When game studio Ubisoft announced that they would be incorporating NFTs into their titles, the backlash from gamers was immediate and fierce. They did not want the latest tech trend of the day to invade their hallowed gaming space. Yet the question remains, for those who are already into NFTs, don't they seem like a win-win proposition that would only benefit gamers in the short and long term?
Nearly every NFT enthusiast you talk to or hear on a podcast starts off by saying how they have a background in gaming and that when they heard of the concept of NFTs, they got it instantly. NFTs are essentially unique digital items. Not unlike the skins you buy in Minecraft. Or the special weapons you can by in RPG games. The revolution of NFTs is that from now on, the digital items you buy, you own. Not just in the walled-garden of the game title you're investing hundreds of hours in. But you own your digital items, as long as you want, on the blockchain, where they will exist forever.
Even if the game studio shuts down or stops supporting a title, if you bought the NFT-ized version of the in-game item, it's still yours. And as NFTs advance into gaming, you'll soon be able to take items, weapons, skins and characters from one game to another. This is the gaming version of the metaverse come to life. If you pay 2oo dollars for a legendary sword, and you own it on the blockchain, chances are there will be more titles, and even more in the future that will let you use that specific and unique weapon in their games. Imagine if you could take the sword from the original Legend of Zelda, and use it in an adventure RPG today. With NFTs, this will be possible. Game developers can sync up with the blockchain, so that when you sign in to the game, all of your digital items come with you. You won't just have Link's sword. You will have your specific and uniquely issued (forged) version of Link's sword.
With the rise of e-sports and the legitimacy of gaming as a profession, it's hard to fathom why the community at large isn't going all in on NFTs just yet. Instead of spending hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars on a particular title and getting nothing out of it aside from the entertainment--NFTs will let you spend money and time in the same way, but with the ability to make real profit on top of the entertainment value. You'll be able to re-sell your items to other gamers, turning them into real profit and cold hard cash. In combination with e-sports, NFTs represent another tool that gamers can use to create real returns and profit on their time and resources within these gaming worlds. Each game will have its own ecosystem and economy.
NFT gaming to this point has started in an NFT native way. Games like Axie Infinity have started from the technological ability of NFTs and built simple games that users can play around them. The next step in the evolution of NFT gaming will be for major game studios to seamlessly incorporate NFTs into their platforms. Merging highly entertaining and lucrative game franchises, with the power of NFTs to offer even more rewards, incentives and profits for gamers to enjoy.
NFT is a loaded term and it can be quite polarizing. But success will come when gamers don't even realize they are interacting with NFTs. They'll just see them as skins, weapons and in-game items, just like they do today. The only difference will be that they can sell and profit from those items. Just don't tell them they are actually NFT owners. It's still too soon...