CRYPTOCURRENCY is now being incorporated into some video games, allowing gamers to be paid to play.
Popular games are offering rewards in the form of blockchain technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and these have real-world monetary value.
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What are play-to-earn games?
Play-to-earn games are video game that harnesses crypto to reward players with something that has value in the real – as well as virtual – world.
These rewards tend to be NFTs, cryptographically unique tokens that can be used to prove ownership of content such as music or images.
You can find out more about the complicated world of NFTs here.
The NFT will represent an in-game asset, such as a virtual tool or weapon to be used as part of the game.
Once players have won them, they can either be traded for other assets within the game or sold for actual money on an NFT marketplace.
What are the most popular play-to-earn games?
Axie Infinity
The most popular play-to-earn game is Axie Infinity, a monster-battling game launched in 2018.
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In the online strategy game, cartoon creatures called Axies represent NFTs.
In countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, people are playing Axie Infinity to support their families.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands, a game that sees players trading cards that depict fighters and represent NFTs, has also proved a bit hit.
Alien Worlds
In Alien Worlds, another popular play-to-earn game, NFT-backed assets include land, tools, weapons and avatars.
There’s more information on how to get started in the game here.
Decentraland
This decentralized 3D virtual reality platform is powered by Ethereum blockchain.
In it, players can explore and create virtual structures, in a 3D virtual world.
Illuvium
Illuvium is a decentralised game studio combining the worlds of cryptocurrency and gaming.
It’s an open-world RPG based on the Ethereum blockchain where can you mine, harvest, capture, and fight NFT’s (non-fungible tokens), known in the game as ‘Illuvials’.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a community-driven multiplayer game, in which players can build their own worlds and earn crypto.
The game is made up of 166,464 parcels of land which can be bought, and features a world of user-generated landscapes, buildings, and characters and objects.
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More NFT games attracting plenty of players
- League of Kingdoms
- Decentraland
- Gods Unchained
- Zed Run
- Sorare
- Town Star
What play-to-earn games are being released in 2022?
Game developers and as well as NFT owners are taking advantage of the growing play-to-earn industry.
Bored Ape Yacht Club, which owns 10,000 NFT images, has announced collaboration with game software company Animoca Brands to develop a new play-to-earn game.
Loopify, a well-known NFT collector, is developing a multiplayer role-playing game called Treeverse, with artwork inspired by titles such as celebrated Nintendo Switch game The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.
NFT owner The Forgotten Rune Wizard Cult has partnered with developer Bisonic to build a game that’s likely to include NFT-backed assets such as land used to build virtual worlds.
Its first public land sale is set to launch this summer.
How can I make money from play-to-earn games?
In order to make money from play-to-earn games, you need to sell the NFTs you earn on an NFT marketplace.
Some of these games, such as Axie Infinity, make buying NFTs from an NFT marketplace a requirement to play the game.
The financial rewards will depends to some degree on your gaming skill, but it’s also important to remember that making money through NFTs requires extreme caution.
Cryptocurrencies have proved extremely volatile.
In January 2022, Britain’s richest Crypto trader lost $800million (£591m) in one day as the market collapsed.
Those who use invest in them are also vulnerable to scams.
One example of a common NFT scam is the “rug pull”, when developers of an NFT project abandon it part-way through and disappear with the investors’ money.
Sudden hype around a project and spike in coin prices can point to a rug pull, while projects that lock their pooled liquidity for a fixed period tend to be safer.
