If you think of blockchain games, the first few that come to mind are the current hot crypto games, namely, Crypto Kitties, Alien Worlds, and Axie Infinity. These blockchain games gained considerable media attention as many users forked over enormous sums for digital items and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), creating new on-chain economies.
The issue most reports ignore is that blockchain games have been lacking a vital element – users. With even the most popular blockchain games attracting only a few hundred thousand users a day, crypto games still face a long uphill battle to compete with traditional games. But why compete if you can collaborate? In this article, we’ll compare blockchain games to traditional games, and show how blockchain can provide services to gamers and viewers without reinventing the wheel.
Blockchain games vs. traditional games
Blockchain is valuable for many applications, but usually, it lends itself to use by individuals rather than multiple users at once. This is in part due to the way that the blockchain processes transactions, which requires consensus from miners or node operators — which can sometimes take several minutes.
As a result, blockchain games struggle to offer simultaneous playability in a multiplayer setting, and therefore blockchain is limited in what game styles it can offer. This limitation makes it difficult for blockchain-based games to compete with traditional games, which already have the infrastructure, players, and viewers in place.
At Verasity, we’re changing the game, without changing the way games are played. Instead of building on the blockchain, we are leveraging blockchain technology to make existing gaming better through features such as Watch & Earn — and the results of this approach speak for themselves. Esports Fight Club, one of the first Verasity-powered platforms, recently partnered with Players Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile in July 2021, with huge effect.
PUBG’s Ultimate Warrior Showdown, in association with Esports Fight Club, pulled in an enormous daily average viewership during the tournament of 4.5 million, with peak viewers of over 674,000 in a single stream. With some 14 million total views streamed in over 6 different languages over the length of the tournament, it’s clear that value for blockchain lies in viewership of traditional games, rather than attracting its own dedicated user base. Compare this with monthly users of CryptoKitties, which stands at just one million per month, and it’s easy to see that there’s little to gain by going head-to-head with gaming behemoths.
Why rebuild, when you can build bridges?
Digital transformation takes many forms. Although it was logical early in blockchain’s development to attempt to transform the gaming industry as a whole through decentralization, it’s now evident that the most promising avenue for transformation is through delivering in-game value.
Even in the heady days of early MMORPGs, when players built the first digital economies through in-game currencies on the likes of Runescape and World of Warcraft, game developers were exploring ways to merge real-life value with in-game economies. Now, with a huge number of options available for monetization through blockchain, we can finally begin to explore these opportunities in reality. That’s the vision behind Verasity and our powered platforms, and our innovations of in-game value such as Watch & Earn.
Instead of rewriting the rulebook, it’s clear that the future of blockchain for gaming is blockchain-enabled gaming — let’s lead the way together.
You can participate in Watch & Earn on efc.gg.
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Author
Chris Munch is a professional cryptocurrency and blockchain writer with a background in software businesses, and has been involved in marketing within the cryptocurrency space. With a passion for innovation, Chris brings a unique and insightful perspective to the world of crypto and blockchain. Chris has a deep understanding of the economic, psychological, marketing and financial forces that drive the crypto market, and has made a number of accurate calls of major shifts in market trends. He is constantly researching and studying the latest trends and technologies, ensuring that he is always up-to-date on the latest developments in the industry. Chris’ writing is characterized by his ability to explain complex concepts in a clear and concise manner, making it accessible to a wide audience of readers.
