What if I told you that you will have to play video games for eight hours straight instead of working a 9-5 job? And what if I told you that it will pay more than an average corporate job? Well, I guess I just stole several employees from different organizations. But this is possible through a play-to-earn economy.
A gaming community dubbed Balthazar organized a research concerning P2E games and jobs and the results were just mind blowing. The study found that one out of every three persons was willing to give up his/her job. Why? You might be asking, to play games obviously. But what about the money? Well, play-to-earn games compensate you to engage in their ecosystem.
Biggest example of this remains Axie Infinity, a crypto metaverse game. The in-game currency AXS and SLP (Smooth Love Potion) have a value IRL. One AXS is equal to $11.65 at the time of publication, while SLP is trading at $0.003. You can earn the in-game currencies to either use them in your digital world or the physical world.
This is not the end, the characters you control in the game act as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Users can sell them at the Axie Marketplace to generate the native cryptocurrencies of the ecosystem. This is only an example of the P2E economy, there are myriads of games out there that offer real life revenue to the users.
Decentraland, The Sandbox, Alien Worlds and more offer their in-game currency to generate income through crypto exchanges. Play-to-earn concept is a revolutionary notion for the unemployed citizens, especially in the underprivileged countries. Some games have created guilds that lend in-game NFTs on rent where they charge a certain percent from the earnings, while the rest goes to the token borrower.
The pandemic made many realize that they can lose their employment if they are not working in a fabled organization. Axie Infinity became a bread-winner for Filipinos during the covid pandemic. According to the reports, several citizens made their living through the game. They made around $200-$400 weekly which might sound a few bucks to a normal dude walking across a NYC street, but it meant the world for the Filipinos.
Newzoo, a gaming data aggregator, points out in a study that the gaming industry will go on to become a $200 Billion industry by the end of this year. Mobile games are anticipated to generate almost half of the revenue. Though majority of video games like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Valorant. Ghost of Tsushima, and more does not offer income to play. Studies show that gamers will rise higher in the upcoming years.
The integration of traditional games and P2E games sounds a perfect combination to the gamers. But interestingly, they are the prime ones opposing the use of non-fungible tokens or similar concept in conventional gaming.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/10/11/play-to-earn-games-may-become-secondary-revenue-stream-to-many/