Is the traditional game industry expanding into the NFT universe? GTA and CS may be just the top of the iceberg of the new market

Wall Street Journal wrote that more and more video game companies are applying non-fungible token (NFT) technology to game items. However, nothing is known about the possibility of opening the market… at least for the time being.

The point is that big, well-known game companies like Zynga, famous for ‘Farmville’ and Ubisoft for ‘Assassin’s Creed’, are experimenting with this NFT strategy. Earlier this month, Ubisoft introduced ‘Ubisoft Quartz’, a blockchain-NFT service platform, and decided to apply it to ‘Ghost Recon Breakpoint’, an online first-person shooter (FPS) game.

Zynga plans to release thousands of NFT-applied virtual items early next year. The company started the first hiring of an executive in charge of blockchain technology last month.

Electronic Arts (EA), which has strengths in sports games, and ‘Playtika Holdings’, an Israeli mobile games company, are also considering the introduction of NFTs.

There are still cases where NFTs are applied in video games, such as the famous GTA. However, the applications were made by independent developers… until now. Game users are used to paying for in-game items such as ‘Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online’ and ‘World of Warcraft’.

NFT Market in Traditional Games

According to ‘Newzoo BV’, a gaming market analysis firm, more than three-quarters of the $180 billion consumers spent on gaming software this year were in-game purchases.

But converting these virtual items to NFT is another story. That’s because by making items in NFT, those items can become really valuable. Furthermore, different items could also be shared between different games. This change could even be made between console games and computer games.

This will be an important step in the development of the economic ecosystem of the so-called ‘metaverse’, highlighted the magazine.

In particular, players spend a lot of time in the virtual world, so it was to be expected that they could become the first adopters of the metaverse.

What is the metaverse?

Metaverse refers to a virtual space where people work, play and shop. Experts say the ability to buy and sell NFTs will be at the heart of the metaverse.

However, what traditional game companies argue is that the NFT market is just a means of “making money”. The concern is with the overvaluation of items originally sold for a low price by the developers.

When ‘Neopet’, a virtual pet-raising game, introduced the NFT, some gamers filed an online protest against it in October.

“It’s an attempt to make money easily and, in essence, harness users’ interest in the brand,” said Kenny Sable, who led the initiative.