Games that integrate NFTs have a natural edge on traditional games that don’t allow users to sell their in-game items, says Polygon’s vice president of global business development for gaming Urvit Goel.
He believes the traditional business model that NFT games are competing against may be inherently weaker. Users in traditional gaming typically buy in-game items with real money. However, they cannot sell those items to get back any US dollar value. In the GameFi space, users can purchase items as NFTs and sell them when they are done playing. Goel described the traditional model as “money in, no money out”. He emphasized that gamers should be able to take back at least some of the dollar value they put into a game.
Goel wants to give users the ability to own the content they are buying. If the user wants to sell it, and if they want to keep it, great, and if they get a penny back out, it’s better than nothing. The executive perceived clear signs that traditional game publishers are gearing up for big pushes into GameFi. This starts with South Korea’s gaming giant Nexon which owns the MapleStory title. In June, the company announced that it would put a version of its flagship title on chain as MapleStory N. Polygon is in collaboration with South Korea’s Neowiz for new and existing titles on chain.
Goel believes the entrance of such large companies is creating a little bit of a domino effect in the industry. This suggests that they are still innovative. The Polygon executive says bosses of big firms entering the blockchain space must have a great deal of confidence in the technology, or they would not be up for the top-tier titles for GameFi. Goel said the developers don’t have to come on blockchain to have successful businesses. They are making hundreds of millions of revenue in traditional web teaming.
