Tech entrepreneurs Yat Siu, Mik Naayen, and Sebastian Borget weighed in how blockchain intersects with the future of gaming – and the groundbreaking opportunities that exist therein – from virtual property rights to in-game concerts.
It seems like blockchain (the digital record-keeping technology behind Bitcoin) is on everyone’s lips these days. From pharmaceuticals to jewellery, blockchain has brought nothing short of a revolution to every industry it touches, with its latest focus – the online gaming industry – expected to be no different.
In a fascinating panel at StartmeupHK Festival last week, industry leaders Mik Naayen (Co-founder of Dapper Labs and creator of Cryptokitties), Sebastian Borget (Co-founder of The Sandbox and President of Blockchain Game Alliance), and Yat Siu (Co-founder of Amioca Brands and mastermind behind Hong Kong’s first Internet service provider in the early ‘90s) came together online to discuss the future of gaming. There, they took a deep dive into the lucrative world of virtual assets and explored how, thanks to blockchain, the USD 150-billion-dollar gaming industry is poised to become a trillion-dollar industry. Read on to discover the 5 ways blockchain is redefining the gaming industry.
Blockchain grants players the ability to earn hard cash
For Yat, one of the most disruptive ways in which blockchain will reshape gaming is by “delivering true and lasting property rights to gamers”. Today’s online gaming industry is largely built on a free-to-play model, which means that developers do not charge players to join their game. Instead, they generate revenue by coaxing players to shell out for ‘virtual assets’ in order to unlock more content. Virtual assets are non-physical items that can either be purchased using the game’s virtual currency or with real money to enhance a player’s gaming performance/overall experience. A display of individuality and status, these range from weapons and cars, to loot boxes and ‘skins’ – a purely cosmetic item that has no effect on gameplay.
However, Yat points out that players do not technically own the assets they invest time and money into. “Virtual goods are really just services inside games, but th