Yat Siu believes that it is just a matter of time before more advanced models of NFT gaming are developed, and well-designed around the idea of digital ownership, interoperability, and economic utility.
The Animoca Brands co-founder said that nonfungible token (NFT) games are just scratching the surface of what is possible and forecast that entirely new models of gaming will be created due to digital ownership.
Speaking to reporters, Siu compared the possible growth of NFT gaming to mobile phone gaming, which began relatively exclusive and clunky in its nascent stages before exploding to become the most popular method of gaming throughout the world.
He stated:
“Mobile gaming brought a form factor of a type of game that we’ve never seen before, you know, one-hand play and that kind of stuff, and innovations around how you play with AI [artificial intelligence]. Because of the fact that you have this limited form factor, it became the most popular form factor in gaming.”
Siu mentioned that while most blockchain games themselves also have a clunky experience at the early stage, the entire sector is still relatively new. In that context, it is just a matter of time until more advanced models are developed that are perfectly designed around the ideas of interoperability, digital ownership, and economic utility for the user:
“With NFT games, we’ve only really scratched the surface. Everyone’s very focused on ownership. […] I think it’s going to mushroom into everything and we’re going to see new kinds of game formats emerge because of the ownership that we weren’t able to do before.”
In the near term, Siu pointed to different metaverse gaming platforms and hugely multiplayer online games as models that fit well with NFTs, since you can “can trade items and you have deep levels of economic design” that make a lot of sense.
The Animoca co-founder also insisted that most of the current users are ready to accept that the blockchain gaming experience is not necessarily smooth at the early stages.
He thinks that this was because they are fully aware of the importance of being able to own a stake in the games, as opposed to the traditional model where people sink lots of capital into the games that they will never retrieve:
“I mean, when you think of this [blockchain games], you could say it’s a UX [user experience] nightmare. But, because of ownership, people put up with it not just because it’s valuable, but because it’s meaningful because this is my land, this is my car.”
Asked when nonfungible token (NFT) technology will reach a point of smoothness that even the elderly can use it without knowing it, Siu insisted that it would be potentially via the widespread tokenization of physical things, NFT incorporation with commonly used services and the way people interact with one another.
He highlighted that as the world continues to become highly digitally focused, children will want digital things. He added:
“Grandma is probably going to buy a digital item for their grandchildren as a way to not just as a gift that’s relevant to them, but also as a way to interact. Vice versa, a grandchild could even gift their grandmother a digital illustration that they drew.”
“We’re going to have a digital world. These digital artifacts and art and creativity and games and utility that’s going to be mushrooming in the thousands and thousands and thousands of small medium enterprises that are going to be doing this.”
