Regular Video Games using Bitcoin Payouts are on their Way

The gaming industry is in a constant state of growth this past couple of decades. Today, it has surpassed the movie industry in terms of profit, which was seen in the 1990’s as a far-off possibility. Yet, it came to fruition a lot sooner than anybody suspected or forecasted.

Now, the same growth and development are ongoing, arguably with an every-rising pace when all gaming platforms are taken into consideration. The development is particularly interesting in the terms of not just the technology it takes in, but also the business concepts that are finding their way into the industry. In these terms, the field of video game development is probably the most dynamic one in the whole IT ecosystem.

Soon, a new addition to that development process will appear and it comes in a form that merges tech, and business, but also as a brand-new model of promotion. Here are the details about this development and also how it interacts with the field of cryptocurrencies, with which it is tightly connected.

The Upcoming GMO Internet Group Game

A video game is being developed by the Japanese company GMO Internet group. GMO has been around digital and online tech for some time and their new project is a bold experiment that will be closely watched by people both from the gaming and cryptocurrency industries.

Currently, GMO is finishing its development of a mobile app that will allow users to earn BTC by doing nothing more than regularly playing games. The company announcements this just a few days ago and naturally, a lot of individuals from inside of the industry, as well as outside of it, are full of questions.

The GMO announcement stated that the app will be called CryptoShips and it will be integrated into a real-time strategy called Whimsical War. In it, the players will compete using territorial battles, so it is most likely going to be a massively multiplayer online game. Releases like Clash of Clans or Clash of Kings have a similar appeal and they have been very successful for a range of years.

Of course, the biggest catch is the idea that the players will be provided bitcoin as a reward inside of the game. This means that they will earn it by playing and doing things like increasing their rankings and advance through in-game missions.

CryptoShips Mechanics

GMO Internet was determined to explain that the CryptoShips app will not be employing the so-called on-device mining. In other words, the game will not be a front for a distributed cryptocurrency operation. That idea is nothing new and there have been many moments when organizations tried, openly or covertly, to use the processing power of users’ devices to mine a particular cryptocurrency.

In this case, nothing of the sorts will take place. Instead, CryptoShips will provide the reward for playing directly to the users. The company began its own mining operations back in December 2017, along with other companies that branched out at that time.

At the same time, GMO Internet has also announced that their cloud mining service will start working before the end of August 2018. It is clear that the company has great plans for the end of the summer and all of them involve bitcoin in some shape or form.

GMO Plans

The company stated that their hope is that this game will encourage its players and the wider public to get acquainted with the idea of cryptocurrency. The reason for this is that once they get the app and start playing it, they will need a digital wallet to receive and then use BTC. With it, they will be able to join millions around the world who employ bitcoin to bet online, purchase goods and services online and do so much more.

GMO Internet also stated that the company might include support for different cryptocurrencies, aside from the BTC. However, they stated that this will happen in the future and no precise timeline was set.

The announcement comes only a week after the company stated that it is launching the 7nb bitcoin mining chipset, the first ever created for the market. GMO Internet expects that the chip will begin to be shipped out at the end of October 2018.

A New Precedent

The role of cryptocurrency inside of gaming has been thrown around for some time now. In the whole ecosystem, there were plenty of showcases of it being used, like for example eSports competitions using cryptocurrency to pay out its competitors.

But the thing that GMO Internet is doing is something on a completely new level. Essentially, this is a new means of marketing for the gaming audience. Instead of paying an agency for a marketing campaign that has its prices for both acquisition and retention, this time the company will not use any of that.

Instead, it will rely on media coverage that will naturally come (it already came) following something so different like the Whimsical War. After that initial burst of promotion, which is completely free, the app will utilize word-of-mouth information spreading.

There is little doubt that the global gaming audience or even Japanese consumers, will go crazy about a game that pays them to play. In many ways, this is the evolution of the free-to-play concept where the monetization went through voluntary payments of in-game transactions. Undoubtedly, the GMO Internet game will include the same option and this is how the game makers will actually produce a profit. But, the underlying bitcoin payouts concept is still brilliant.

The Future of Pay-for-Players

The crucial factor in the whole setup of this in-game payment app is the fact that it uses cryptocurrency for its transaction. This will allow GMO Internet and any other company that plans to introduce this pay-for-players concept to pay out very small sums.

A single bitcoin token can be divided into a fraction of a single USD cent, so it does offer a level of flexibility when it comes to scaling. In a very competitive market for gaming, where marketing costs for a single player acquisition can be in tens if not hundreds of USD, many companies will be interested in this option. The question is whether or not is it sustainable, but in the next year or two, the pay-for-players concept will definitely find its place in the gaming industry.