Play-to-earn (P2E) gaming has introduced a new paradigm in the video game industry, blending traditional gameplay with blockchain technology. This model aims to give players more agency and potential financial benefits.
In traditional games, developers create and maintain the game world, while players pay for access and in-game purchases. P2E games shift this dynamic by allowing players to earn digital assets with real-world value through their in-game activities and contributions.
The play-to-earn crypto games model presents opportunities for players to monetize their time and skills within game ecosystems while playing blockchain games. These game assets can often be traded, bought, or sold on various platforms or on a game’s marketplace.
While playing to earn games opens up new possibilities, it’s important to approach it realistically. The ability to earn in-game rewards and get a significant income varies widely depending on factors such as game popularity, player skill, time investment, and market conditions. As with any emerging technology, potential risks and challenges should be considered alongside the potential benefits.
Source: Freepik
Play-to-earn games are crypto games where players can potentially earn rewards in the form of in game assets with real-world value. While earning money from gaming isn’t new (e.g., gold farming, item trading), blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have introduced new possibilities in this space.
Source: Freepik
As with any investment or new technology, it’s crucial to approach the play-to-earn gaming industry with caution and thorough research. The long-term sustainability and widespread adoption of crypto games remain to be seen.
Source: Freepik
In short, play-to-earn games reward active players with in-game tokens when they complete activities such as winning battles, completing quests, or breeding their in-game characters.
Later, the in-game currency can be traded for NFTs or other cryptocurrencies. This is a huge part of GameFi infrastructure.
Play-to-earn games come with many incentives, so the players keep playing them endlessly. Besides its monetary rewards, play-to-earn games have also gained popularity for the NFTs generated in the game’s digital world, with some NFTs gaining value outside the game and delivering passive income for early investors.
Source: Freepik
There are two ways to invest in play-to-earn games: in their early-stage development phase and as a player.
To invest in a play-to-earn game development project in its development phase, you can participate in the Initial Game Offering of a particular project and buy the game’s native token. IGOs take place on launchpads like GamesPad, where you can join the most profitable play-to-earn gaming industry through a secure platform.
As a player, you’ll be investing in the game when you buy in-game tokens and assets such as virtual land, virtual real estate, digital creatures, and others, to start playing, or if it’s a free-to-play game, you’ll be helping to increase the token value by moving it in the game.
Taunt Battleworld is a fighting game simulator developed by industry veterans from Amazon, EA, and Unity. The game is set in a dystopian Earth transformed into “Battleworld” by ancient deities.
Key features:
The game appears to blend elements of traditional fighting games with a unique narrative backdrop. As with any game, potential players should research gameplay mechanics, monetization models, and user reviews before engaging.
Outer Ring is a vast sci-fi multiplayer game set in a diverse galaxy. The game’s ecosystem features a rich variety of planets, asteroids, and dungeons, each with unique characteristics and resources.
These areas are organized into tiers, which determine the available resources and the level of challenge players face.
The game offers both regular PvP combat and specialized arena battles, including 3v3 matches and large-scale conflicts. Special events featuring mini-games and interactive scenarios add variety to the gameplay experience.
Crafting is a key element in Outer Ring, allowing players to create equipment, vehicles, and ships using various materials.
The game distinguishes between raw and processed materials, with the latter being tradable and more versatile in their use. Materials are categorized into tiers based on their rarity and difficulty to obtain.
The game world is inhabited by five species – Earthlings, Va’ans, Oracles, Scavengons, and Mechs – divided into four factions vying for control over planets and resources in the virtual worlds.
Instead of traditional character classes, Outer Ring employs a skill-based system where players can specialize in various abilities. Players collect trading items, earn tokens, and upgrade their NFTs by engaging in activities like mining and crafting.
Weapons in Outer Ring come in various types, from handguns to heavy weapons, each with different rarities and tiers that affect their attributes. The game also features a similar system for armor, which comes in light, medium, and heavy variants.
