The NFT market seems to be heading towards another month of consecutive dip. Based on the figures obtained from Crypto Slam, the dip started in April 2022 with a sales volume of $3,806,346,613.84 in total. Followed by May- $3,184,422,599.20, June- $879,080,400.63, July- $682,104,319.50 and August- $633,988,424.51. The number of unique buyers has dropped by 42% since April. While many of the NFT holders were expecting "The Merge" will lift the markets up, it did not happen that way. In fact, Ethereum's price has dropped around $1,347.98 at the point of writing.
"The NFT market is flushing out bad assets and keeping the good ones. This might prompt a revaluation of the true value of the NFTs, and alter how they are used. As mentioned previously, NFT is the new asset in the digital world, and NFT marketplaces should start to strategize and embrace traditional AAA games into this space. The bearish market allows all of us time to build, and we create new opportunities. We have to do it the right way.' Anndy Lian, thought leader and best-selling book author "NFT: From Zero to Hero" added.
Anndy is correct. We are at a point where the crypto industry is all very cautious. The NFT sector is at its all-time low. Web2 and AAA gaming are finding their way to us. We have to take this opportunity.
Here are some AAA games that I have been keeping an eye on.
Epic Games Store Launches First NFT Game
According to a press release, Epic Games' game marketplace has included Mythical Games' Blankos Block Party as its first non-fungible token (NFT)-powered Web3 title. The announcement comes less than a year after Mythical Games received $150 million in a Series C fundraising round valued at $1.25 billion.
Blankos Block Party is a free-to-play multiplayer party game based around unique collectible digital vinyl toys known as Blankos, which may be purchased, updated, and sold inside the game. Mythical Games and Third Kind Games collaborated on the game's development.
Epic Games are open and has left the door open for developers who want to build around NFTs. This is a positive sign.
NFT Games on Minecraft
Despite Mojang Studios' opposition to the incorporation of NFTs, MyMetaverse was able to incorporate NFTs into multiple games, including its own Minecraft server.
"We wanted to show Mojang that it could be done in a way that benefited them and benefited their player base," said MyMetaverse CEO Simon Kertonegoro.
According to Simon, multiple servers have violated the Minecraft NFT restrictions, which were designed to protect players from unwanted interactions. The CEO did point out that they are able to implement NFTs on their own servers without violating the game's regulations. They accomplish this by removing all pay-to-win NFTs and making their best NFTs fully free to play.
Ubisoft is working on integrating NFTs
Ubisoft is a French video game company headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, For Honor, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy's, and Watch Dogs.
In an interview with Axios, as far as NFTs are concerned, the CEO still believes there is a possibility in the company's future work on it. He says: "If we find something that will be very interesting and will please players, we'll work on it."
More to come
Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson stated on September 13, 2022, that two AAA studios had begun developing on the Immutable X platform. Ferguson said the first game would be shown within a month. This implies that before the middle of October, we should know which triple-A developer is joining the NFT movement. This is less than a month from now.
Last but not least, Kakao Games and XL Games are already preparing a new game, ArcheWorld, integrating NFT and Play-to-Earn game mechanics. Representing Bybit NFT Marketplace, I will be on the same panel with XL Games at Blockchain Gaming 2022 organized by ABGA on September 27 on "What Blockchain Technology Can Bring to Traditional Gaming Giants." I will let you know more about the discussion after the conference.