Comprehensive Guide to NFT Games

NFT Games: New Business Opportunities

Traditional gaming models relied on players purchasing in-game items through microtransactions, with these items holding no real-world value outside the game environment. Many titles, even premium-priced ones, incorporated in-game purchases for character and weapon customization. These monetization models generated an estimated $65 billion in revenue during the peak period of traditional gaming.

Non-premium games (Free-to-Play) typically issue in-game currencies for monetization purposes. For example, Roblox, with its 43 million daily active users, exclusively uses Robux as the game's currency for all transactions.

However, the emergence of NFT games has fundamentally transformed gaming economics. In NFT games, in-game items are issued as NFTs, allowing players to own, trade, and exchange these assets. The economic system of NFT games primarily consists of two key components:

• NFTs:

  • In-game items are issued as NFTs
  • Players can own, trade, and exchange NFTs
  • Rare NFTs can be traded at premium prices
  • NFTs represent true digital ownership secured by blockchain technology

• In-Game Tokens:

  • Function as in-game currency
  • Used for item purchases and reward distribution
  • Enable players to contribute to game operations and development
  • Create sustainable economic ecosystems within games

Unlike traditional games, NFT games empower players to become stakeholders in the game economy, offering opportunities to generate economic benefits through active participation and contribution to the gaming ecosystem.

Play-to-Earn vs Tap-to-Earn

"Play-to-Earn (P2E)" and "Tap-to-Earn" represent innovative earning mechanisms utilizing blockchain technology and NFTs. These systems have been integrated into NFT and blockchain games, creating new economic models within gaming environments.

What is Play-to-Earn?

Play-to-Earn is a mechanism where users can earn cryptocurrencies or NFTs by playing games. In this model, items and characters obtained in-game are tradeable as NFTs and can be converted into real-world currency.

• Example: Games like Axie Infinity allow players to earn by breeding monsters and engaging in battles. Players can sell acquired NFTs to other players for profit.
• Characteristics: Particularly in developing countries, Play-to-Earn games have become viable income sources, with increasing cases of players earning living expenses. This model strongly connects the enjoyment of gaming with practical financial benefits.

What is Tap-to-Earn?

Tap-to-Earn operates on a simpler mechanism where users earn rewards by tapping apps or performing simple operations. For instance, Notcoin is a click game within the Telegram app where users tap animated coins to acquire cryptocurrency. The game boasts over 40 million users as of mid-year in the recent period.

• Example: Apps that provide rewards for completing tasks or performing specific actions are representative of this model.
• Characteristics: The simplicity of operations makes it attractive to those who lack time for extensive gaming sessions, offering easy accessibility to earning opportunities.

These innovative business models transcend traditional gaming and app frameworks, establishing "earning" ecosystems. Their ability to provide rewards while entertaining users has garnered support across diverse demographics.

How to Earn in NFT Games

NFT games differ from traditional games by offering players potential economic benefits through gameplay. There are three primary methods to earn in NFT games:

• NFT Trading: Players can sell NFTs acquired in-game through marketplaces to obtain currency. Rare and valuable NFTs can command premium prices, with NFT values fluctuating based on game popularity and demand. This creates opportunities for strategic trading and investment within game ecosystems.

• Gameplay Rewards: Players earn tokens or NFTs through various in-game activities. Completing daily missions, participating in events, and winning PvP battles are common reward mechanisms. Acquired rewards can be sold on marketplaces or utilized within the game for further progression.

• Play-to-Earn (P2E): Many NFT games adopt the "Play to Earn" model, where players receive cryptocurrency as rewards for gameplay. While most games require initial NFT purchases to begin playing, earned currency can be converted to cash or used in other games, creating interconnected gaming economies.

NFT games represent an emerging industry attracting attention as a new gaming format that combines entertainment with earning potential, offering players both enjoyment and financial opportunities.