Outer Ring offers a complex, player-driven economy with diverse gameplay options. As with any game, potential players should research current player experiences and reviews before investing time or resources.
MetaFighter is an innovative blockchain-based fighting game that aims to create a comprehensive “fighting metaverse.” This virtual world is designed to attract fighting game enthusiasts, offering them a space to hone their skills, compete, and potentially earn financial rewards.
The game’s world is populated with various arenas, represented as non-fungible tokens, which can be owned by individual players or communities. These arenas serve as the battlegrounds for matches, tournaments, and competitions, where players can host events, compete for prize pools and earn crypto, and establish their reputation within the MetaFighter community.
A unique aspect of MetaFighter is the organic evolution of NFT fighters during gameplay.
This feature allows for a highly personalized blockchain gaming experience, as each fighter can be customized and developed in unique ways. Furthermore, players can rent out their trained fighters to others, creating opportunities for passive income through wagered bouts.
Central to the MetaFighter ecosystem is the MF token, which serves multiple purposes within the game.
Players can wager these tokens in fights, with the victor claiming the bounty, adding an extra layer of excitement and real-world value to each match.
The MF token can also be staked for rewards, including new Fighter NFTs that players can train and level up. Additionally, simply holding MF tokens in a wallet accelerates the experience gains for a player’s roster of fighters.
This combination of NFT true ownership, skill-based gameplay, and the game’s native token economics aims to create an engaging and potentially rewarding play-to-earn experience for players.
Penguin Karts is an innovative play-to-earn crypto game that combines racing and battle mechanics. Built on the Fantom network, this play-to-earn game utilizes NFT assets and the game’s native token, PGK, to create an engaging and potentially rewarding experience for players.
The core gameplay revolves around action-packed races where players compete to finish first while using various weapons and tactics to outmaneuver their opponents.
This competitive environment is enhanced by the potential to earn in-game assets at the end of each race, adding an extra layer of excitement compared to traditional racing games.
Penguin Karts features two primary types of NFT assets: custom kart skins and weapons. The developers aim to collaborate with popular brands to create unique kart skins, potentially increasing player engagement and the value of these NFTs.
Weapons, which players can acquire during races, include a variety of imaginative items like slippery fish, freeze rays, and fish skeleton missiles, each offering different strategic advantages.
An interesting aspect of Penguin Karts is its spectator betting system. Players who aren’t actively racing can participate by placing bets on their favorite racers. This offers them an opportunity to earn rewards from the betting pool if their chosen racer wins. This feature adds depth to the play-to-earn game ecosystem and provides additional ways for users to engage with the platform.
Plant vs Undead (PVU) is one of the best crypto games set in a world called Planet Plants. The game’s premise revolves around a once-peaceful planet now under threat from zombies that arrived via a meteor from outer space. Players are tasked with protecting their “mother tree,” which is crucial for the planet’s survival.
The gameplay involves strategic use of eight different plants to combat the undead invaders. Players can deploy these plants in various arrangements, allowing for unique strategies to achieve the best outcomes in each battle. The play-to-earn crypto game is designed to be accessible on multiple devices, featuring multiple rounds of attack in each session.
One of the game’s key features is the ability to grow seeds into special plants. These plants can possess inherent traits that enhance their combat effectiveness against the undead army.
The seed system adds depth to the game, as players can cultivate a range of plants from common varieties to rare specimens with special attack features.
PVU, the game’s native token, plays a central role in the play-to-earn aspect of Plant vs Undead. Players can earn PVU tokens by winning battles and participating in events. In each game mode, players earn rewards in the form of the game’s native token, and all players can participate in all modes. Additionally, defeating waves of undead enemies produces varying amounts of PVU rewards.
Gods Unchained is one of the most successful crypto-playing games. This free-to-play online trading digital cards game resembles Magic: The Gathering Arena. Described as the trading card game that “pays to play,” Gods Unchained is revolutionizing traditional gaming commerce, where players typically purchase the game and in-game items without the possibility of reselling them.
