A new study has revealed that the blockchain-based gaming industry is undergoing a “massive change”: the once-popular play-to-earn (P2E) model is falling out of favor, and attention is turning to improving game play. game experience.
The survey results were included in a newly released annual report by the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) on January 12, conducted among 347 professionals representing 252 projects or companies in the blockchain sector.
According to BGA, the majority of those surveyed were young adult men working for blockchain gaming companies in middle and senior management positions.
One of the trends in the report was an apparent shift in how blockchain gaming executives viewed P2E as a driver for blockchain gaming adoption.
In 2021, the report revealed that 67.9% of respondents agreed that P2E would be the biggest growth driver for blockchain gaming. According to the latest survey, this figure has dropped to 22.5%.
Instead, gameplay improvements were seen as the biggest driver of adoption in 2023, with 35.7% of respondents saying gameplay improvements will be the industry’s top priority.
Pedro Heddera, head of research and analysis at DApp insights firm DappRadar, cited the fading of P2E as a result of “falling cryptocurrency prices and upcoming free-to-earn games,” paving the way for the new generation of Web3 games, adding:
“2023 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year.”
Rowan Zwiers, co-founder of consulting firm Web3 Blockminds, stated in the report that despite the earlier hype about P2E gaming during the first generation of blockchain gaming, the industry is currently in the midst of a “return to normal.” “.
Zwiers stated that P2E gaming “has proven to be unsustainable” but pointed to the need to develop the next generation of more advanced blockchain gaming.
For his part, Felix Hartmann, chief investment officer at Hartmann Metaverse Ventures, says “cheap point-and-click browser” P2Es are no longer getting the funding they used to, as “capital has gotten smarter and more demanding.”
Hartmann suggested that VCs are turning their attention to improving the player experience. He pointed:
“There are more and more cutting-edge game studios integrating Web 3.0 and AI into high-fidelity games based on Unreal Engine.”
Despite the decline in popularity of P2E, Mirai Labs co-founder Corey Wilton says that “lovers” of the original P2E model will always exist, but it’s clearly more profitable to create games that “capture the everyday casual gamer.”
The report highlighted that the poor gameplay and the problem of understanding the concepts of blockchain games were the most significant problems of these games.
However, according to a section of the report backed by DappRadar, the blockchain gaming industry continues to grow significantly despite the prolonged bear market.
On-chain gaming transactions reached 7.4 billion, growing 37% from 2021 and a staggering 3,260% from 2020.
The report claimed that the bear market had not affected the number of existing game players.
Blockchain Games Alliance President Sebastien Borget said this tells him the industry is “putting gamers first,” focusing more on the benefits of blockchain for the gaming industry than market volatility.
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