When P2E games were first introduced, it appeared they would dominate the market. However, their success has not been as predicted. There are various factors contributing to the slow growth of P2E games.
- Lack of familiarity with the technology
In order to make gamers feel comfortable with the concept of blockchain gaming, P2E needs to onboard them by making it easy for them to get started. There should be no need to buy expensive NFTs or set up a crypto wallet before being able to start a game. In other words, mass adoption is still far away with these conditions.
2. Weak integration
Many blockchain games build on their own unique platforms and blockchain infrastructures. This makes it difficult to integrate with existing gaming communities. However, many firms who invested in the metaverse try to achieve this. They are looking for ways that an NFT is interoperable on various blockchains.
For example, your avatar should be able to move around in various games. These games can call their home on a variety of blockchains. Venly is a company that offers the Venly NFT ring. It gives you perks and benefits in a growing list of Web3 games. For instance, in The Sandbox or Vulcan Forged. Another company working on a solution for interoperability is the DeHorizon Foundation. They are building their DeVerse game. Over time, their metaverse should cooperate with other games.
3. High transaction fees
There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to fees on the Ethereum blockchain. For example, Axie Infinity increased the transaction fee in March 2022. This caused a backlash from users, who were not happy about this. Add to this gas fees, and it can become expensive. In May 2022, Ethereum gas fees ranged from $9 to $50. After the Merge on Ethereum, they dropped to $3 to $5.
On the other hand, Immutable X charges no fees for minting or trading NFTs. However, they do charge a 2% protocol fee. You pay this fee for every transaction on their platform’s orderbook. They are integrating their orderbook in as many NFT marketplaces as possible.
4. Sophisticated game mechanisms
Starting with games that are more complex and relying more on the earning mechanic, blockchain games may be difficult for new players to understand and navigate. It is important to keep the fun and challenge aspects of the game while making it easy to get started. Some popular games that use this approach include Star Atlas and Cryptokitties.
5. No scalability
Some games run on the Ethereum blockchain, but it has scalability issues that make it difficult to handle high levels of usage and transactions.
One of the most popular blockchain games is Axie Infinity. They faced the same problem. So, they came up with a solution, and they built the Ronin mainnet. This is also a sidechain built on top of Ethereum. With this mainnet and the Ronin bridge, they have increased their scalability. The popularity of Axie has declined quite a bit, compared to a year ago.
