Could video games bring NFTs to the masses?

Video games could help popularise non-fungible tokens (NFT)

A year ago, NFTs were obscure virtual assets known only to tech geeks -- but as video game companies enter the growing market, industry players hope they're poised to go mainstream. 

Short for "non-fungible tokens", NFTs are digital items whose certificates of authenticity and ownership are registered on blockchains, the technology behind cryptocurrencies. 

Auction houses like Sotheby's now sell NFTs alongside oil paintings, while film director Quentin Tarantino is embroiled in a legal feud over NFTs from his cult movie "Pulp Fiction". 

"NFTs are still a niche market, but we're a really mainstream industry," Nicolas Pouard, head of blockchain initiatives at the gaming giant Ubisoft, told AFP.

Other gaming heavyweights such as Electronic Arts -- the company behind The Sims and FIFA -- as well as Take-Two and Atari have also signalled an interest in NFTs. 

- Three billion gamers -

But it's the sheer heft of the global video game industry -- now estimated to be more valuable than the movie sector -- that makes it ripe for introducing NFTs to a wider public. 

Crypto evangelists argue that concepts like blockchains -- digital ledgers that record all transactions publicly -- are already familiar to millions of people. 

Because of their broad-based popularity, analysts predict that games could significantly widen access to blockchain-based assets like NFTs and cryptocurrencies. 

Such games have generated a "positive social and economic impact for Asian and Latin American countries", insisted Franklin Ovalles, a 40-year-old NFT collector based in Miami.

A whopping $26.9 billion changed hands in NFT sales in 2021, according to blockchain research firm Chainalysis.

Most traders, however, lose money. 

Investors also need to take into account the severe volatility of the cryptocurrencies used to trade them.

"That being said, the market crash for high-priced NFTs is coming," he predicted.

"In addition to providing revenue streams from creators all over the world and eliminating barriers to access, we'll also see the NFT industry change shape to drive mass adoption," he said.

"I think NFTs will be more 'non-geeky' when non-gaming companies begin to use them," he said, suggesting that brands like McDonald's could eventually give away collectable digital items. 

"Let's be honest," he said, "most gamers are nerds."

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