5 Top Challenges NFT Games Could Face In 2022

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In 2021, NFT games became one of the most popular sectors in the crypto space. For the first time in the gaming industry, a player could invest hundreds of hours into a product, getting themselves involved in a community, exploring a digital world, and seeing their time turn into real-world rewards.

Most GameFi models are supported by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These digital assets enable users to receive unique tradable items on the native marketplace, which can be bought, sold, or exchanged with a community of players.

Conversely, NFT games have the potential to disrupt the traditional billion-dollar gaming industry as some projects promise players a voice and voting power to determine the future of the game, approve or disprove changes, and be rewarded for participating. Thus, they can be fully self-sustainable environments.

However, the new trend will need to face many challenges as it enters the mainstream and comes under the scrutiny of players themselves, investors, international authorities, and regulators. 2022 could be the year that determines whether NFT games will be a passing fad or permanent disruptor.

NFT Games v. Regulators

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under the leadership of Gary Gensler, has become more hostile towards the crypto industry. Unlike his predecessors, Gensler seems determined to obtain more regulatory jurisdiction over digital assets and the DeFi sector.

On several occasions during 2021, the regulator hinted at the possibility that most cryptocurrencies and projects are operating as unregistered securities. In addition, Gensler and other political actors have referred to the alleged dangers for investors that entered the digital asset space via DeFi, NFTs, or DAOs.

NFT Games, A Threat To The Environment?

Last year and in the past months of 2022, more gaming giants, such as Ubisoft, EA, Take-Two, Microsoft, have opened the door or directly attempted to integrate NFTs into their games. However, the majority have seen a backlash from their users.

There is a perception amongst players that NFTs are bad for the environment or are perceived as another excuse for big studios to turn the play-to-earn model into a profit only, benefiting big corporations. As NFT games enter the mainstream, big projects need to turn this negative perception into a more optimistic view.

Big studios seem determined, and most are unwilling to integrate NFT games without listening to feedback from their own communities. In the long term, the merger between traditional gaming and digital assets seems the next logical step and the fastest way to take these industries into the future of finance.

Where NFT Games Could Use Improvements

In addition to the above, NFT games will need to be able to harvest their rising popularity and economic support to provide users with a better playing experience. One of the reasons players could be less attracted to the GameFi model is due to high participation costs; minting and transacting in NFTs could be very expensive.

In that sense, NFT game projects need to find a solution for players to continue to enjoy the experience even in times of network congestion. At the same time, users will need different features, customization, appealing graphics or gameplay, a unique way to interact with an ecosystem, and an active community.

The above will require projects to provide users with incentives that show them the benefits of onboarding this new on-chain gaming model.

NFT Games, A Highway Into The Economy Of The Future

In terms of scalability, networks are building the capabilities that will let them support the millions of users coming into the sector. Ethereum, with its second layer scalability solution, Solana, Avalanche, and the Binance Smart Chain, are quickly making progress towards that direction.

Furthermore, there are projects in the crypto space tackling the other issues, such as Meta DAO Guild. This project aims at providing users and investors with a solution that seems poised to onboard millions more into the GameFi model.

Meta DAO lets players, investors, and others lease their NFTs, so other players with fewer resources can rent them without the need to inject thousands in capital. In that way, the entire gig economy becomes more dynamic. NFTs have another use case, and all players can enjoy the GameFi experience in a win-win environment for the borrowers and lenders.

The GameFi model, despite its critics and skeptics, has the potential to support a new financial model, which many have dubbed “the gig economy.” In the coming decades, the concept of a player could be very different from the one known today, with its core located on an NFT-based ecosystem.