In Gods Unchained, players earn tokens, which serve as a payment method throughout the game. Rare digital cards hold unique real-world value as they can be sold for GODS, which can then be converted into fiat currency.
This model provides players with more incentive to play, as they have full ownership of the valuable assets they accumulate over time.
The play-to-earn crypto game was first announced in 2018 with the sale of its first mythic card. Since then, it has sold millions of cards, raised $15 million in Series A funding, and launched its first season.
The game is rapidly gaining popularity, alongside other NFT and crypto-based games that attract players interested in earning while having fun.
Gods Unchained operates similarly to other play-to-earn games, featuring its own version of in-game currency like “gold” or “credits.”
While cryptocurrencies gain wider adoption, the game’s popularity is surging, with increasing numbers of players and sales each month.
Effective promotion through ranked events and tournaments has contributed to its success. Additionally, it plans to release a mobile version of the game aim to expand its reach to the audience who prefer mobile devices.
Gala is a web3 ecosystem powered by its own layer-1 blockchain, GalaChain, originally created to support Gala Games, Gala Music, and Gala Film. Recently, GalaChain has expanded to welcome external developers and projects from various industries, offering open-source developer resources to streamline the development process.
Gala’s mission is to empower users and creators worldwide, with the ambitious goal of becoming the first blockchain to reach one billion users. By utilizing open-source tools like the GalaChain SDK and Creator Portal, innovators can easily extend web3 benefits to their users and communities.
GalaChain enables developers to elevate their projects to web3 by creating custom tokens, smart contracts, reward systems, and node networks for their communities. Assets built on GalaChain can be bridged to other blockchains such as Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
The core of GalaChain is powered by its DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) of Founder’s Nodes. Operators of these nodes earn daily $GALA rewards for their contributions to the ecosystem and have governance voting rights on key Gala decisions. Additionally, individual projects can establish their own node networks on GalaChain with specific workloads tailored to their needs.
Illuvium is an open-world fantasy play-to-earn crypto game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Often hailed as the first AAA game on Ethereum, Illuvium aims to entertain both casual gamers and hardcore DeFi enthusiasts through its diverse collecting and trading features.
In the world of Illuvium, players encounter creatures known as Illuvials, which can be captured by defeating them in battle and nursing them back to health. Once captured, these creatures become loyal members of the player’s collection and can be used in battles against other adventurers in the game’s auto battler mode.
The game blends open-world exploration with PVP battles, allowing players to explore the game’s vast world or build and strengthen their team of powerful creatures.
Developed since 2020 by a global team of over 40 individuals, Illuvium was co-founded by brothers Kieran Warwick, a serial entrepreneur and early cryptocurrency adopter, and Aaron Warwick, an experienced game designer. They are also brothers of Kain Warwick, co-founder of the DeFi platform Synthetix.
The ILV token plays a central role in the Illuvium ecosystem. It rewards players for their in-game achievements, gives them a share in the Illuvium Vault, and allows them to participate in the game’s ecosystem governance through the Illuvium decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
GamesPad is a launchpad and game incubator that focuses on gaming, NFTs, and metaverse-related crypto projects and crypto games. We are continuously doing diligent research to find the best projects for our community, ensuring that the deals are legitimate and secure.
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Without any doubt, play-to-earn games are at the center stage of the cryptocurrency world right now. GamesPad is continuously looking for the best emerging P2E games so our community can always have the opportunity to invest in the most promising and profitable projects.
Would you like to start investing in the most impactful crypto gaming, NFT, and metaverse projects with GamesPad? Learn how in this comprehensive tutorial!
Disclaimer. This material should not be construed as a basis for making investment decisions or as a recommendation to participate in investment transactions. Trading digital assets may involve significant risks and can result in the loss of invested capital. Therefore, you must ensure that you fully understand the risk involved, consider your level of experience, investment objectives, and seek independent financial advice if necessary.
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