its new game mode this month dubbed Origin, which had 600,000 sign-ups as of mid-June. The game is in early access mode ahead of an eventual global launch and it enables users to collect, trade and battle each other with their playable Axie monster NFTs. The upgrades were said to have fixed a host of bugs in-game.

The increasing NFT sales volume is likely due to the Ronin bridge relaunching on June 28. The bridge is a sidechain built for Axie Infinity which enables users to transfer assets between the game and the Ethereum mainnet. However, it had been offline since late March following the infamous $600 million hack.

Despite this, the 205% surge in volume over the past week only places Axie Infinity as the 18th highest selling NFT project within that time frame, a far cry from its chart-topping days in late 2021.

The Axie Infinity eco-system has suffered from a long downward trend since it peaked in interest in November. That month saw the project generate a whopping $753.9 million worth of NFT sales, while its native AXS token hit an all-time high (ATH) of $164.90. As of June, its NFT sales for the month totaled just $3.1 million, while AXS is down 91.4% from its ATH to trade at $14.18 at the time of writing.

Axie Infinity NFT sales volume: CryptoSlam

With player retention and gaming longevity being seen as crucial issues for the project, the Axie Infinity team has been exploring ways to expand the ecosystem of late.

Related: Play-to-Earn vs. Move-to-Earn explained

In a Saturday blog post, the Axie Infinity team noted that its vision is to create an “entire gaming universe” with comprehensive lore similar to iconic series such as Star Wars, Final Fantasy or the Lord of the Rings.

As part of the push, the team will be rolling out content focused on building up the story behind the game’s fictitious world, Lunacia, in partnership with gaming-focused decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Strider.

The team also stated that it recently launched three new programs aimed at fostering community growth called the “Lunacian Codes, the Creator Program, and a fellowship collaboration.” The first two focus on rewarding users via referrals and content creation, while the latter provides funding for 200 fellowships as part of a creator academy.