Play-To-Earn model currently attracts a lot of attention. Some Metaverse platforms allow users to not only interact with other players, but also to be rewarded with digital tokens convertible in real money.
Meta is building a creator economy on Horizon Worlds, a free VR platform, online video games developed by Meta for Oculus. On Horizon creators make money thanks to their own skills: Players use the platform’s tools to build custom VR spaces and play games together with coworkers and other players. Creators are basically VR world designers that create digital assets thanks to their technical skills and own the intellectual property rights to the content they create (NFTs). Today the gaming platform is only accessible via VR headsets, but because users monetize based on how much other players engage with the game content, Meta is planning to allow users to also access the platform via web in order to attract more gamers.
Another popular platform is Axie Infinity, a Metaverse game experience created on the Ethereum blockchain where users can purchase NFTs of their favorite monster and pit them against each other in battles. With the “play-to-earn” approach, creators are rewarded with crypto tokens - called Smooth Love Potion (SLP) – each time they sell their items. Moreover, they can also loan their NFTs to other players to use and earn with, and profits are divided between the parties. As of February, Axie Infinity had more than 1.8 million DAU and NFT sales volume of $4 billion. There’s no way to play the game without buying the three Axie NFTs needed to create your first team: If you win, you’re rewarded with SLP and you can convert your token into Ethereum, and then into dollars. That’s how users make money playing the game.
Compared with traditional gaming experiences, in Metaverse users are immersed in an environment where they can create, interact, explore, and participate in a wide variety of experiences.
In the Metaverse, most of the content users spend time with, is created by other users. Content creators are incentivized and rewarded based on how much time other users spend engaging with the platform, therefore, to increase profits it is crucial to continuously improve the user experience first, developing the underlying technology, then integrating new tokens in the platform.
It does not come as a surprise that gaming could become the entry portal for the Metaverse, because gaming is a fun and globally adopted activity, and is also extremely advanced technologically. The market opportunity for monetization through the gaming industry is massive, for both platforms and players: Today out of about 8 billion world population, 5 billion people are internet users, 4.6 billion are social media users, and 3 billion are video gamers ripe for potential conversion into Metaverse users.
In summary, gaming is still at the early stage of development in the Metaverse, but the rapid growth of its user base and the increased attention from big companies represents a huge opportunity to invest in the market. Moving from an independent virtual world to an integrated “digital twin of the real world” with better technology and experiences, will bring a wider audience of users and more per-users spending.
The information in this article should not be regarded as a description of services provided by Delian Partners SA. The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. The views reflected in this article are subject to change at any time without notice.
