Blockchain & Gaming Series

The NBA2K Metaverse

NBA2K has been building its metaverse for years and it is perfectly positioned to crossover to an open-world on blockchain.

NBA2K has been steadily building its own basketball metaverse for years. NBA2K22’s The City on PlayStation 5 and Xbox S/X is a virtual world for gamers to spend real coins and play pickup games with their created avatars. Badges, gear, and attributes establish the metaverse social classes.

Square Enix, a leader in open-world games, is investing in blockchain and EA is planning to implement NFTs. A great migration of games to blockchain is inevitable and NBA2K is positioned brilliantly, representing a mix of RPG and sports.

“I think what the metaverse implies is what we already do…with NBA 2K and what we aim to do with upcoming titles. An opportunity to exist in that fictional world and express yourself in ways that are challenging and new and do things we can’t really do in the real world.” — Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick

My question for NBA2K is if it will adopt a blockchain metaverse model as we move into more powerful console generations. And will NFTs make their way into a NBA2K metaverse? In answering these questions, it is instructive to look at what NFTs are, the potential of what they can be, and whether or not NBA2K can ease into a play-to-earn model (benefiting gamers) and ease off the pay-to-win models (exploiting gamers) that dominate sports gaming today.

NBA2K NFTs

Firstly, non-fungible-tokens, at their essence, grant ownership rights. They are grounded in smart contracts or digital contracts. NFTs can come in many shapes and various forms, Ownership rights and usage will vary across a number of platforms but NFTs can exist outside of the art landscape where they have blown up in 2021.

Clearing the Air

It is true that NFTs currently exist in a paradoxical legal landscape. NFTs must demonstrate clear ownership rights to be valuable. If they are not designed with sound legal principles regarding ownership, their value may be misinterpreted and overstated.

The idea that a right-click can circumvent the use-case of an NFT completely misses the target. NFTs exist to establish a true owner of a digital piece of property. The NFT ownership rights can be traced back to a blockchain ledger that records all transactions, such as Ethereum, Polygon, Solana. The metadata within the file will also signify ownership and authenticity through the use of encryption. In other words, NFTs will make it easier to determine a copy or a fake from the original asset.

NBA2K can benefit from Blockchain

Why does this matter to NBA2K? NBA2K already peddles a massive in-game store in The City where gamers can spend real money on digital assets. These, in essence, are NFTs without the backing of encryption technology. The assets are not stored on a public blockchain, but on privatized 2K server. Nobody can authenticate a purchase but NBA2K. Reselling your earned and purchased in-game assets is a breach of the NBA2K code of conduct. And profiting becomes even more difficult without the confidence and backing of public authentication that a blockchain ledger provides (notwithstanding if 2K doesn’t send you a cease-and-desist legal action).

Conversely, in a metaverse built on a more open blockchain, authentication is clearer. The blockchain stores the transaction on a ledger for the public (or for members of the community) to see. Assuming NBA2K eventually moves its open world to a blockchain, buying and selling digital assets within the NBA2K metaverse thus becomes safer and more trustworthy because each transaction is recorded to the aforementioned blockchain’s immutable ledger. This opens up significant marketplace opportunities for gamers to cultivate digital assets by logging many hours of NBA2K to build up their avatars and portfolio of assets.

Still Hating on NFTs and Blockchain?

If gamers are already purchasing digital assets in-game, then why is there backlash on in-game NFTs?

First, an NFT marketplace should be done tactfully. NBA2K has been the opposite of tactful when it comes to in-game monetization. So, I understand the concern that NBA2K’s track record is not strong.

Further, the industry-standard has demonstrated a complete disregard for tact. For an example, look no further than the loot shooter, Destiny. It is an entire game built on gambling principles, where randomized items drop with every shoot and kill. These models are psychologically unhealthy as they addict gamers to seek loot drops and they encourage spending real money to land more exclusive items, oftentimes to obtain social status within the game’s online community.

The digital assets gamers currently purchase are a pure sunk cost.

Countering, a tactful NFT system may allow gamers to play to earn assets and unlockables, and to then sell digital artifacts to others gamers within that ecosystem. For NBA2K, all of the items available for purchase today can instead be re-coded as tradable NFTs.

This brings us to the play to earn model.

