What If Your Favorite Video Game Used Blockchain Technology?
Blockchain-based games cover 52% of all the activity in the multibillion-dollar blockchain industry. With the use of blockchain technology in games increasing 2,000% from Q1 2021, we can not help but ask ourselves: Why aren’t more large gaming companies investing in and creating games that feature blockchain technology?
To illustrate just how effectively blockchain technology can transform a game, here is a list of some of the most popular games on the market, reimagined as blockchain games.
Blockchain Game Features
Before we start, it is important to understand what a blockchain game is. If you are not familiar with the blockchain gaming world, here is a brief list of the main features of a blockchain game. For a more in-depth understanding, you may also read: The Future of Gaming: Top 5 Reasons Why Games with Blockchain are Better
NFTs: They are used for owning, trading, and legally profiting off in-game items. It essentially means owning a piece of virtual land or asset that neither the developer nor the government can erase.
Play-To-Earn (P2E): Earning rewards in cryptocurrency by completing missions, fighting other players, and moving up through the game levels.
Facilitate Virtual Events and Tournaments
→ Secure and Transparent Transactions
→ Enhanced Security (Verifications)
Integrated Gaming Profiles: In blockchain games, one account can be used for multiple games.
Interoperability: You can use your in-game assets in multiple games that belong to one gaming ecosystem.
Role-Playing Games (RPG)
Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact is easily one of the most popular RPG games out there. With more than 85 million lifetime downloads since its release in September 2020, it has grown a dedicated following online and has shown no signs of losing traction.
Most impressively, it can generate incredibly high amounts of revenue using in-app purchases. In July 2022, the mobile app alone generated approximately 114.5 million U.S. dollars through in-app purchases. This fact makes the game perfect for incorporating blockchain technology. Here's how:
First off, the game could become ‘’Play-To-Earn’’ (P2E), meaning that the player would get rewards simply for signing in daily. There could also be boss rewards, event rewards, and quest rewards like usual, but players can now earn crypto rewards that hold value in the real world (for example Ethereum).
A marketplace for weapons and other in-game assets could also be available, where people buy, sell or trade unique weapons, skins, alternate outfits (Ex: Genshin Impact 2.8 Update Outfits), and pets/companions, with all of these being actual NFTs. These items would all be stored in your personal wallet. With cryptocurrency, you could also buy wishes (the gacha system in Genshin Impact).
First Person Shooter (FPS) Games
Valorant
First Person Shooter (FPS) games have grown in popularity and captured the attention of millions of gamers all over the world. Valorant sits high on the leaderboard, with 12 million active players as of August 2022. It is also currently one of the Top 10 FPS games across Twitch and Youtube, based on the total view hours.
The blockchain features in Valorant would be similar to Genshin Impact. This means Play-To-Earn (P2E) gameplay model along with a marketplace, but in this game the items would be guns/knives, skins, gunbuddies, sprays, and player cards. All of these could be NFTs that you buy, sell, even rent or trade with other players.
Blockchain can also enable interoperability between games by allowing gamers to transfer, duplicate or share data between games. In a straightforward example, imagine collaborations between games where users can display NFTs such as guns, skins, avatars and more across platforms and games. For instance, a Valorant skin could be used across Fortnite, Apex Legends, Overwatch. By doing so, not only do game studios allow cross-marketing for their games but also allow fan communities to come together and enjoy different games. Interestingly, another amazing use-case of interoperability could be to allow holders of previous games to receive free rewards in upcoming gaming titles in the form of tokens, NFTs or other in-game assets. Again, this effectively increases engagement for new games whilst encouraging gamers to take on a more active role in all games. The opportunity to use the same game asset across multiple platforms and games is a concept that never existed before the integration of blockchain technology.
Sandbox Games
Roblox
Roblox is a prime example of a game that would be elevated with the facilitation of blockchain technology. Its current design already inspires a multitude of simple, yet effective ways to improve the game.
To start, all items in the avatar shop could easily become NFTs. You would still use Robux to buy them, but Robux could now be exchanged for any other cryptocurrency too. Also, you would still create your own items on the avatar shop but now they could automatically become NFTs, which you can sell to other players in the market.
As for game-specific features, you would still create your own games, but now you may sell plots of land in your game. Other players would have the ability to build whatever they want on those lands and would be able to resell their land later on (with everything on it included) to other players, with perhaps a percentage of those revenues going to you in the form of royalties.
Furthermore, you would also be able to sell items and assets from your game. Take Adopt Me! - the game by DreamCraft as an example: If you hatch a legendary pet and raise it to be fully grown, then you could sell it for a much higher value to other players. You could also sell pets with lower rarity, but the ability to sell them will depend on pricing them effectively.
Another good example is PLS DONATE 💸. It is one of the most popular games on the Roblox platform. It has more than 284 million visits and a 93% like rate, but it is not without its flaws. In the game, you claim a stand and make it say whatever you want; with the aim being to convince people to donate things to you. But those donations are done through clothing and game pass sales, which can take up to a week to receive. By using blockchain technology trades would not only become faster, but also much more secure.
Card-Based Games
Clash Royale
More often than not, your strength in card based games is solely based on the cards you have in your deck at a given time based on luck. Using blockchain, you could make the dynamics of card games more interesting by adding a marketplace where you can buy and sell cards from other players; adding a new layer to the game. This directly brings a new sense of excitement to the game where players are not just dependent on luck, but also on their negotiation skills and trading abilities.
For instance, if you get very rare cards you could sell them at a higher price as they would be higher in demand. Alternatively, if you cannot seem to get any rare cards you could just buy some from another player who has been luckier than you.
Moreover, you could also choose to bet tokens (cryptocurrencies) on games, and if you won a game you could win more tokens. Not enough tokens? You can buy some by exchanging real-world money. This option already exists in many card games, but blockchain technology would facilitate the transaction making it faster, safer and better.
Betting tokens would also open up a whole new world of fun in games like these. You could create battle arenas where other players bet on which one of their friends they think is gonna win. Even mega tournaments with one big pot of tokens and the winner takes all. All of this is possible with the help of blockchain technology.
Examples of Existing Games
If you are looking to get into the blockchain gaming community, here is a list of existing games we would recommend:
About Super Ultra
Super Ultra is a game development and publishing studio based in Hong Kong. With a team of seasoned game developers, blockchain developers, and creatives, we are gamers at heart looking to bring accessible and addictively fun games to the world and most importantly - put the players first.
You can find more information about Super Ultra:
Website: https://superultra.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/superultraio
Instagram: https://instagram.com/superultra.io
Other social links: https://linktr.ee/superultra.io