Decentralized NFT gaming: the future of gaming in Africa
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are more than simply collectibles. It has progressed beyond that and is now a driving force behind the transformation of traditional system processes. It is now undergoing rapid expansion, with a market capitalization of $840 million. Its markets are also saturated with enthusiasts for several reasons, one of which is the gaming industry.
NFTs have profoundly altered the structure of the gaming industry. Decentralization has steadily supplanted centralized control and dominance in gaming. As an alternative to typical centralized control servers, several NFTs development companies create excellent decentralized NFT Gaming services.
The gaming industry is today worth over $300 billion, and the quick rise of mobile gaming has attracted about 500 million new players to the industry over the last three years.
The introduction of NFTs in the gaming business has dramatically transformed the gaming community’s workflow and features. Gamers in a decentralized gaming industry have the flexibility to play in the form of play for profit and will be reimbursed for it. Because of the NFTs, the assets in the games are also tradable. Clothing, armament, and a variety of other gaming assets may be sold in NFTs marketplaces, allowing gamers to profit from their gaming assets.
In the decentralized world, you can make money by purchasing and selling in-game NFTs or playing to earn in-game cryptocurrencies on sites like Binance Play-to-Earn. In the first scenario, users produce and sell unique in-game NFT goods to other players for crypto or fiat on a marketplace. Players are rewarded with in-game crypto assets in the second scenario, which can be used to buy more in-game content or swapped for fiat and other digital currencies. In Africa, video gaming is widely seen as a frivolous activity that leads to mediocrity, making it unfit for serious persons. Because of this attitude, African gamers could only play these games in gaming centers, barbershops, and cybercafés.
Thankfully, video gaming has developed in recent years as more Africans have been involved in the industry. Gamers may now play games on their mobile phones and laptops with ease.
The growth of the gaming business in Africa is continually on the rise. The number of video gamers on the continent has more than doubled in the past five years, with South Africa leading the way.
According to data from a 2021 study commissioned by games analytics company Newzoo and Carry 1st, the number of gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 77 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2021, with South Africa leading the continent with 24 million gamers, accounting for 40% of its population, followed by Ghana and Nigeria at 27% and 23% respectively.
The World Bank and the African Development Bank project the number of mobile phone users in Africa to increase to 650 million people by 2022. The Covid-19 epidemic and rising digitalization across Africa were listed as the key causes for the bulk of the playing population (95 percent) being mobile gamers.
To take advantage of blockchain technology, game developers are incorporating new elements such as ownership (which allows players to own characters and assets within the game).
Usiku Games Africa, a social impact gaming firm established in Kenya, is leading the way in the country’s new era of blockchain gaming, so that the country’s tech-savvy youngsters may profit as the gaming industry grows.
With the advent of GameFi, a new path in the crypto industry that combines the greatest features of gaming with decentralized finance, players can now participate in the game and earn NFT and cryptocurrency incentives that they can cash out for a profit.
Chike Okonkwo, co-founder and business development lead at Gamic Guild in a chat with TheOuut described Gamefi as “a marriage between crypto finance and gaming.”
“Gamefi is the most used case of NFTs currently and with what we are seeing recently, a lot of games are now allowing gamers to earn not just tokens but NFTs,” he explained.
He equally looked at the African Gaming Ecosystem – where it was some years ago and where it is at the moment, “Five years ago people saw gamers as time-wasters, while some of the gamers themselves saw it as a way to have fun. The idea of playing games online and making money in the process was not popular but now the narrative is changing. The gaming industry is now worth billions in dollars. Currently, it is projected to be worth$23billion in 2023. Africa is not going to take the backstage this time around, although we are more on the consuming side, more developers are building games daily,” he added
On the gains of decentralized gaming platforms for Africans, Okonkwo enumerated, “more career opportunities, it will impact the economy positively because of the inflow of money, people will make more disposable incomes, jobs would be created, people would leverage the technology to build more companies, more revenue for the government, we will begin to play on a level playing field. It will give stakeholders the courage to explore more opportunities that it has to offer.”
According to Chike, access to playing devices like consuls, PC, and mobile phones will help deepen access to the gaming ecosystem because without these devices one cannot play these games.
For people looking to break into the gaming industry, Chike advised that they should “take the process to learn, there is no quick way to make money in the industry, or become a great gamer, try and understand how to make this money, have fun while doing it. While for the gaming companies, he added that they should make more games that are user friendly, and interesting and give people better opportunities to earn better income.
With the global crypto gaming market reported to have made $321 million worth of revenue in 2020, 80 percent of gamers with crypto accounts are eager to utilize digital currency for gaming purchases, with 67 percent wishing for the opportunity to use cryptocurrency in gaming.
Conclusively, rather than dishing out obnoxious policies by the central banks of the respective African countries, more welcoming and friendly policies will usher in a disruptive crypto era that will transform financing in the ever-increasingly digital African continent. The crypto platforms bypass traditional banking services by introducing decentralized peer-to-peer lending services. It will also help level the economic playing field and expand finance options to underserved customer markets, as well as reduce financing gaps for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME), sectors to facilitate the transfer of remittances.
The decentralized gaming platforms might be all that is needed to address the army of unemployed youths on the continent, which will go a long way in reducing insecurities and social vices that are currently affecting some of the countries.