Evgeniy Fedorovskiy

Play-to-Earn (P2E) is a new term for video games where gamers can earn cryptocurrencies and NFT tokens through their gaming activities. In the last few months, the Play-to-earn trend has gained great momentum.

Gaming itself is a huge global market. There are more than 2.7 billion gamers in the world. At the same time, analysts expect that in the next few years the value of the industry will exceed $ 300 billion. However, there are two important problems in the industry:

Players do not own their purchases in the full sense of the term. In-game items (equipment, weapons, bonuses, and so on) they increase the player's productivity and enjoyment of the game, but do not serve any other purpose. As a result, they fall into the category of entertainment expenses, not investments;

Lack of choice of business model. 80% of the total revenue from digital games comes from free-to-play games. This limits developers and types of gameplay mechanics, as well as the development of the industry itself. However, as new business models for game developers become available (for example, commissions from secondary sales of NFT), new forms of gameplay will also appear.

A new direction of Play-to-Earn can change the existing landscape of the gaming industry. This trend immediately covered the development on a variety of blockchains. The number of games has already exceeded 200, while they occupy up to 45% of the traffic of all decentralized applications. As a result, the trend is even singled out in a separate direction of GameFi (Game Finance).

The concept is very simple: users can earn real money or other rewards just by playing the game!

The easiest way to figure this out is with a specific example — Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity is a blockchain game with fantastic characters based on Ethereum, which in many ways resembles the sensational CryptoKitties. The gameplay of the game consists of players growing, breeding and fighting with their Axie characters. At the same time, players can earn money by breeding animals or by winning on the battlefield.

In addition, each Axi technically represents a non-interchangeable token (NFT). Therefore, each Axi has its own special characteristics that distinguish it from other creatures. Axi can be crossed. Thus, new animals appear in the game. Some of them have unique characteristics, thanks to which they can be sold profitably.

It is important that to start the game, you will need start-up capital to purchase Axie on the Axie Infinity marketplace. The animals are sold both as adults and at the stage of maturation (in the egg). Subsequently, they will grow into full-fledged Axi. From the egg stage to the appearance of an individual, 5 days pass. In the future, pets (NFT) can be sold for Ethereum.

The task of the game is to collect the strongest and most unique army from Axi. To do this, you can team up with other players. The formed army can be sent to war against other gamers or travel around the world of the game (Lunation) in search of adventures.

The project has two cryptocurrencies. The first is Small Love Potions (SLP). Using SLP, players can create and improve pets. At the same time, SLP is a cryptocurrency that can be bought and sold on a crypto exchange. It is important to note that in the earn-to-play model, the value of a currency depends on the number of players who need it.

The second cryptocurrency of the project is AXS, the native token of Axie Infinity. Its holders can receive passive profits by supplying liquidity to decentralized exchanges. In addition, it can be used to participate in the development of the project (governance). In the future, AXS can also be used for staking.

As a result, earning opportunities on these and similar Play-to-earn mechanics have become incredibly popular. Especially in developing countries, giving players the opportunity to earn more than the monthly minimum wage.

Blockchain allows you to constantly build new ideas for Play-to-earn games. So, there are thousands of "Axie fellows" through programs such as Yield Guild Games and others, in which Axie owners provide their NFTs to other players for use and earnings. In this case, the profit is divided between the parties.