Let’s Play a Game

Seeking Crypto Specialists in New York!

We are looking for a NY-based crypto specialist to join our new NY team, who shares the Durlston Partners’ established standards, ethos, and professionalism.

Many of the clients we partner with have a presence globally and we have been consistently delivering and placing candidates internationally for many years, predominantly in the US. This NY team will increase delivery to current clients based in the US, and build the business stateside.

Please email shannon@durlstonpartners.com to arrange an intro!

📅 This Week in Crypto 📅

Former Bitmex CEO, Arthur Hayes, said that ETH at $10K by the end of 2022 is still possible, but the market will likely be choppy in the mid-term.

  • Kevin McCoy: The Metaverse Is Going to Be Powered by Game Engines

The digital artist, who minted the first NFT ever, compares the metaverse of today to the watershed moment when Nintendo launched Mario Bros in 1985.

Epic Games, the video game publisher behind Fortnite, intends to list Web3 gaming company Gala Games’ wild west shooter GRIT as the first NFT-based game on the Epic Games Store. Also, last week, Binance announced it will sponsor its first global music tour: The Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn” tour that begins in July.

BONUS – This article will help any Blockchain Developer find the best-suited framework or tool for them (Hardhat or Truffle).

📰 Digital Take Away 📰

Stop playing games!

It’s time to get paid to play… almost

EA (Electronic Arts), EpicGames, and Activision Blizzard have all said publicly that implementing Web 3 technology into their platforms is inevitable. EA CEO Andrew Wilson called NFT and “play-to-earn” games the “the future of our industry”.

Allowing players to “play as they earn” is not something new though. People have been profiting from their controller talents since 1972 when five students competed in an “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics” with the winner receiving a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone. Gaming has come a long way since its days of firing up your Magnavox Odyssey (look it up) to play Pong, and so have the rewards it gives you. The gaming industry is now worth $300B and with the introduction of mainstream Esports franchising, the valuation for earning potential is going up, with people now asking how they can get a slice of the action.

But how does all this relate to digital assets, I hear you ask? Well, those in-game collectibles that up till now had only given you bragging rights amongst the community – look to be moving onto the blockchain and gaining some tangible value. The majority of these will be coming as NFT “Collectibles” that you will be able to exchange or trade with friends and rivals alike on an in-game and on-chain marketplace.

Virtual economies existing in gaming universes are not unheard of — popular ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing games’ (MMORPG) like RuneScape and World of Warcraft have a user base in the hundreds of millions. Furthermore, many games claiming to be free-to-play are running on a ‘freemium’ model; gamers have to splash a certain amount of money, on top of time and effort, to accelerate their rise through the ranks or obtain rare in-game items. While these in-game items may be worth a tidy sum, the true ownership of these items does not lie with the gamer, but with the game developers.

While gaming companies should be rightly compensated for developing entertaining titles, gamers also bring value by spending time and actively participating in the in-game economy. The play-to-earn model could be seen as a way to synergize both parties so that all are rewarded for the value they bring. On one hand, gaming companies can develop a more vibrant in-game economy. On the other hand, gamers get to own their in-game assets and are rewarded for their time spent.

Decentralized games (GameFi) built on blockchains are the natural evolution of the creator economy for gamers. Using smart contracts, completing certain objectives within the game automatically provides the player with NFTs that can take many different forms. For example, in the most popular play-to-earn title Axie Infinity, players collect creatures called “Axies,” which can battle with other players’ creatures or be bred and showcased to the world. In another popular title, Alien Worlds, players collect NFTs with six different levels of rarity, including land parcels, tools, and weapons, with the ultimate goal of earning the game’s unique cryptocurrency “Trilium.”

This new economy of gaming is changing the way in which game designers approach developing the latest titles. The new GameFi Market will act as an exchange in traditional finance, which is beginning to leave a skills gap ready to capitalise on. Those currently looking to launch a new in-game token require massive infrastructure well outside the remit of a traditional game developer. This is highlighting the need for many more Web3 developers to start playing and building the next generation of interactive entertainment ready for the Metaverse.

Many of Durlston Partners’ DeFi clients are seeing the potential earnings of managing and even owning this process or exchange, and the immediate need for solid infrastructure capable of handling what is expected to be the next revolution in gaming. It seems as if, very shortly, Bowser will be protecting more than just Princess Peach.

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