PWC Global Crypto Leader Thinks NFTs Could Explode in the Gaming Industry
In a short 6 minute video posted by Bloomberg, the global crypto leader for PWC, Henri Arslanian, had some choice things to say about crypto in the gaming industry. Let’s take a minute to discuss the idea that NFTs Could Explode in the Gaming Industry.
Nothing should be considered investment or financial advice. Enjoy the ride.
Crypto and Gaming
With crypto gradually progressing and finding its place in the digital landscape, gaming would naturally be an industry that should be tapped at some point in time. Currently, the gaming industry is an over $150 billion dollar industry that is growing year over year as new games, consoles and communities are built out.
The main problem currently with gaming is the issue with items, skins, and objects inside of games that can come and go as the game masters please. For instance, imagine if the game you are playing has an annual celebration with end of season rewards, or they are hosting a tournament where the victors get a special skin or character to use.
This is common in games, but over time the game masters could release more of these special items or rewards and diminish their value, or simply change the game landscape whenever they want creating distrust in the gaming community.
With blockchain in the mix as non fungible tokens (NFTs), this could all be solved. On top of that, there could potentially be an in game market place for every game to buy and sell NFTs which could correlate to players actually making real money from buying and selling these tokens.
Gaming NFT Marketplace
Exactly how would this work?
For a simple solution, let’s take a huge game like League of Legends. Every end of season, they release a special skin for all players over a certain rank to use, and the top players in every region get even more rewards and skins that are usually unobtainable later on.
Well, if you simply ran these accounts through a blockchain and tied each account to a wallet address similar to Ethereum’s wallets that have the ability to hold tokens, you can easily use NFTs.
For each reward or skin, the game masters would then write a smart contract limiting the amount of tokens to ever be received or created. Then, run some code for the game to scrape the wallets and read what tokens are owned and likewise reward them in game with the ability to access skins or whatever the token represents.
What this does is also give the players the ability to take these tokens to an internal exchange and trade them. They can also buy other rare tokens that grant rare skins or make money by selling ones they have obtained for a standard virtual currency the game chooses.
League of Legends could easily create their own generic token, League Coin, and then utilize it for other things in game that people must purchase on market or at a select price to buy standard in game things similar to a stable coin. The market would organically find prices for the NFTs through the laws of supply and demand.
Token Economics
This really would not be hard at all. Plenty of people are already spending money for things called riot points, which give you the ability to buy additional skins, new champions, and experience boosts.
All the game masters would need to do is turn their in game “points” into a real token. Afterward map out wallets like I mentioned before, and then create an internal exchange.
The exchange would basically turn any fiat currency or crypto currency into their own riot points and vice versa.
Gaming Industry Advantage
The first gaming company to effectively do this, will have a huge advantage on the market in terms of longevity and exposure.
Players would immediately be incentivized to play the game more seriously and it would attract millions of new players to the game in attempts to earn their own fortune.
The first gaming company to do this, would also be able to set the standard for the entire industry, paving the way for a new set of ideas and rules to govern the gaming community.
Blockchain Platforms for Gaming
It is very important to note, that not any blockchain platform would be able to facilitate this feat. The few that would be in high consideration would need to have the ability for token generation, strong decentralization, and consistent up time to prevent the lose of wallet access.
The number one option would obviously be Ethereum due to its huge community, track record, and number of projects and tokens already populating the chain. Ethereum is the best bet for long-term success and sustainability as well.
The second would be a tie between TRON and EOS. Both platforms have a good following and strong developer teams. EOS seems to be bridging the gap between blockchain and gaming already, so it would probably come slightly ahead of TRON in the head to head debate. Although, both chains are newer than Ethereum, and have yet to be market tested over a long period of time.
The good news is all 3 platforms have a huge potential for success, and every gaming company should start to consider the potential and opportunity of blockchain right now before they get left behind.