Recommended NFT Game #1: Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is a Play-to-Earn (P2E) game inspired by popular Japanese video games such as Pokemon and Tamagotchi digital pets. This metaverse platform operates on the Ethereum blockchain and uses NFTs to represent specific characters, land parcels, and other in-game assets.

Launched in March 2018, Axie Infinity pioneered the NFT gaming sector. The Vietnam-based team led by Trung Nguyen and Sky Mavis developed this highly addictive NFT game, which has become an income source for many players worldwide.

In Axie Infinity, tactical ability-based combat is essential. Players control three Axies, fantastical round creatures. These NFTs are tradeable, and players receive Smooth Love Potion (SLP) as rewards for winning battles. SLP serves as an in-game resource and tradeable token used to evolve Axies (NFT pets), similar to Pokemon evolution mechanics.

Game Economy

Three digital assets fundamentally drive Axie Infinity's multi-billion dollar economy:

• Smooth Love Potion (SLP) for breeding Axies
• NFT Axies – the core of economic activity. Prices range from $60 to over $300 on the Axie Infinity NFT marketplace
• Axie Infinity (AXS) tokens – the blockchain game's native governance token, sometimes called Axie Infinity Shard tokens

AXS and SLP tokens can be earned through gameplay, while players can also stake AXS to vote on game development proposals and fees. Similar to depositing money in banks, staking AXS means locking tokens in liquidity pools. In return, players receive additional AXS tokens, functioning as incentives to support the entire ecosystem.

The total supply consists of 270 million AXS tokens, with 21% held by Sky Mavis as a funding mechanism. For Play-to-Earn distribution, 20% of AXS tokens are allocated over a 4.5-year period, ensuring sustainable token economics and long-term ecosystem growth.

Recommended NFT Game #2: The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a user-driven metaverse gaming platform built on blockchain technology. Players can purchase virtual land called "LAND," create games, design avatars, and sell items while earning profits through various activities. The vast metaverse space consists of 166,464 LAND parcels where players can interact with others, embark on adventures, and utilize land ownership for game creation, avatar placement, and item installation.

Notably, the platform features Game Maker tools that enable easy 3D game creation without programming knowledge.

• VoxEdit: A suite of tools for creating voxel objects and minting them as NFTs
• Marketplace: A platform for trading voxelized and tokenized assets
• GameMaker: Tools for building unique games based on The Sandbox's ruleset

LAND, the metaverse real estate, can be purchased with "SAND" or "ETH" and is traded on NFT marketplaces and platforms like OpenSea. Acquired LAND represents virtual world real estate displayed on the Ethereum blockchain. Due to limited supply, LAND holds high scarcity value, with prices expected to increase alongside growing metaverse market demand.

Game Economy

"SAND" is The Sandbox's native token, functioning as the central element throughout The Sandbox metaverse. All user transactions utilize this token.

SAND serves as The Sandbox's governance token with multiple use cases:

• Purchasing In-Game Items and Avatars: Buying items and avatars sold on the marketplace
• LAND Acquisition: LAND represents virtual space real estate purchasable with SAND
• Game Creation: Accessing premium features of the Game Maker game creation tool
• Governance: Proposing and voting on game operation matters
• Staking: Depositing SAND to earn rewards

SAND is required for all transaction types. To play games, modify avatars, purchase land, or trade assets, users must first own SAND tokens, making it the fundamental currency of The Sandbox ecosystem.

Recommended NFT Game #3: Gas Hero

Gas Hero is a social and strategy game developed by Find Satoshi Labs, deployed on the Polygon chain. Players control special characters called Gas Heroes in a post-apocalyptic world, fighting against AI intent on destroying humanity. The game incorporates community-driven elements, requiring players to employ strategic thinking while nurturing various heroes and competing against other players.

New players receive four free Gas Heroes to build bases and engage in battles. Subsequently, players collect new Gas Heroes to fight AI and other players. Successful missions yield various items that can be traded on the marketplace. Each hero has different rarity levels and lifespans, with a system where heroes "die" after certain periods.

