You have undoubtedly seen all these editors who are getting up to speed with NFTs. But many of you also do not know what that means. Let us try to summarize it simply.
Atari, Ubisoft Quartz, GSC, or more recently Konami and perhaps Gamestop, video game companies have taken the bandwagon of NFT during the year 2021 and it may well be that the word returns very (too) many times in 2022. But like many, maybe you don’t know what that means. Let’s try to explain it easily.
What is an NFT?
NFTs are “non-fungible tokens” in French. To see more clearly, it is necessary to define “fungible” in law: it is something that can be replaced by something of the same value and kind. The simplest example is money: a one euro coin can be exchanged for another one euro coin. Same value, same genre.
Conversely, a work of art is considered in law as a “certain body”, the opposite of the fungible good. Basically it is unique. A master painting is not a fungible good, it cannot be exchanged for an exactly similar product of the same value.
You understand, an NFT is non-fungible, therefore unique. It can be a painting, a photo, a music, a blog article … The difference with a usual “certain body” is that it must be digital. The term “token” simply allows you not to have to differentiate the type of product that is sold.
When you buy an NFT, you therefore obtain the exclusive and total ownership of a “thing”, and this token acts as “title deed”. It is integrated into the blockchain, which will not be explained here, but which allows it to be made digitally inviolable through global data storage shared by all its users. It therefore becomes unique “certified”.
What is the point of an NFT?
To generalize, the fact of buying a single object gives it rarity, and therefore value. In addition, as this acquired asset is in the digital world and therefore accessible to everyone, it can gain even more value over time. Especially if its seller, the original owner of the “work” is himself known (typical example: the first tweet from the founder of the network, sold for $ 2.9M).
In video games, the integration of NFTs could take different forms. Selling things related to a title, for example, like Konami reselling scenes from the game, background images or tracks from the OST. Or the sale of skins like at Ubisoft Quartz. For now, the intended use is enough close to the operation of a goodies shop or DLC: you buy a product for money and it belongs to you.
Except that with NFTs, this product can therefore be unique and will truly belong to you. For example, it would be possible to obtain an action performed in a game, the video of a speedrun (on the example of NBA, which sells shares of games from its competition), the skin of an esport champion who won the worlds … You will then not have his skin sold in the store that everyone can have, but of the “unique” skin, of the champion “in particular”, of these worlds “precisely”. Ubisoft has also just launched Dogami, a “play to earn” game, where playing time is used to earn tokens, a cryptocurrency called $ DOGA, which can be used to buy accessories for pets or tickets to events.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Can I get rich with NFTs? Are publishers right to embark on this model? What is the future of video games? Unfortunately, Elizabeth Teissier was not available to answer our questions. But we hope to have answered yours.
Please note, we are not financial experts either, this article is intended to be simply explanatory and for the general public.
Illustrative photo: pikisuperstar
