News hardware Xbox decides on Play to Earn (P2E) and Metaverse issues
Published on 08/27/2022 at 17:40
Since the appearance of concepts such as the metaverse or Play to Earn (play to win) several companies from multiple sectors have already made arrangements for web3. In the gaming industry, the subject is particularly thorny… After steam, Epic Games or even Ubisoft, it is up to the Xbox console giant to issue an opinion on these innovations.
Definitely, the 3D virtual world project dear to the eyes of Mark Zuckerberg is the subject of debate by the majority. After the boss of Ethereum and the Twitter sphere among others, the subject of the metaverse is also of interest to Xbox.
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox Game Studios, recently communicated his vision of things concerning the famous metaverse. According to him, even if the concept remains misunderstood by some players, the metaverse has existed for a long time, particularly in the form of a massively multiplayer license like World Of Warcraft.
“My take on the Metaverse is that gamers have been in it for 30 years. When you play games like World of Warcraft, Roblox…everyone is in a shared world,” says Phil Spencer.
The metaverse being defined primarily as a social virtual space in 3D, World of Warcraft has effectively ticked several boxes of the metaverse since 2004. Through the possibilities of social interactions and its exclusive economy, Wow has been able to found a real community for which the virtual world in 3D has become almost palpable. Because of this, Phil Spencer considers World Of Warcraft a metaverse pioneer and possibly even the first Play to Earn game.
Xbox boss is cautious regarding play to earn (P2E)
By taking advantage of the blockchain (technology behind cryptomonaies) to experiment with new gaming experiences, play-to-earn (playing to win) is a new form of gameplay that is tending to establish itself in the video game sector in the long term. . Concretely, these games boosted with cryptocurrencies and NFTs allow players to obtain real gains in exchange for their time and their performance in the game.
In gaming, these innovations linked to the blockchain do not only have followers, as evidenced by the recent position taken by the boss of Xbox. Although Phil Spencer is enthusiastic regarding the idea of the metaverse, this one is less so for Play to Earn.
“Playing to win, in particular, is something I’m cautious regarding. It creates a work force among players, which some players kind of monetize.” says Phil Spencer at Bloomberg.
A position that echoes his first cautious intervention regarding NFTs in video games:
“What I would say today regarding NFTs, on balance, is that I think there’s a lot of speculation and experimentation going on, and some of the creations that I see today seem like more focused on exploitation rather than entertainment.”
For him, video games must remain a space of leisure and not a way of working at home by exploiting any license – a legitimate position, nevertheless if we look closer, part of the video game industry has already been the subject of a kind of concept for several years, well before the arrival of the play to earn concept.
As an example, games like World of Warcraft, Counter Strike and so many others have generated an economy parallel to gameplay. Whether selling virtual currency or skins, several companies have created a tangible financial model by exploiting these licenses.
For this reason, one can legitimately wonder whether the addition of blockchain technology in certain games might provide a more secure framework for parallel economies. If the rewards received belong to you and can be redeemed for cash, in particular thanks to NFT technology, as the digital owner, you can store these “consumables” outside the game and resell them as you wish. Epic Games or even Ubisoft already seem to leave room for this game model in the future.