Game Economy

GMT Token Uses

• Native In-Game Token: GMT serves as the primary currency used within Gas Hero
• Applications:
  • Purchasing in-game items
  • Boosting Gas Heroes
• Exchange Trading: GMT is tradeable on exchanges like major cryptocurrency exchanges and others, holding value outside the game
• Leadership Rewards: Players elected as leaders in in-game organizations receive portions of organizational tax revenue in GMT

Players utilize Gas Hero NFTs to engage in PvP and PvE battles, strategically strengthening heroes while progressing through the game. The leadership election system within in-game organizations and associated reward mechanisms enhance player motivation and engagement.

Recommended NFT Game #4: Decentraland

Decentraland is a web-based 3D virtual world platform operating on the Ethereum blockchain. As the first platform of its kind, it was founded in 2015 by Ariel Meilich and Esteban Ordano. The initial ICO occurred in 2017, with public release in February 2020.

The platform has hosted notable events over the past several years, including the Metamask party celebrating 10 million active users and Super Bowl events at Miller Lite's "Metaverse" dive bar. Famous artists such as Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Marshmello, and Justin Bieber have held successful virtual events on this platform.

Game Economy

The governance token MANA serves as the central token for economic activities within Decentraland. MANA is Decentraland's governance token with the following applications:

• LAND Purchase: Acquiring virtual space real estate called LAND
• Item and Avatar Purchase: Buying items and avatars sold on the marketplace
• Governance: Participating in proposals and voting on game operations

MANA is used for buying and selling LAND (land) and items within Decentraland, and is already listed on numerous exchanges, supporting Decentraland's economic sphere.

As a user-driven platform, Decentraland's MANA value may increase as the economic sphere becomes fully established in the future, making it an attractive investment opportunity within the metaverse economy.

Recommended NFT Game #5: STEPN

STEPN is a "Move-to-Earn (M2E)" blockchain game released in late 2021. Users purchase NFT sneakers on the STEPN mobile app, and their daily walking, running, and jogging activities are recorded. Accumulating certain step counts earns users GMT or GST cryptocurrency. This revolutionary game system combining exercise with token earning created significant market impact. While the STEPN movement has currently stabilized, this game represents an innovative fusion of gaming and exercise, with future growth expected due to rising health consciousness and metaverse proliferation.

Game Economy

STEPN's economic system centers on two token types: GST and GMT.

• GST: In-game currency used for sneaker repairs, level-ups, and rentals
• GMT: Governance token used for staking, governance, and NFT sneaker minting

Players purchase "NFT Sneakers" and earn GMT by accumulating daily walking, running, and jogging activities.

Additionally, players can earn GST by lending NFT sneakers to other players or by buying and selling NFT sneakers on the marketplace to acquire both GST and GMT tokens.

Recommended NFT Game #6: Illuvium

Illuvium is a rapidly rising popular NFT game. This innovative project fuses RPG gaming with DeFi, built on blockchain technology. Players explore fantastical worlds, encountering, capturing, nurturing, and battling spirit-like creatures called Illuvials.

In Illuvium, players explore to collect monsters, challenge battles against other players and NPCs, and manage captured monsters as NFTs on the blockchain. Players can manage their monster collections and conduct sales and trades.

Game Economy

Illuvium's economic system centers on two token types: ILV and sILV.

• ILV: Governance token used for in-game economy operations, staking, and NFT purchases
• sILV: In-game currency used for Illuvial enhancement and item purchases

Illuvium (ILV) tokens drive the NFT game economy, providing all standard DeFi benefits including governance, yield farming, and staking.

sILV tokens have no staking lockup periods and can only be used for in-game purchases, while staked ILV tokens have one-year lockup periods. The dynamic interplay between the two tokens ensures stable economics and high liquidity.

