Gaming: The Struggle to Find Space for Crypto

Cryptocurrency and all things related to Web3 have had a rocky few months in the gaming industry. Xbox chief Phil Spencer referred to the metaverse, a virtual space concept made famous by Meta’s Horizon Worlds, as a “poorly built video game”, while NFTs or non-fungible tokens seem to have been shown the door by fans, after a brief period moonlighting as developers’ next big fundraiser.

Ownership

Is the role of cryptocurrency in video gaming redundant? In terms of traditional console and PC gaming, the misuse of Web3 ideas by publishers means that appreciation of crypto and NFTs (etc.) is at an all-time low in the community. However, this only refers to the use of these features within the games themselves. There are still quite a few outlets that allow the purchase of games and hardware in Bitcoin.

Somewhat ironically, one of these is Microsoft, the creator of the Xbox. It’s also possible to trade tokens for games at GameStop, NewEgg, SCAN UK, and on the Google Play Store. Even here, though, the relationship between commerce and crypto has always been a shaky one. Major PC games store Steam has already abandoned its experiment with Bitcoin, as has Amazon.

Due to this and more issues that we’ll come to shortly, it’s now almost inevitable that games based on Web3 ideas will retreat back into their own little niche, where titles like Axie Infinity, CryptoKitties, and The Sandbox seem to be thriving. This is an important point, as there are places within gaming where the fixtures of Web3 have made a breakthrough.

Blockchain

Just over the virtual divide, casino gaming became a bit of a stronghold for cryptocurrency during the latter part of the last decade. TheClubhouseCasino, an Irish casino, now supports Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum for use in its slot machines. The site also has a collection of ‘live’ crypto experiences, which try to emulate real-world settings by featuring a croupier or presenter on a webcam.

The reality is that cryptocurrency and all its related Web3 machinery had to find its place in gaming just like any other technology.

With regard to the latter tech, these blockchain-based receipts were briefly touted as a solution to the ownership of rare and exclusive video game items, like outfits and weapons. Put another way, it was possible to own something that was exclusively yours by embedding the purchase in the blockchain. Unfortunately, it took just four months for French studio Ubisoft to end its first foray into the NFT space.

In general, Web 3.0 doesn’t seem to be working for console players just yet, who are increasingly looking for streamlined games, far from microtransactions and battle passes of first-person shooters, but there was still plenty of space for crypto to be integrated into other interactive industries.

Whether this means that there are more untapped areas of commerce for Bitcoin and co. is debatable but Web3 and cryptocurrency are difficult things to write off after just a decade of existence and are likely to find use.

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