Published för 2 år sedan • 5 minute read

Play to Earn Gaming Model To Take Esports To The Next Level

Until a few years ago, dominating the gaming landscape were the traditional companies that gave players little or no economic incentives for investing their time and energy in the game. Players didn’t even own the in-game items they purchased. They merely had “access” to the items they paid for. 

Blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) model has emerged as one of the most disruptive trends in the gaming and esports industry. In fact, traditional games as well as esports organizations have begun to integrate blockchain technology to unlock new opportunities for themselves and players alike.

P2E games are here to stay

Blockchain games like Axie Infinity have become immensely popular since last year, even though its gaming experience is not as refined as those of popular traditional games. Thousands of people, especially those in emerging countries such as the Philippines, began playing Axie Infinity to make money after they lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Axie Infinity has generated over $4 billion in NFT sales as of February 2022.

In Axie Infinity, players buy, breed, and pit creatures called Axies against each other to win in-game currency called the Smooth Love Potion (SLP). Players can sell the SLP tokens for other cryptocurrencies or fiat. 

That’s how it works in P2E games. You are rewarded with cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) just for playing the game. And you truly own the characters, avatars, and other in-game items in blockchain games because these assets are represented by NFTs. You can transfer them between games, exchange them with other players, or sell them.

Many have pointed out that the P2E games are more about “earn” than “play,” meaning the gaming experience is sub-par. However, the success of Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and others has demonstrated that, by improving the gaming experience, the P2E games could give traditional gaming a run for the money.

Bullieverse is a fantasy metaverse game-of-games platform where users can play to earn, have fun and make new friends. It promises an immersive gaming experience, unlike Axie Infinity, for the Web 3.0 citizens. You need to own a Bull NFT to become a citizen of the Bulliever Island. Bullieverse allows creators to create, publish, and monetize their own games. You can create games using assets and templates, even without coding knowledge.

In Bullieverse, gamers enjoy high-quality gameplay combined with a transparent and fair monetization mechanism that underpins the play-to-earn economy. Players can rent and lease their assets to others in the community.

 

The emergence of higher quality games is not the only reason for the P2E model’s continued growth in the future. According to the gaming insight platform Newzoo, the proto-metaverse games such as Fortnite and Roblox that have some metaverse characteristics without blockchain integration have a much younger audience than others.

Most players involved in the metaverse games are aged between 10 to 35 years. As per Newzoo, the younger generation will continue to prefer the immersive metaverse games over the traditional ones. 

Esports wants in on play-to-earn

Unlike traditional games, esports are competitive online games - person vs person or team vs team - that spectators watch live from around the world. They are organized in different leagues and tournaments. According to an estimate by the consulting firm Activate, esports had more viewers than any other professional sports league except for the NFL in 2021. The global esports revenue stood at a little over $1 billion in 2021, as per Newzoo. 

About 75% revenue in esports is generated through sponsorships and advertising, but only a small number of players with a large follower base make most of the money. Power law distribution. Integrating the play-to-earn mechanism using NFTs will help the esports industry diversify their revenue stream. 

Esports organizations and blockchain developers are trying to converge the two to capitalize on each other’s strengths. In fact, esports is already moving towards the P2E model rather than free-to-play or pay-to-play. Using blockchain in esports offers novel opportunities for established players, developers, as well as new users.

Plug-and-play platforms like Ignite Tournaments are making it easier than ever before for traditional games and esports to integrate blockchain elements into their games. It acts as a bridge between traditional gaming and Web 3.0 through its ability to turn any pre-existing mobile game into a play-to-earn game.

Ignite believes that blockchain could enable more than two billion gamers around the world to develop new streams of revenue and income outside the traditional areas of streaming and content creation. It is building the world’s first mobile play-to-earn esports tournament and streaming platform to transform the esports industry and lower the barrier for entry by providing the tools of P2E tournament organization to gamers worldwide.

More than just revenue diversification

One of the biggest challenges in the esports industry is match-fixing. The deep pockets often pressurize players into losing the game on purpose. Since players are heavily reliant on the managers, they have little autonomy, making it difficult for them to go against the will of organizers that have poured a lot of money to hold the tournaments. 

Blockchain could dramatically cut the cost of organizing esports tournaments. A lower cost combined with the transparency of a public ledger would make the organizers think twice before engaging in match-fixing. Making agreements and transactions open to all gives players greater autonomy.

Another major concern in the esports industry is the security of online transactions. Since all blockchain transactions are recorded on a public ledger, the technology could make the virtual in-game purchases or marketplace transactions fair, transparent, and safe. It would potentially save the industry billions of dollars by reducing the risk of frauds. 

Closing thoughts

COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of play-to-earn games. As developers and players realize the value of blockchain in the gaming and esports industry, we’ve begun to see the emergence of metaverse games offering an immersive experience. Esports organizations will double down on blockchain because it benefits all the stakeholders by bringing transparency, security, new monetization opportunities, and by leveling the playing field.

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