Recommended NFT Game #7: Shrapnel

Shrapnel is an AAA first-person shooter game developed by Seattle-based Neon Machine. According to developers, early access began in the recent period, with official release planned for the following year. Shrapnel is set in a future world where an asteroid collides with Earth's moon, with debris raining down on Earth, forming a catastrophic 500-kilometer-wide devastated zone. This area, called "The Zone," serves as the battlefield where players join the Mercenary Extraction Force, collecting resources while battling other operators.

In-game, players engage in gunfights with other operators while collecting resources, and can recover defeated enemies' equipment as NFTs. Collected resources and loot can be used as equipment in subsequent game sessions and traded on Shrapnel's marketplace. This enables players to strengthen equipment progressively and approach next battles better prepared. Beyond combat, players can create vanity items in-game, convert them to NFTs, and trade with other players.

Game Economy

About SHRAP Tokens

• SHRAP is Shrapnel game's official token, issued as an ERC-20 token on the Avalanche C-chain
• Primary Uses:
  • In-game item purchases and boosts
  • NFT minting and marketplace transactions
  • Governance functions allowing players to vote on content and improve its visibility
• Tradeable Platforms: SHRAP is tradeable on exchanges including Kucoin, Crypto.com, and Trader Joe

Shrapnel aims to fuse AAA-grade game quality with Web3 technology, providing new gaming experiences where players can actually trade in-game acquired items as NFTs.

Recommended NFT Game #8: Star Atlas

Star Atlas is a next-generation MMORPG featuring cinematic graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5. Players compete with various races and factions in vast space settings, expanding territories through strategic gameplay.

The game offers diverse modes including third-person shooting, spaceship combat, and fleet battles, requiring player cooperation, competition, and strategic thinking, garnering significant attention.

Star Atlas utilizes NFT technology, enabling players to own and trade digital assets such as spaceships and terrain. These assets are stored as NFTs, with players holding complete ownership rights.

Game Economy

Star Atlas's token economy comprises two token types:

• ATLAS: The primary in-game currency used for item purchases, ship repairs, refueling, and staking
• POLIS: The game's governance token used for DAO voting and proposal rights

Star Atlas's game economy is based on the ATLAS governance token. ATLAS serves as the primary currency for transactions and economic activities in Star Atlas's virtual world, used by players to trade digital assets such as spaceships and resources.

Multiple methods exist for earning tokens: players can acquire ATLAS through various activities including space exploration, resource mining, spaceship construction, and trading with other players.

Recommended NFT Game #9: SYMBIOGENESIS

SYMBIOGENESIS is Square Enix's first NFT game, a new entertainment content format featuring strategic actions and narrative exploration set on a floating continent where numerous characters (NFT collectible art) coexist.

This project integrates 10,000 uniquely designed NFT artworks with game functionality in a new entertainment format. The project produces diverse character NFTs for PFP use, released and sold progressively across six chapters.

SYMBIOGENESIS's appeal transcends mere gaming, emphasizing player interaction and collaborative story construction. Players can interact with others in-game, cooperate to confront powerful enemies, and solve story mysteries together.

Game Economy

SYMBIOGENESIS, being NFT entertainment, currently does not issue tokens. Players unravel world mysteries by unlocking the main story and individual character stories.

Game utilities offer two primary gameplay approaches:

1. Progress through main story and missions to complete all six chapters
2. Complete quests to find items hidden throughout the floating continent

Players obtain items by tapping various locations on the floating continent, with item acquisition completing quests.

Methods for obtaining items include: tapping areas of interest on maps, searching based on hint information, and purchasing from NFT markets.

Recommended NFT Game #10: Heroes of Mavia

Heroes of Mavia is a multiplayer game developed by Skrice Studios, built on the Base chain. Players construct cities, train armies, and wage wars against neighboring nations while expanding territories, aiming to build the strongest empire. This city-building strategy game presents various challenges as players establish bases, fortify defenses, and pursue victory.

