Video Games and Blockchain: New Experience for Players or More Profit for Developers?

Over the past few months, a steadily increasing stream of computer games have appeared that have used cryptocurrencies in one way or another, yet despite their growing frequency only a small number of these have actually used the mechanics of Ethereum or Bitcoin to provide a decentralized gaming experience.

The majority of them could be passed off for traditional games without anyone batting an eyelid, since the use of cryptocurrencies or blockchain generally comes more as an addition to existing gameplay dynamics and genres than as a fundamental reworking of them.

Still, this continuity shows that such elements can be added seamlessly to video games without spoiling what made them fun in the first place, with puzzle games, strategy games, 2D racers, 2D platformers, and trading games proving the most popular genres so far for accommodating some kind of crypto layer.

Crypto-based games already have a modest history, even if they only became popular at the end of last year with CryptoKitties, the cat-breeding game that uses the Ethereum blockchain to trade and prove ownership of the titular crypto-cats.

For a while, there were few games designed specifically with a cryptocurrency or blockchain in mind, although 2015 finally provided a modest increase in the number of games based around offering cryptocurrencies as a reward for play or as a means of payment.

Despite CryptoKitties providing a proof-of-concept in December 2017 that blockchain and cryptocurrencies could be exploited to deliver a novel gaming experience - for example the breeding/trading of unique digital pets, the most common use of cryptocurrencies in games today still revolves around rewarding players for their gaming efforts.

Through platforms like it, the video game industry would have its initial coin offering moment, with developers being given access to a broader range of funding and financing - often from players - than they may have enjoyed in the past.

For every developer or company hoping to create a crypto-based ecosystem for games that rewards players and developers alike, there are those who simply seem to be cashing in on the prevailing crypto-hype.

One indie game offers hope that the developers of the future will occasionally have original ideas as to how cryptocurrencies can be merged with video games.

Whether the gaming industry makes good on its early promise is still an open question but with the growing prevalence and popularity of such games as CryptoKitties, AllMine, Blockchain Game, and Huntercoin, cryptocurrencies could one day become an integral part of video gaming's fabric.