How Blockchain Technology Affects Ownership in the Gaming Industry

Crypto gaming uses blockchain technology to enable ownership of in-game assets. There is already a large industry for in-game items like skins and in-game currencies. However, blockchain-based assets enable true ownership since players can store their in-game assets via a crypto wallet. 

Play-to-Earn (P2E) gaming is one major innovation birthed from crypto gaming, allowing players to earn an income by earning blockchain assets that players can exchange for real currency.

With the introduction of in-game asset trading, tradable game tokens, and the prospect of earning cryptocurrencies while playing, crypto gaming not only lays the basis for play-to-earn for players but also modifies the pay-to-play dynamic for gamers. For example, some games require users to buy NFT characters to play, while others let players get started with a free character until they earn enough crypto to buy an NFT character.

Crypto gaming allows for transparent, virtual markets in the gaming industry, where players may buy, sell, and trade in-game items without giving up any ownership rights to such items. The fact that these resources are preserved in the form of gaming NFTs speaks to their special nature.

Blockchain gaming enables a wide variety of interoperability across gaming ecosystems thanks to integrating in-game assets (i.e., NFTs) across different platforms. However, the degree of interoperability possible when creating a gaming environment depends on the kind of blockchain platform used.

Because of the unparalleled security and confidence surrounding blockchain technology, ownership of in-game assets are easier to verify, and that leads us to NFTs and how they benefit blockchain gaming.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) also play a part in blockchain gaming. NFTs are unique blockchain-based assets that can be used to verify ownership of linked assets. Unlike digital currencies, they are utilized for unique assets to provide a shared sense of ownership. This is what differentiates them from digital currencies. 

Before the advent of blockchain technology, malicious individuals could save and distribute an infinite number of copies of most digital items and re-sell them. While people can still save and copy files (for example, the "right click, save" movement seen with NFT art pieces), the copied files have no value if they aren't the original. 

Blockchain technology links an NFT to a file or digital item, allowing anyone to verify its authenticity, so making copies of a file or asset does not affect the value of the original. As a result, blockchain technology enables the creation of truly unique in-game assets, and players can easily verify the authenticity of the assets. 

In turn, NFTs within the gaming industry can bring many benefits, including a larger creator economy due to the inherent value of NFT gaming assets. Additional benefits include easier and safer in-game item trading between players and additional revenue streams for developers in the form of sales royalties for every NFT item sold.

Spielworks, a blockchain gaming startup, recently welcomed Nicklas Dunham to its team as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Having built his reputation as a serial entrepreneur in the gaming industry, Dunham will target some of the most prominent enterprises in mainstream gaming to build, grow, and nurture Spielworks’s reach, as well as create new opportunities for collaboration with traditional gaming titles. 

In the last 20+ years, Dunham has founded and worked with many of Sweden’s household names in gaming, such as Stillfront, Starbreeze, and GRIN. His portfolio includes titles like The Darkness, Chronicles of Riddick, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for Xbox, Playstation, and PC. Having worked across most of the gaming platforms and business models, Dunham brings his deep understanding of the industry to lead Spielworks’s business development and bolster the company’s effort to pioneer Web3 gaming. 

Spielworks also recently partnered with four popular NFT games to enable its community to enjoy a native login through the Wombat wallet. The integrated games include Gunstar Metaverse and Tiny World on the Binance Smart Chain, Planet IX (Polygon), and Realm NFT (Wax). 

The partnership essentially integrates these four popular NFT games into the Wombat wallet, expanding Wombat’s portfolio of games while growing its community of NFT enthusiasts. Users can now access these games and exchange NFTs via the Wombat wallet. 

Spielworks has built one of the fastest-growing blockchain gaming ecosystems in the market, featuring more than 3 million sign-ups and 65,000 daily users. The ecosystem incorporates its multi-chain non-custodial Wombat App, crypto rewards platform Womplay featuring 40 AA and AAA supported titles, and Top 20 NFT staking game Wombat Dungeon Master counting more than 1 million staked NFTs. 

“As Web3 gaming gains traction, a lot of traditional gaming folks are starting to realize this is where the innovation is at, and that means it’s shaping the future of the broader gaming industry,” says Adrian Krion, CEO of Spielworks. “Spielworks has pioneered blockchain gaming from the beginning, and we’re proud to welcome such a well-regarded traditional gaming innovator to expand our reach and bridge traditional gaming with Web3.”

“This is an entirely new frontier, and I’m excited about all the discoveries and impact we will make together with the rest of the Spielworks team,” says Dunham. “There is still a lot to figure out, but I hope to bring the right sense of direction to our partner-making efforts and get everyone in the gaming world as passionate as we are about what Web3 brings to the table.”

Blockchain technology has brought a new dimension to the gaming industry, especially by introducing the Play-to-Earn system and true ownership of in-game items.