For an industry to thrive, it is important that it evolves at a pace at which it embraces the latest trends and developments. One industry that has always been ripe for change and dynamic in its form and function is the gaming industry. Over the past few decades, the gaming industry has been revolutionized by all emerging technologies that include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Tech, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), all of which lend themselves to immersive gaming experiences. Blockchain technology is set to become the next big thing in the industry and may cause huge disruptions in the way developers and gamers interact and access their games and the digital assets attached to the games. The progressive attitude of the gaming industry towards new technologies makes blockchain exploration for gaming quite a natural fit. This is why it is noteworthy to explore the potential of blockchain for gaming, early and head -on.
The Defining Moment
The Ethereum-based game CryptoKitties can be attributed as the pioneer in blockchain-based gaming. Akin to Farmville for social networks and Angry Birds for mobile phones, CryptoKitties added that much-needed fillip to blockchain technology. Its lucrative features such as avatars, breeding of kitties, and others provided gamers with exciting gaming opportunities apart from incentivizing them with credit scores and crypto earnings. This steered a lot of spin-offs and had more creators venturing into blockchain-based game development.
With esports gaining more traction among global gamers every passing day, the need for a safe and secure payment solution has also become an important need. The completely decentralized blockchain network can be capitalized to create a safe and secure medium for financial transaction among gamers, organizers, and developers around the world.
Apart from empowering gamers with monetizing their game and providing them with a safe gateway for transactions, blockchain adoption for gaming also has a list of other advantages such as:
- Data protection and virtual asset ownership: Since all user data is encrypted and stored in the decentralized network, gamers can throw concerns about their data being compromised out of the window. Typically, in-game assets are stored in servers thereby increasing the risk of duplication and preventing players from owning their virtual assets. With blockchain into the picture, virtual assets can be easily traded due to a decentralized system that enables users to connect to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion, precluding the need for centralized servers.
- Cost-effective gaming: Blockchain offers developers with an affordable micro-transaction benefit which enables them to sell the power-ups to the gamers at a modest price.
- Scam-free: The decentralized nature of the blockchain technology makes it almost impossible for online scammers to dupe gamers.
- Minimized Red-Tapism: Owing to the various regulations set by governments, game developers often end up with their creative freedom being curtailed. However, with blockchain-based game development, creators no longer have to worry about regulations.
As much promise as blockchain holds for gaming, there are some challenges that need to be addressed for widespread adoption of the technology in the gaming industry. Some of the key challenges are issues of scalability and lack of optimized network speeds. Nevertheless, blockchain-based gaming is here to stay and it is just a matter of time until it becomes more mainstream.
We are just as excited to explore the potential of blockchain technology for several industries and gaming is well on the cards. Reach out to our expert team of blockchain developers and blockchain enthusiasts to discover potential opportunities for collaboration and to explore newer horizons on the gaming front at www.ionixxtech.com.
