Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest topics in the technology and finance realms of today’s society. There’s no question that cryptocurrency will one day find its way into almost every aspect of our increasingly digital world.
Once you understand the basics of cryptocurrencies you quickly start to see the potential for so many industries. And the video game industry is of no exception. The video game industry has found a huge source of revenue with premium skins and content. But with the combination of cryptocurrency, the whole dynamic of premium content could change forever. A specific type of cryptocurrency known as NFT’s could take the video game industry by storm sometime in the near future.
What are NFT’s?
Officially NFT’s are described as a “unit of data on a digital ledger”, called the blockchain. But that is all a fancy way of saying they are totally unique digital items.
If you’ve recently heard of people buying digital art for millions of dollars, or maybe a friend of yours has been talking about NBA Top Shot. These are both examples NFT’s. NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token.
These NFT’s can be bought on a market and while the items could be technically replicated, the data stored on the blockchain serves as a proof of ownership. You can think of this NFT concept as a Certificate of Authenticity for the original digital item.
What it means for the video game industry
In today’s gaming industry, it is increasingly common among almost all AAA game publishers to use the micro-transaction revenue model.
The games themselves are typically free to play but where the publisher and game developers make the most bang for your buck is in micro transactions.
Whether you support micro transactions in games is another conversation for another time. But the fact is that that is the way games can presumably continue to function, especially in free to play games.
And since we can assume that things will continue on this path forward in the future, that means that NFT’s could completely change the dynamics of premium skins and content.
How NFT’s could change video games
NFT’s are totally unique digital items that you can buy, sell, or even trade. That means that a limited number of skins could be created. Let’s call them “Collector Skins”. Now let’s say that these Collector Skins sell out in the first hour. Instead of just owning that skin, you could sell it on an NFT market for more than what you bought it for. And thus, an entire market open up for regular players like you and I.
Here’s another interesting scenario for you. It’s 2025, and your favorite e-sports team is in the final Championship match. Now let’s say that mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and NFT’s has already happened and its commonplace for people to buy and sell digital goods.
Your favorite e-sports team has commissioned digital artists to create custom skins specifically for that match. Let’s say your team wins the Championship. Now your team decides that they are going to give away their custom, championship winning skins to fans in their community. Those skins, which are 100% unique as well as rare can now be given a value. It’s the same concept of major sports teams giving away their jersey’s or their shoes, gloves, hats, etc.—just digital.
That means that as video games and its digital venues such as e-sports become more and more common, the idea of NFT’s in the video game industry makes that much more sense. NFT’s allow digital assets, and in our case that can mean weapon skins, character skins, charms…the possibilities are nearly endless. And just in today’s gaming world where almost every multiplayer game has a digital store that sells items that would be groundbreaking.
NFT’s are inevitable
Whether or not you agree with the sale of digital assets, it is inevitable that some form of this will change the video game industry in a big way. We still have a long way to go before we see the first NFT in the video game universe. But it is on the horizon and like it or not, we will see NFT’s become more and more common in the video game industry.
We will have to wait and see what the world of cryptocurrency has to offer gaming in the future. Until then, be sure to follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our blog and turn on your notifications to be notified every time we post new content.