Web3 Gaming Is More Mainstream Than You Think

Designing a game that people actually want to play is tough. Adding a token economy on top of it that enhances the gameplay is a challenge few have mastered. And lastly, competition between publishers and game developers is fierce, so designing an ecosystem where digital collectibles are transferable between games requires the politicking of Frank Underwood from “House of Cards.”

With all of this in mind, it’s shocking that the P2E-gaming world is thriving. Sega announced its first blockchain game is coming, Fifa unveiled it will be releasing four new blockchain games, and even Nike joined the Metaverse craze with a new virtual footwear platform. 

There is clearly something brewing.

Blockchain doesn’t equal cryptocurrencies. The technology itself is home to many new advancements other than digital currencies, and even though Meta is struggling, to say the least, the Metaverse is still poised to become the norm for online gaming.

While the world heads into recession, VC investors invested more than $4.5 billion in the development of Metaverse games and other Metaverse projects in 2022, DappRadar statistics show. And this is only the beginning.

Early blockchain-gaming pioneer Spielworks recently reached an impressive three million sign-ups, with more than 65,000 active daily users. These kinds of statistics belie the glum stats about famous but ultimately unpopular Metaverses.

It’s true that some games try to distance themselves from NFTs as much as possible—even “Grand Theft Auto” banned crypto and NFTs from its online servers. And it’s also true that with FTX’s collapse, Justin Bieber’s Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT shed nearly 95% of its value. 

Companies like Gala Games, on the other hand, deployed $150 million to acquire AAA-quality games for the platforms, on the heels of unlocking $2.2 billion in P2E revenue in 2021 for its players. Jason “BitBender” Brink, the president of blockchain at Gala, was quoted saying, “I think we are the first company in history that has given away more money than we made.” With numbers like these, it’s easy to understand why P2E and NFT gaming are unstoppable forces.

Yes, the current economy is hitting crypto even harder because it’s newer, riskier, and more volatile—but it’s hitting everyone, and it’s not going away anytime soon. So instead of wallowing in despair from the constant stream of bad economic news, we can keep an eye out for news that shows where this inevitable future of tech is going.

GN3RA, The world's first fashion Metaverse for creators, partnered with the Royal College of Art (RCA), the world's most influential postgraduate institution of art and design. Through the partnership, platform users will be able to use and co-create digital fashion designed by RCA alumni, helping steer the fashion industry online.

On the digital vehicle front, software giant NVIDIA is working with Volvo to fully test cars in the Metaverse. Of course, Volvo is already running computer simulations, but the Metaverse takes this to the next level using “Digital Twins,” exact replicas of real-world cars.

While the naysayers nay, innovators can look around at their peers, and see some incredible projects in the works. As President Theodore Roosevelt said, “it’s not the critic that counts, the credit belongs to the man in the arena.” Nowhere is that more true than in the innovation space. 

Like Schrodinger's cat, the Metaverse is simultaneously here, and it’s coming. There is no telling where it will end up—all we know is that it’s going at tremendous speeds.