With a significant boom in internet and mobile users, the online gaming industry is also set to move on an exponential growth trajectory. According to the stats – the global market size for online games is projected to grow from $37.65 billion in 2019 to $122.05 billion in 2025. On the other hand, the online gaming industry in India which was earlier valued at $543 million in 2016 has crossed $1.027 billion in 2020 at a CAGR of 18.6per cent. This growth is largely driven by the extensive use of new technologies and improvement in mobile infrastructure.
In 2022, many leading online gaming platforms are moving to Blockchain technology to evolve the gaming experience. Implementing the newly popular Play-to-Earn model, online games have evolved to offer the users more engaging experience with attractive economic returns. Further to disrupt the market, online gaming industry players are launching their metaverse projects to immerse the users into an alternate universe using the VR/AR technology.
Understanding Metaverse in Gaming
Metaverse is an ever-evolving 3D virtual space that is going to be the next-gen of gaming. It offers a relatively new type of virtual reality gaming experience where users can explore different realms of the digitized world through avatars and in-game characters. Many notions have been made around metaverse which is considered quite similar to the immersive experience of fantasy games. Both can bring people together from across the world and play the game. However, Metaverse is a new way to experience the evolution of gaming that provides avenues for users to grow and monetise their gaming skills and time invested.
Gaming Platforms
Comprehensive gaming platforms are gaining a huge prominence in the industry. Based on Blockchain technology, gaming platforms offer gamers more than just a game. Gamers get not just a game, but additional value on these platforms such as integrated wallets, marketplaces to trade digital gaming assets and sometimes a collection of games under a single umbrella. It helps users navigate through a collection of multiple game applications with an integrated wallet and native token. Gaming platforms can boast a wide array of games including sports fantasy, casual mobile games, learning-based games, etc. It can create a crypto gaming economy by putting the gamers at the top of the hierarchy as beneficiaries and decision-makers using the power of blockchain decentralization.
The emergence of Play to earn model
Play to Earn models play a crucial role in Metaverse. As the world moves towards a digitized economy, the Play-to-Earn model in metaverse provides an opportunity to monetize the amount of time users spend in playing the game. Though this model is at a nascent stage, a few leading gaming applications/platforms are embedding to help players engage in profitable activities. The users can sell digitized assets won in the game via an integrated digital wallet. Further, this model is expected to drive the crypto and NFTs market.
NFTs in Metaverse games
The Play-to-Earn model embraces modern technology and provides financial benefits to all online gamers. This works by owning in-game digital assets – NFTs i.e. Non Fungible Tokens – the key component of metaverse economy. These digital assets can be tokenized on Blockchain platforms, which enable true ownership by gamers of in-game digital assets – providing an opportunity to users in getting economic rewards by trading these NFTs in the open market. NFTs in metaverse gaming works as a win-win for developers as well as players. In-game NFT trading can help users gain financial benefits and start earning a real source of income. Apart from this, new-gaming platforms based on Blockchain technology also allow the players to own NFTs with a small financial stake in the game’s decision-making which further provides a sense of ownership to players with economic benefits.
Mixed reality gaming experience
Metaverse leverages Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to experience the realities of the virtual world. Similarly, metaverse in gaming incorporates mixed reality powered by AR and VR technologies. It embeds virtual objects into the real physical world through the use of headsets and devices. This helps users immerse themselves in the 3D virtual environment and change the way they interact with other players.
Summing up
While the internet made the world a global village, metaverse in gaming is expected to bring together human beings to effectively learn, build, communicate and collaborate with each other in the virtual world. Metaverse in gaming is described as the new era of virtual games that will potentially have a significant contribution in opening different avenues of income.
(This article has been contributed by OneTo11 CEO Ravindra Kumar and AnimationXpress does not necessarily subscribe to these views)