A new intersection of passion and blockchain -- gaming and crypto – is getting momentum in traditional worlds where gamers played, bought skins, lost them to the game and spent hours online with nothing to show at the end of the day.
Evolution of gaming
Early blockchain adopters such as the OPSkins platform recognized the need to provide true ownership of digital items, which later morphed in the WAX platform and a full-on service for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of collectibles, graphic art and increasingly items to be used within games and across platforms.
Splinterlands was one of the first blockchain-based offerings using the popular HIVE blockchain (formerly Steemit) and has since moved into digital land ownership. Upland and Uplift World have also taken the gamification model and use NFTs to secure digital land ownership and transfer value between players, often in the form of rents, monopoly style.
Lockdown also accelerated change. In the Philippines, the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity came to prominence. In a country without the buffer of a welfare support system, many citizens were put on the breadline through job closure or losses. This Vietnamese game, built on Ethereum (ETH), allows players to breed, raise, battle and trade digital creatures called Axies.
Even more importantly, it allowed players to earn tokens, and while not huge sums, it provided a much-needed income for a variety of players ranging in ages from students to grandparents.
In fact, the world is put on its head. As veteran crypto guardian and previous gamer, On Yavin of Cointelligence, a data platform, says, “If my 12-year-old son does not spend enough time gaming, I give up on him.” He is joking, of course, but being a gamer and a successful member of society are no longer mutually exclusive positions.
New frontiers
In 2020, the gaming industry market value peaked at $159.3 billion, with over 2.7 billion gamers around the world. This year’s figures suggest an increasing demand and spending with 2.81 billion gamers and a market value of $189.3 billion.
This has led to a revaluation of the gaming industry since gaming has been profitable for years for developers and publishers but the public has not had access to the potential returns. If playing games can return profits, then the building of games can also be profitable. The new concept -- initial game offering (IGO) -- has emerged in the industry. It is the newest interpretation of the initial coin offering (ICO), and one of the early adopters of this concept is Seedify.
Seedify describes itself as a “blockchain gaming-focused incubator and launchpad ecosystem, empowering innovators and project developers through access to funding, community and partnership building and a full support system to help drive the future of gaming and blockchain.”
The platform has taken the passion of gamers, using blockchain technology, and created a popular launchpad for games. It follows the rules, with full Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, but makes it easy for anyone interested in gaming to invest in new play-to-earn games.
The investor buys the native token, SFUND, from exchanges like Apeswap, Bakeryswap, 1inch or Kucoin (KCS) and attaches their KYC’d wallet to the launchpad. There are nine tiers of involvement which depend on how many tokens are held by individuals. While Tier 1 has lottery-based allocation, all other tiers feature guaranteed allocations.
The actual investment process is simple. Users choose the pool where they wish to invest, select the IGO project and click the buy button and purchase tokens according to their maximum allocation. That’s it. Once the token is listed on a decentralized exchange (DEX) and according to the vesting schedules, the tokens will automatically be sent to their wallet.
Examples of projects on Seedify include Continuum World, a free-to-play, play-to-earn game combining MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) and farming.
In this game, players will be able to own a part of this new world by purchasing a piece of land. To maximize the earning potential of their land, players will be able to add buildings and resources to level up. Since energy is needed to explore, solar panels or power-generating windmills will be available to add along with vegetable and fish farms to feed the Umi, the native people of Continuum.
Lands are NFT tokens using the ERC-721 standard. There will be a fixed amount of Land supply, making this a rare in-game asset. This game, from the well-established game company Playchain PTE in Singapore, has its IGO on Oct. 1.
Given the rise in popularity in blockchain gaming, IGOs are growing fast. Investors can expect a significant return on investment (ROI) if a gaming project is successfully launched on a crypto exchange or grows in popularity in the gaming community.
The IGO of one of the most anticipated projects in blockchain gaming, Cryptoblades Kingdoms, is also coming up on the Seedify Launchpad on September 28. Incubated by Seedify and developed by the high-profile Cryptoblades Team, Cryptoblades Kingdoms (CBK) is a metamorphosis of the current Cryptoblades game into an exciting strategy-based land building MMORPG metaverse. Designed and built with AAA game features, Cryptoblades Kingdoms dares to push the limits of what one might imagine a blockchain game can be.
The Cryptoblades Kingdoms metaverse will feature lands, buildings and guilds. New gameplay modes, like raid mechanisms, PvP, PvE and dungeons will create an exciting and immersive gaming experience that both blockchain gamers and non-blockchain gamers will want to dive into.
Alien Worlds may currently be the biggest by the number of users, but Axie Infinity is in the lead in terms of sales, with more than $1.1 billion recorded so far this year. While all investments should include due diligence and not exceed amounts which the investor can ill afford to lose, this is undoubtedly one of the hotter spots in crypto this year.
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