The gaming industry is going through a time of rapid change and growth. Companies are entering into a new dimension of virtual reality which means they are no longer bound by physical reality.
Over the past five years, gaming has seen a significant expansion in its audience and users worldwide are playing games of all genres across a variety of platforms.
We are on the verge of a major transformational shift with the emergence of the metaverse. Many forecast that the metaverse will become pervasive throughout society, with Gartner predicting that 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the metaverse by 2026.
Gaming has quickly emerged as an industry that is an early adopter within this space. In this post, we will review the impact that the metaverse is having on the gaming industry and what we can expect to change in future.
A recent EY report surveyed gaming executives to gauge the outlook for the metaverse within the industry.
As this technology is still in its early stages and has not yet widely been adopted, the respondent's responses were varied:
Several early-adopting gaming companies have begun experimenting with a metaverse presence and many more are creating strategies for their entry.
The early adopters will be the ones that are best positioned to get the greatest traction when wider adoption happens. There will be vast economic opportunities for gaming companies in the metaverse. One estimate expects the global metaverse market to grow to $280 billion by 2025.
There is a clear opportunity for revenue growth for gaming companies but how will these look? The metaverse is drastically changing how users game and, in turn, how gaming companies compete with one another.
The metaverse is creating an interconnected realm. Individual games will still compete with each other but each title will be only one of many worlds in the metaverse. There will be competition with a seemingly endless number of destinations and activities.
Your company will have to adapt its business models, along with the way you develop games and possibly even the way your company is structured.
The metaverse is also associated with decentralised web 3.0. Many view this as the next evolution of the internet. The metaverse will span multiple platforms, as well as the digital and physical realms. It will create entirely new ways of interacting — and, for gaming companies, drive revenue.
NFTs will be a crucial building block of the metaverse economy and therefore of key interest to game developers.
NFTs allow metaverse users to authenticate ownership of items within the virtual world. This feature means that they represent value both now and in the future and are poised to become a universal store of value for the metaverse.
Games companies can use NFTs because almost any item can be turned into an NFT. For example, players can buy and earn utility NFTs, such as weapons or skins for gameplay.
A great example of a game that already implements NFTs within its gameplay is Axie Infinity. Players breed and collect NFTs of digital pets, which are called Axies.
NFTs are also used for virtual property. In worlds such as The Sandbox and Decentraland players can purchase plots of land that are sold through NFTs.
Gaming companies that effectively use the metaverse will be able to successfully connect, engage with, and incentivise players. Using this technology your company can build new revenue streams and markets.
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