Play to earn is not coming ; it is already here, do you aim to listen to the gaming audience globally?
Play to earn is not coming ; it is already here, do you aim to listen to the gaming audience globally?
Doing a game require lot of empathy. Customer centric, product oriented are things we keep earring and that makes the beauty of the game. Listening to the audience is something all developers always remind me of and I would like to think this is not only for developed markets but also for emerging economies where play-to-earn is booming.
Empowered by a better mobile equipment rate and the rise of the 5G ; the gaming market is expanding. Today we observe the rise of play to earn successful games ; a new audience from new strategic emerging countries enjoying this new model. Globally, more people now have a say in our global economy and even if you may not enjoy the same game as they do, players are king and queens. So, should developper listen to this audience or continue to work with the same markets and in-game economies ?
Play to earn model is successful : Axie infinity example.
If you take for Axie infinity ; a game that generated more than 16 millions $ where the main audience is in those country, you notice according to chaindebrief :
Axie infinity retention rate :
-D1 is close to 60%
-D7 is close to 50%
Gaming overall :
-D1 30%
-D7 10%
According to finder. com.authe NFTs owner market represent a big share in APAC, UAE and LATAM countries where developer has always been struggling to monetize.
The Philippines has the most NFT owners (32%) out of the 20 countries compared, followed by Thailand (27%), Malaysia (24%), the UAE (23%) and Vietnam (17%). On the other end of the spectrum, Japan has the smallest percentage of Internet users with NFTs (2%), followed by the UK and the US (3% each), Germany (4%), Australia (5%) and Canada (6%).
The first obvious insight you can get -depending on who you are reading those line- is that you are not the audience or your core audience is not this one and this is fine.
If you are currently not monetizing your free-to-play game into those market ; axie infinity is. Learning from them might represent a market opportunity for you but you won’t be able to succeed without listening to your audience ; especially in this web3 economy where using a play to earn model might help you to shine.
Retention is the main KPIs all developer always worked on. Anyone who already built a game know that retention is often function of great monetization and also show the user interest toward your game.
Like it or not numbers show that this Pokémon-inspired RPG game did generated revenue and a better retention than any game exploring those market with a basic free to play model. And even if you may find the mechanics of those games weak or the design terrible ; numbers show it is working.
So why play to earn is emerging ?
The general environment of our world is changing and it includes the broad economic, legal-political, social-cultural, demographic conditions. Those criteria do affect your organization as gaming companies are global and really close to people.
If getting 500$ from a game means nothing for you ; it is actually something that can unlock opportunities for people to live in better conditions in some parts of the world and can even be above the minimum salary you can reach. This is even often more than the minimum wage that you can have in some countries.
Indeed base on business insider you can actually rent a two bedroom flat for around 500$ in India, Malaysia, Philippines
Source : https://countryeconomy.com/national-minimum-wage
But web3 games are not all about money ; it is first about people.
The play-to-earn model is built by the community and not by your product team and this may be the main thing that will make many brands fail.
If we take axie infinity example once again; the way to earn money is strongly community oriented :
1/ to play the game and earn SLP (smooth love potions) that can be traded against ETH as each SLP is represented by a erc-20 token.
2/ Breeding and selling your axies to the new player who want to enter in the game.
Web3 is about creating something people can relate and trust. People provide trust beyond each other and create this feeling of longevity needed from the start. Enhance why really often you do not sell at first ; you first build your project and communities. Jam city is actually doing it pretty well with Champions Ascension with leaks and many others warm up even before anything is sold.
Some questions I often see on the Twitter space:
What’s your project ? What this unlock for me as utilities ? On which crypto your project is built ? What is your discord size ? What is your website ? What is your product timeline ?
All those reflect how decentralized those games are. People and gamer involve in those games want to make it theirs and trust you prior they invest.
To conclude…
To conclude, I am excited about those new way of empowering people and making them play the way they want and provide them new opportunities.Think about Uber ; Uber gets no taxis but they are one of the most successful for taxis. Airbnb is the same ; they do not have any hotels. This time your game should be built by your community and this is what play to earn mean and that’s how those numbers can be explained even beyond the monetary aspect. Inclusivity is key in the dao ecosystem and people have a voice and control where the project goes
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