“Within the next few years, we expect that most games will have some element of play-to-earn or play-and-earn,” WAX executive Michael Rubinelli stated.
With blockchain making inroads into the video gaming business, industry insiders and executives at nonfungible token (NFT) blockchain WAX predict that in the future, there will be more linkages between games and blockchain networks.
WAX head of publishing David Kim and WAX Studios head of game studios Michael Rubinelli discussed NFTs, the metaverse, and blockchain gaming.
Despite lower Google search interest, Kim claims that involvement with games, the metaverse, and NFTs is not dead. “We noticed a doubling of the number of sales transactions on the WAX blockchain at the beginning of Q4 2021, and it has remained elevated ever since,” he said.
“I’m not sure if the ‘hype’ will return, but we believe that, in the long run, interest in and interaction with metaverses and NFTs will grow inexorably as usefulness grows and security concerns fade.”
Rubinelli, on the other hand, equated the deployment of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming models to the acceptance of free-to-play and microtransactions in gaming when questioned about the future of P2E. The gaming executive, who has spent more than 20 years in the industry, believes that a similar pattern is emerging.
“Within the next several years, we expect that most games will have some form of play-to-earn or play-and-earn.” The majority of these will be blockchain-connected but not totally blockchain-based.”
When asked how much the blockchain sector is likely to leverage blockchain in the next two years, many respondents agree with the WAX executives, according to a survey issued by the blockchain gaming alliance in 2021.
Rubinelli noted that scalability is still a big worry when discussing the challenges that blockchain games confront. “Right now, the main difficulty is most blockchains’ inability to scale,” he stated.
Layer2 solutions, according to the gaming veteran, cannot scale unless they are “100% dedicated to a particular game, such as Ronin for Axie Infinity.” He also highlighted how, as the popularity of the game Sunflower Farmers expanded, “it brought Polygon to a halt.”
In terms of esports, David Kim stated that the majority of WAX games are “too simplistic to be transferred to esports.” However, according to the WAX CEO, there are games in development that might be turned into esports.
“A number of blockchain-connected games are now under development with an esports focus. Hearthstone-inspired card battlers like Skyweaver, battle royales like Hodlgod, and team-based first-person shooters like The Forge Arena are among them.”
Esports games, according to Kim, require more time to develop. Only 9 months have passed since Alien Worlds, Splinterlands, and Axie Infinity demonstrated that blockchain gaming can attract a large number of players, according to Kim. “In that length of time, you can’t design the kind of intricate game mechanics required for esports,” he noted.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