Play to Earn

Gamers are familiar with seasons and battle passes. We spend to have access to new rewards on an exclusive progression track. Play-to-earn models in blockchain gaming can be very comparable. An NBA2K metaverse season pass may require an initial fee upfront to enter the metaverse, boosting and stabilizing the in-game coin and economy - i.e., purchase a pass. As players progress, rewards and rare achievements can be earned, which can then be sold within the metaverse marketplace. Gamers can quite literally make money playing NBA2K with this proposed method. There are blockchain games already out there that implement this model in varying fashions.

An NBA2K move from the gamification, in-game monetization model to a more evenly distributed economic system will require a gradual transition. The revenue from in-game purchases currently drives revenues to unprecedented levels (FIFA Ultimate Teams makes billions).

The evidence is clear (Take-Two Interactive earnings reports). NBA2K practically gives away its game for free after January 1st. Just three months after launch it will be on sale everywhere. The value driver for NBA2K is the pay-to-play, in-game impulse buys that account for 67 percent of net revenue. It is a proven business model. And it is why industry giant Bungie, without shame, has built an actual “loot shooter.” It is unprecedented how much wallet-spend such game design elements capture.

NBA2K will not give up that model overnight. Especially when gamers are rejecting NFTs at the moment, largely due to a misunderstanding of what NFTs can embody.

The hate on NFTs is misplaced. A shift to a blockchain metaverse can end the pay-to-win system. This will be a welcome benefit of moving to an NFT ecosystem. And while it is true that digital scarcity is what drives costs on items, an NBA2K NFT marketplace can be designed to mitigate such exploits and “price fixing.”

While I understand the lack of trust, we can remain cautiously optimistic. These companies must adapt or die, and if the broader consumer sentiment slows its spending or moves to more democratic game design models, NBA2K will adapt.

NBA2K PFP Player Builds

If NBA2K does eventually move to a more democratic meta-ecosystem in The City, new design elements and tools can take root. PFPs could be one such asset to buy and trade within the NBA2K digital landscape.

PFPs can be described as generative, on-chain assets created autonomously by code. In the context of NBA2K, PFPs can be likened to in-game character builds, but not created by a gamer, but instead, created with NBA2K’s underlying code or automation parameters.

They are familiar. Sports gamers know them all too well. We’ve seen them in franchise modes. The games add fictional players to the game each season to fill up the annual franchise draft. They were, in essence, the core to the NCAA football dynasties for many years. NCAA gamers used to scour the country for game-generated 5-star athletes to recruit. We interacted with NCAA PFPs, made our pitches, and hoped they would sign with our schools.

A generative, PFP model on-chain would be one way NBA2K can enrich its metaverse ecosystem, opening the PFP player builds available to purchase. Doing so stimulates the meta-economy and encourages participation. For example, gamers who enter the metaverse could even be required a one-time player-build purchase, to inject liquidity into the market, stabilizing the coin, pegging it to real-world money. This also would be a financial benefit to NBA2K.

Mint Player Builds

The most critical element to an NBA2K metaverse is, in fact, user-generated player-builds. Gamers already buy and sell player builds on the web via NBA2K accounts to gain access to highly-skilled, seasoned player builds. Once the creative flows begin, players could potentially mix PFP builds with their own, producing truly unique outcomes. CryptoKitty does this with its PFP blockchain game.

In theory, for a fee, a gamer could take a couple of builds, put their attributes in the blender, in hopes to create the rarest player build on-chain to either game with or sell in the marketplace. Skill-sets, animations and attributes can be a driving factor creating unique digital assets in an NBA2K metaverse.

More intriguing is the possibility of players minting NFTs that may be a bit more unrelated to NBA basketball and more akin to world building. Clothing. Tattoos. Hair designs. Move sets. Animations. Music. Albums. Beats. The metaverse market can and will open up. All of it has the potential to be user generated, minted by the community, and traded within the metaverse.

It is a lot to think about. I do not wish to see NBA2K continue to become a loot-drop universe, commoditizing every attribute, every jump shot animation, and more. It already does, and it is one of the reasons I don’t play the game. It is a one-way relationship and a blockchain metaverse can be built in more democratic fashion.

If NBA2K can execute the commoditization of avatar creation tactfully, with balanced design elements and key benefits, the NBA2K metaverse could take 2K Basketball to unprecedented heights. Not just in gaming, but in tech altogether.

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