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While it may feel as if the initial NFT craze of 2020-21 has fizzled out almost as quickly as it emerged, there are still several industries in which NFT technology holds a great deal of remaining influence. As one of the first industries to adopt NFTs — and the one with the most potential for their use — the gaming industry has been forever changed thanks to the advent of NFTs, insinuating a bright future for gamers and crypto enthusiasts alike.
To understand why games have played such a significant role in bringing NFTs to the mainstream, one must first ask what aspects of NFT technology drove their popularity in the first place. When NFTs were first introduced, they were met with a great deal of hesitance because few people understood what they were or their value. Yet, as with other innovations in technology like virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR), the gaming industry happened to be one of the first global stages to showcase the legitimate value that NFTs can hold.
How gaming changed NFTs
Today, the most successful NFTs are far more than simple JPEG images attached to a string of code. Rather, they are ones that offer some sort of value to users, whether in the real or virtual world. The gaming industry offered some of the first applications of these "utility NFTs" by allowing video game players to integrate their NFTs into their gaming experience as playable avatars. This was one of the first examples that NFTs are something that can be used and not just owned.
However, the other aspect of the gaming community that has proven pivotal to the success of NFTs is how many projects are driven by the support for an artist or creator. The NFTs that have been the most successful are those which are created by someone with a sizable pre-existing support base. The same can be said about video games; many of the most successful titles are made by developers with a devoted fan base and a history of successful projects.
As such, the gaming community is a natural fit for the NFT craze. For an NFT to be successful, there needs to be a community that will not only purchase the initial NFT mint, but trade these NFTs amongst themselves to allow their value to continue growing and appreciate over time. After all, any asset is only worth however much someone else is willing to pay for it.
How NFTs will change gaming
Within the gaming community, the ways in which NFTs might be utilized can take several forms. For one, NFTs can be applied in games as custom avatars, character skins, or usable items, giving the player an additional element of customization. While the majority of these potential use cases are primarily cosmetic, history has shown that gamers are willing to spend money on in-game currency to change the cosmetic experience of playing a game.
However, as this market of gaming NFTs continues to grow, we will begin to see a secondary market appear and flourish. For instance, if a player wishes to obtain a particular custom skin, and the only way to acquire and use that skin is to own it as an NFT, they will have to purchase that NFT from another player. This feeling of exclusivity and personalization is what makes NFTs in demand in the gaming industry, and it will be exciting to see where they go from here.
As the NFT gaming market continues to expand, there is another mighty force we will begin to see dominating it: nostalgia. Nostalgia is a powerful tool in almost any sort of marketing, but especially so within the gaming world. People frequently associate gaming with their childhood — creating NFTs and NFT gaming experiences focused around generational childhood memories is a market that promises a great deal of potential.
The next advance in NFT gaming will be the ability to transfer game assets across different platforms. This capability is something that the gaming industry has been trying to accomplish for years to varying degrees of success. While online cross-play between consoles has helped expand the connection between gamers around the world, NFT technology has the potential to almost entirely eliminate these barriers.
Indeed, the applications of NFTs in gaming are virtually endless. Critics have said that NFT technology integrated into gaming is little more than a gimmick, but I imagine many will quickly reverse course when they realize the technological implications NFTs could have on the global gaming industry. Just as gaming has contributed to significant improvements in NFTs, so too will NFTs be able to assist in similar improvements to games and the broader gaming industry.
By Hironobu Ueno, CEO & Founder — double jump.tokyo
— Hironobu Ueno is the Founder and CEO of double jump.tokyo, Inc., the developer of the highly successful game “MyCryptoHeroes” which ranked eighth in all-time NFT Collectible Sales Volume in April 2021 by CryptoSlam. Ueno previously worked as a developer at Nomura Research Institute building systems for the financial sector and helped develop the gaming platform at Mobcast, Inc. He is supported by an international team with expertise in marketing, gaming, finance, blockchain technologies, and cryptocurrency.
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