Welcome to the second part of our series “Renting & Lending NFTs” where we will give you an overview of NFT rentals & gaming!
Over the decades, game items have evolved from simple power-ups like the Super Mario mushroom to game assets like weapons, armor, or even weapon skins.
In addition to the game developers’ desire to add more tactical complexity to the game through items and to generate revenue through microtransactions, there was also the players’ desire to have more control over these items to better optimize their characters, whether through collecting or trading items.
We have already covered this revolution of game assets very in-depth in this article.
In recent years, this has led to an extreme increase in the number of different game items and, in some cases, unfair microtransactions from the player’s point of view.
With the rise of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity, the gaming industry is undergoing another major upheaval for the first time after the dominance of free-to-play games.
In the following, we will explain the different gaming NFTs, their use cases and why NFT rentals will become so important for the gaming industry.
I. What type of gaming NFTs exist
Simply put: Everything that exists as an item in the traditional gaming world can and will also exist in the gaming world of Web3.
This starts with the virtual land itself and ends with game items like sneakers or swords.
Overview of the existing game NFTs:
- Playable Characters
- In-Game Items (Weapons, armor)
- Virtual Land
- Mounts (Cars, Horses, etc.)
- Wearables & Virtual Fashion
a) Playable Characters
Playable characters are possibly the most fundamental variant of gaming NFTs. Similar to classic MMOs like World of Warcraft or action games like Assassins Creed, you slip into the role of a character, a car, or any other playable character that you’ll own as an NFT!
In the NFT game Rumble Kong League, for example, you need a Rumble Kong NFT to compete with two other players in a 3v3 against other teams.
In addition, these NFTs can be used outside of the actual game in worlds such as the Sandbox, making them fully interoperable!
b) In-Game Items
In addition to these, there are also in-game items such as weapons, armor, or even power-ups that can help you to conquer and master the game.
The item below is an “Extra Crystal” card that will give players an extra crystal, allowing them to put higher-costing cards before the opponent.
The number of in-game items will become endless — Characters will be customizable in every imaginable way!
c) Virtual Land
The concept of virtual land is also very familiar to most gamers.
Games such as Sims or Minecraft had as a game concept the construction and use of a certain, sometimes limited area on which buildings, shops, and much more could be created.
With NFTs, for the first time, players can actually establish real ownership of these virtual lands — Owners can build, sell, or even rent virtual offices, stores, or even advertising space on their virtual properties.
Imagine owning property in the most famous locations of the well-known games..the Gates of Ironforge, Varrock Square in Runescape… sounds exciting, right?
d) Mounts (Cars, Horses, etc.)
Because the metaverse is not just a small world but sometimes covers huge areas, it also requires the existence of transportation such as horses, hoverboards, or traditional vehicles like cars.
Who remembers the craze for rare mounts in MMOs?
The same phenomenon will occur in the metaverse — but this time with real ownership of these assets.
A good example of this is the Jadu Hoverboard!
e) Wearables & Virtual Fashion
Other exciting categories are Wearables & Virtual fashion!
There are already many amazing artists and companies working on creating beautiful designs and fashion for the world of Web3.
The beauty of it is that there are no limits, everything is possible and it is even resource-friendly!
As we spend more and more time online, the importance of how we present ourselves virtually will increase, making virtual fashion a huge topic for the future!
II. Why NFT rentals are a game-changer for the gaming industry.
Since there are numerous reasons why NFT rentals will change the virtual economy for the better, we will focus only on accessibility and revenue generation below.
1) Accessibility
NFT rentals go a long way in facilitating players’ access to blockchain gaming and enable them to participate without first spending large amounts of money to buy X NFT.
It’s really difficult to onboard a billion users to crypto through gaming when an asset costs $ 20 k for a plot in a future universe. That’s why accessibility plays an incredible role in the adoption of blockchain gaming.
Nick, CEO & co-founder reNFT
For this reason, NFT rentals are fundamental for the mainstream adoption of NFTs and blockchain gaming in particular!
2) Generate revenue
Another very important aspect is the generation of revenue!
For decades, gamers have been finding ways to earn money by playing games.
Be it by farming gold to sell, leveling up other players, or even selling their accounts. NFT rentals finally allow them to generate revenue with their assets — without breaking the rules of the game leading to a potential account suspension!
They are also instrumental in expanding the gaming economy into the real economy so that players can earn a living just by renting out game assets.
Until now, only the big companies were able to generate revenue from in-game microtransactions or game subscription services. With NFT rentals, it is possible for anyone who owns these digital assets to profit from them as well — leading to a democratization of the rental and subscription market within the gaming industry.
That’s it for now!
We hope this article was able to give you an overview of the most common gaming NFTs — if you want to learn more about NFT rentals & how to implement our technology, reach out to us!