In-game NFTs include land, decorations, statues, skins, weapons, and building tools. Players construct cities and defend against other players' attacks using walls, turrets, and traps. Land contains natural resources including gold, oil, and rubies, which players utilize for city development. An NFT marketplace is planned for in-game implementation, enabling players to trade unique game assets. Heroes of Mavia is available for mobile devices, downloadable from Apple Store and Google Play Store.

Game Economy

Heroes of Mavia features three tokens: MAVIA tokens, Ruby, and Sapphire.

• Ruby: Tokens earned through gameplay, used for tournament entry fees and legendary item creation and trading
• Sapphire: Purchasable with cash, used for special purposes including completing construction, purchasing additional builders, and boosts
• MAVIA Token: Heroes of Mavia's only tradeable token, also functioning as a governance token. MAVIA token holders have voting rights on game improvement proposals. This token is tradeable on exchanges including Uniswap, Bybit, and Kucoin

Heroes of Mavia is a distinctive blockchain NFT game where players not only build cities and lead armies to compete with others but also participate in asset trading and governance utilizing NFTs.

Future Prospects of NFT Games

The future prospects of NFT games are indicated by the following outlooks:

• The NFT gaming market is projected to reach approximately $260 billion (about 34 trillion yen) by the coming years.
• NFT games will account for a significant portion of gaming industry revenue.
• NFT games will proliferate as new forms of entertainment and education.

Furthermore, NFT games bring new revenue sources not only to players but also to "game developers and creators." Through NFT trading and transactions, developers can earn revenue from in-game item sales and transaction fees, securing revenue sources for continued game development. This creates mutual benefits for both game players and creators/developers.

NFT games attract attention as emerging gaming industry trends. With technological advancement, games are expected to become more convenient and accessible. While current legal frameworks have not fully caught up, the future prospects of NFT games appear promising as the industry matures and regulatory clarity improves.

FAQ

What is Play-to-Earn (P2E) NFT Gaming? How does it generate income?

Play-to-Earn NFT games allow players to earn cryptocurrency while playing. Players generate income through completing quests, staking assets, earning in-game tokens, and trading NFT items. The primary revenue streams are token rewards and NFT marketplace transactions.

What are the most popular P2E NFT games in 2024?

The most popular P2E NFT games in 2024 include Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Decentraland. These games continue to lead with high trading volumes and active player communities, offering diverse gameplay and earning opportunities through NFT assets and governance tokens.

How much initial investment is required to play P2E NFT games?

P2E NFT games typically require initial investment of hundreds of dollars to purchase NFTs. Costs vary by game, with some requiring additional spending for equipment upgrades and tokens. Entry barriers depend on game mechanics and current NFT prices.

What are the revenue sources in P2E games? Can you really make money by playing games?

P2E games offer multiple income streams: completing tasks, trading NFTs, staking tokens, and competitive rewards. Yes, you can earn crypto, though returns depend on game economics, your skill level, and entry timing. Early adopters typically see better profits than later players.

What risks exist in P2E NFT games and how to mitigate them?

Main risks include market volatility, token price fluctuations, and smart contract vulnerabilities. Mitigate by choosing games with audited contracts, diversifying investments, understanding tokenomics, and only investing capital you can afford to lose.

What is the difference between P2E games and traditional games?

P2E games use blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, allowing players to earn real value through gaming rewards and asset ownership. Traditional games use fiat currency with no blockchain integration. P2E games offer players true asset ownership, transparent economics, and higher earning potential through in-game activities and trading.

How to choose the right P2E NFT game for yourself?

Consider the game developer's reputation and track record first. Evaluate gameplay mechanics, community engagement, and earning potential. Analyze token economics, play requirements, and long-term sustainability. Start with games matching your gaming style and investment capacity.

How do you trade and cash out NFT assets from P2E games?

P2E game NFT assets can be traded directly between players on NFT marketplaces or sold for cryptocurrency. Assets like characters, skins, and weapons can be converted to tokens and withdrawn, enabling players to monetize their in-game earnings through peer-to-peer transactions.