As a child, collecting was a passion for many; from coins and stamps to posters and pebbles. As we grew up, so did tech, and so did our toys. Now you can make that inner child gloat in glee through a new age of collectibles – NFT in games.

From 2017, the crypto market began seeing uproars of positivity. This came as a result of a crypto game that dropped in. Gamers rushed in and the little collectors in them smiled. NFTs in the game meant that each digital collectible was guaranteed to be one of a kind. Earlier, digital goods were too easy to reproduce and the sense of ownership faded almost instantly. But shared ledgers have upped the game.

The Rise

A lot of gamers and game developers were losing money over unique assets. That’s when the overlapping Venn diagram of games and crypto showed up. And they came up with an idea; purchase assets with in-game crypto. This makes you the owner.

You like that sword? You want it? You got it. Like that team? You want it? You got it. It is all yours. There is no one else on this floating blue-green ball with that ownership. Just you.

Cool huh! Wait, it gets better. Developers can start dedicated game miniverses where you can exchange the assets like characters and items between games. Imagine Sonic the Hedgehog eating shrooms on a Mario map.

Let us now take a look at the real-world value of these digital collectibles and the rise of a new breed of investors, what we call the ‘gamevestors’.

Then Gamers, Now Investors

There existed a pretty evident line between gaming and investing. Poof! It’s gone now. Half a decade from today, the gaming industry will be at $295 Billion. This market will include 2.5 Billion mobile gamers, 800 Million console gamers, and 1.3 Billion PC gamers. Combine this with the fact that there are thousands of studios with digital assets and IPs and what we get is not just an investment disruption, but an entire makeover and redo of the market we are familiar with.

Decentralized gaming means that the in-game assets will have a real world value. It also means that external factors like quitting a particular game or server inconsistencies will not cost the gamers their hard earned progress or assets.

For instance, the onset of 2021 saw the servers of an MMORPG blazed apart. Thousands of players lost their data. This is where a decentralized economy backed up on the block chain servers can show its might. All the more reason for gamers to invest in assets that have real world value. What does this mean for the future of the current gaming market?

The Future

Crypto has a history of expand-and-explode patterns. However, with the fat cats jumping on this fast moving NFT bandwagon, the longevity of crypto gaming is not under any cold stares. The Japanese company Taito is decentralizing its old school Arcade puzzler. Atari is experimenting with the Atari Blockchain and Atari Tokens. Sony is testing waters with The Six Dragons, an RPG for PS5 with over 300 tradable items. All this definitely points at a seismic shift in the understanding of the digital ownership concept.

It all comes down to what Yat Siu of Animoca Brands said, “If you can play for something that is valuable to you, then why would you choose to play in a game where there is no value?”

Conclusion

The benefits are clear. Through unique collectibles, players can enjoy a more personalized game play. This adds to the experience while not compromising on authenticity. As for the crypto game and NFT developers, they can benefit from the recurring royalty payments.

This comes at time when the gaming industry and IPR violations were having a stroll. Sure the aesthetics of an NFT in crypto games may be reproduced. But the underlying code cannot be. This meant that “rare” collectibles only become rarer as time passes. Through gaming, the initial value of the NFT can be upgraded. This means that the more an owner plays, the more value their digital collectible garners.

Crypto, Cuties, Cards, and Competition

Enter Block Babies. A card based crypto game where you unleash babies to wreak cute havoc. You can collect them, train them, and feed them. And call them out for a battle when you need them. Each baby is an NFT with multiple attributes. The more you play with them, the better their attributes grow, the mightier your digital collectible becomes, and the stronger their real world value transforms.