Cyberpunk was one of the most anticipated games in 2020, receiving around 8 million pre-orders on all the platforms. Even when the world was hit by the Corona pandemic, it didn’t affect the gaming community. In fact, the number of gamers increased to 2.7 billion worldwide in 2020, which was around 2.5 billion in 2019. 

In late 2017, Cryptokitties was first introduced to the gaming community. The game compromised of breeding of different cats but differed from other traditional games as it was backed by the Blockchain Technology. Cryptokitties became so popular among the gamers that it slowed down the whole Ethereum network as the game generated more than 14k users and around 5k ETH in a day. Since then various Blockchain games have come to the spotlight gaining tons of users and revenue. Games such as SANDBOX is even set to overtake traditional games like Minecraft as it allows players to create, own, and trade in-game assets. Blockchain has become one of the most promising technologies in the gaming industry.  That brings to the question, what is blockchain gaming and how does it work?

First, let’s take a look at an example of a traditional game like PUBG, an online multiplayer battle royale game. In August 2020, an Indian PUBGMobile streamer and competitive player, SCOUT, spent  INR 1.5Lakh to get a specific M4 Glacier skin, which is around 2K USD. He spent a huge sum on the gun skin, but does he have the real ownership of that particular skin or trade it with other players? The answer is ‘No’. Whenever you get awesome weapon skins or in-game accessories in PUBG,  it only exists as data on the gaming server. Players cannot have true ownership of those in-game items. Developers can easily restrict players from accessing those items or selling them.

This is where blockchain comes in. Instead of storing those data in the developer’s servers, it is stored in a different decentralized network (similar to Bitcoin). This technology allows the players to truly own in-game items. These items exist on a separate network, apart from the servers used by the developer. And are governed using “Smart Contract”, code that runs on Blockchain.

How will Blockchain change Gaming Industry?

• Asset Ownership

Traditionally, any assets purchased or earned in the game are owned by the game publisher. If the player stops playing or deletes the game, the assets are lost forever. With blockchain technology, players own those assets.

• Open Market Place

Traditional games have limits and restrictions whenever it comes to trading or selling of items. Even when game publishers allow those transactions, they take a huge cut of sales. Blockchain allows players to create an open marketplace where players set their own rules.

• Interoperability

Another feature of Blockchain gaming is that it allows players to use the same items across multiple games.

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