FTX Gaming highlights that crypto industry continues to view gamers as their “in”
The newly-announced FTX Gaming unit highlights that, in the view of crypto businesses, video games are the pathway to mainstream adoption.
This “Crypto-as-a-service” offering by FTX Gaming will help game publishers launch tokens and provide NFTs within their games. The creation of this unit games as FTX eyes off the two billion-large market of gamers. The goal is to associate crypto with one of the most popular and loved global pastimes.
“There are 2 billion+ gamers in the world who have played with and collected digital items. They can now also own them,” an FTX spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Getting the community on board
FTX does face an uphill battle to sell gamers on crypto. The biggest game publisher with active NFT projects, Ubisoft, has been met with robust criticism from both consumers and its own employees. Others, such as Team17, have been pressured into abandoning NFT projects.
Companies bringing crypto into gaming remain bullish on the opportunity, however. They believe – and FTX is counting on this – that early resistance will fade as more projects prove themselves. Current player concerns, meanwhile, is the environmental cost of crypto, and the potential for crypto to over-monetise games.
The games industry only needs one breakaway hit featuring crypto to turn the resistance around. Historically the games community has been averse to new ideas. Once one example becomes a well-regarded, breakaway success, the community tends to warm to the idea.
With FTX Gaming, FTX is hoping to latch on to the early mover advantage.
