Despite a year of change and some successes, there are still challenges facing the blockchain gaming industry.
One of the most prominent challenges is having blockchain technology reach mainstream audiences. Adoption within the wider gaming ecosystem would play a huge part in the growth of blockchain gaming.
As part of the Blockchain Game Alliance, a report was shared that surveyed members of the group. Within the report, the challenges that face the blockchain industry were touched upon. These challenges will shape much of what the industry is facing in 2023.
Blockchain gaming challenges
User adoption is still a major hurdle for the blockchain gaming industry. Of the respondents, 51% believe that player onboarding accessibility is the biggest challenge facing the industry. The second highest factor, 37.2% deemed that poor gameplay was an issue. This is up from being the fifth most cited challenge back in 2021.
The third most commonly cited challenge was that blockchain gaming concepts are not fully understood by market participants. A big shift between 2021 and 2022 regarding the challenges within the industry was related to regulatory uncertainty. In 2021 this issue was deemed the biggest challenge facing the industry for more than half of respondents. In 2022 however, this concern dropped to ninth place.
A huge issue with onboarding stems from the gaming experience itself. Blockchain games still need to be good games and if the quality is low, players won’t stick around. Some blockchain games require the user to go through complicated sign-up processes and feature pricey payments to get started, which means some potential players will walk away before they even truly get started. With the industry becoming more aware of these issues developers can start to look at ways to attract players and keep them engaged. More positive experiences could then attract wider adoption.
Misconceptions and negative impact
Despite some positive awareness and projects within the industry, many misconceptions still surround the space. In 2022, the majority of respondents, 69.5%, said the biggest misconception about blockchain games is that they are a scam. This number is up from the previous year of 59%. More than one-third, 37.4% also said that blockchain games not being fun is also a common misconception. Respondents also noted that another misconception was that blockchain harms the environment.
The crypto winter has played a huge part in blockchain over the past year. With 30% of respondents saying that it had caused the most negative impact on the industry. In addition to this, 27.7% said that fear, uncertainty, and doubt is now their leading challenge at the organisational level. This uncertainty may partly stem from the difficult year crypto faced in 2022 with investor doubt rising due to events such as the fall of FTX.
A further 21% pointed to global macroeconomics as having the worst impact on blockchain gaming. With a changing economy and one that is for many, still trying to recover from the impact of Covid many are still facing difficult times. However, only 9% believe that NFTs being banned from traditional games and platforms is a setback for the industry overall.
Many of the issues noted in the report also resonate with traditional gaming. Therefore the issues that face blockchain gaming are similar to what experienced developers will have faced before. While it’s clear there are still some challenges to face, the blockchain gaming industry is showing greater awareness of which battles it needs to fight.