You will agree that innovation seems to be the order of the day in the iGaming sector. This is actually part of why this industry continues to enjoy multicultural impact. Looking at the statistics, the gaming market size alone has already exceeded the $249.55 billion mark and could reach $665.77 billion, Fortune Business Insights reports.
NFTs, one of the popular technologies that’s storming this industry, have a lot to play in this growing statistic. And if you’re wondering how they are changing things in both the gambling and gaming industries, you have just arrived at the right. Why waste any more time? Read on to understand more about this recent revolution.
How have things been in the past?
Perhaps no one ever considered how technologies like NFTs and digital currencies would affect the gambling and gaming sectors until after the first crypto launched in 2009. This trend would later see the rise of crypto casinos, which have made it possible to integrate NFTs into their platforms.
On top of these possibilities, other innovations like crypto wallets that allow users to store keys for crypto transactions became popular. But as a player who’s concerned about safety, efficiency and other critical factors, you’d want the best crypto wallet that adheres to such features.
By merging crypto casinos and NFTs, operators have now made it possible for players to find experiences that weren’t possible initially. The best part of NFTs is that they allow for unique ownership of digital assets which cannot be replicated. These assets can then be exchanged for real-world value, which players can redeem for various uses. You can imagine what this means, especially now that all your hard-earned in-game assets won’t go to waste.
More applications and uses of NFTs in this sectors
If you’re keen enough, you could have noticed some game providers incorporate these digital tokens into their loyalty programs. And in a time when player engagement has become a critical aspect of competition in the gambling and gaming worlds, such possibilities come in very handy. By the way, do you actually know that, according to BusinessDasher, engaged customers can generate close to 51% more revenue than disengaged customers?
So, it shouldn’t surprise you at all to see game providers take advantage of non-fungible tokens to improve their loyalty programs. For instance, casinos could offer exclusive benefits like higher odds or access to VIP events by issuing NFT-based memberships. In other cases, the most valued digital tokens could be presented to players with the highest performance on a platform, encouraging loyalty.
NFTs can also help offer greater transparency by ensuring uniqueness and rarity of game results. No one wants their platform to be perceived as untrustworthy and unreliable, especially now that acquiring new players has become very expensive. But if players perceive your platform as trustworthy, you can always be sure to retain most of them and even attract new ones. And that’s the benefit of adopting trends like NFTs, which encourage provably fair and transparent interactions.
Encouraging interoperability
The blockchain infrastructure of NFT games allows multiple forms of permissionless interoperability. This means that since the tokens can exist outside the game they were earned, a token in one game can be applied in another game, even in a new way. That allows you to use the token as a different item like a sword or staff, sell it on marketplaces or lock it up to unlock liquidity.
By the way, this is good news for developers because they can earn royalties every time players trade the tokens on a marketplace. As a result, you might encounter better gaming experiences since developers no longer need to optimize for continuous and repeated in-game transactions.
Given that blockchain actually allows many parties to share digital environments by many parties, users can buy NFTs and even take loans from DeFi protocols against their non-fungible tokens on a single platform. This provides inherent consistency, allowing players to explore different blockchain-based experiences harmoniously and cohesively.
Examples of NFTs in application
Have you heard about the Gods Unchained trading card game, which is quite similar to games like Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra? Here, you use a deck of cards acquired by purchasing randomized packs of NFTs to outwit opponents. Once you receive them, you have sovereign ownership of the tokens, which you can freely trade in the game’s native marketplace.
Another NFT-based game you might have possibly encountered is Dookey Dash. This was a limited-time NFT game offered by Yuga Labs, famous for the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT asset. All BAYC NFT owners would use access pass NFTs to enter the game, while those without BAYC had to purchase a limited-time access pass token to participate.
Other popular NFT-based games include:
- Axie Infinity
- Alien Worlds
- Arc8
- CryptoBlades, etc.
Just as we have already hinted, innovation seems to be the order of the day in the gambling and gaming sectors, given that players are always seeking new experiences. And while foreseeing a situation where non-fungible tokens would affect the industries was not possible centuries ago, these tokens are actually becoming popular in both sectors.
One of their great advantages is that they use blockchain infrastructure. As you may know, blockchain is decentralized, eliminating the single-point control that is popular in traditional systems. Now that this makes it possible for game providers to offer better gaming experiences, we might actually see more developers welcome the technology.
