According to new research from the United Kingdom, most gaming makers have already begun investigating blockchain technology for prospective projects.
The latest study, commissioned by blockchain platform Stratis and carried out by insight firm Opinion, polled 197 video game developers in the United States and the United Kingdom. According to the findings, 58 percent of developers are starting to employ blockchain technology, and nearly half of those polled (47 percent) have begun to use nonfungible coins (NFT).
Two-thirds of studios predict blockchain to become ubiquitous in the gaming industry within the next two years, according to the report, indicating developers’ confidence in blockchain and NFTs. While 72 percent of respondents are considering incorporating blockchain and NFTs into future games, more than half (56 percent) plan to do so within the next year.
Stratis CEO Chris Trew told Cointelegraph that blockchain technology, tokens, and NFTs are critical technologies enabling new digital worlds and gaming experiences. “They allow users to have a stake in the games they play by allowing them to buy land as an NFT in a metaverse game or a car in a racing game,” he explained.
“Games have always been pay-to-play, with the value accruing solely to firms and platforms. “Blockchain and NFTs completely flip this circumstance,” Trew added.
According to the report, the top three benefits of blockchain for the video game business include new gameplay (61%), preserving value for players by keeping money in the game (55%), and rewarding players with real-world value (54%).
While independent game creators were the first to embrace blockchain and NFT, with roughly 20 of them working with the Stratis blockchain, Trew predicts that major developers, often known as AAA businesses, will follow suit. Ubisoft and Electronic Arts have already expressed interest in the technology, and Epic Games has added blockchain games to its platform.
Game developers are most interested in decentralized finance, or GameFi (57 percent), the play-to-earn model (46 percent), non-financial tokens (44 percent), and in-game digital money (44 percent) (42 percent ).
According to Trew, game producers will consider the network effect of play-to-earn games, or players will just migrate to games that reward them for their time. “Gamers are fervent. Giving people a stake in the game, allowing them to earn money in the metaverse in the same way they can in the real world, is revolutionary.”
