Could the gaming world go through a transformation where gamers are paid in crypto based on performance? Where gamers no longer have to pay to play? Instead the community is so valuable that gamers now receive payment for their time? But how would such a system be economical and functional while not sacrificing the quality of the games?
Ad partnerships would be the juggernaut that drives this into reality. We already have seen ads creep into some of the bigger game titles but is this revenue enough to transform the industry into a free to play environment? Imagine game developers now competing to make the highest quality game in order to grab as big of a share of the gaming community as possible. The larger the community share one developer has, would enable larger sponsorships and in turn generate higher revenue.
A portion of this revenue would then be returned to the game's community through crypto payments to the gamers. Players would be able to use their rewards to buy special skins, buy collector items from developers, game accessories or even buy products from the sponsors. Optimally there would be one crypto widely used by many of the game developers so that players could use the same currency within multiple games.
No longer would it be beneficial for a developer to release an uncomplete game as they'd risk losing a portion of their game base. No more season passes and paid for DLC, content would be free allowing for a bigger community within each game. Developers revenue would once again be dependent on releasing quality games with replay ability rather than releasing incomplete games at full price and then charging for extra DLC.
The global gaming market size was valued at $150 billion in 2019. With manufacturing costs going down thanks to digital downloads, (although the consumer hasn't received any discount for purchasing digital and reducing developers manufacturing costs) perhaps we are reaching a point where this model or one similar has the potential to be viable. Imagine loading into a round of CoD brought to you buy a big sponsor such as McDonald's, Pepsi or Ford as examples.
While it may be years in the future before this system is feasible, I believe it's a future that's possible. Eliminating the pay to play model and implementing a play for pay system could be a gaming revolution, or not, time will tell.
