The casual gaming market will remain a crucial audience for blockchain games and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in gaming, according to three blockchain gaming company co-founders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Casual gamers, people who play games somewhat regularly but rarely invest significant time, make up the largest segment of players in the industry. <\/p>\n
Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the\u00a0blockchain role-playing game Illuvium<\/a>, called casual gamers \u201ccritical\u201d because of the sheer number of them.<\/p>\n There are more than 3 billion gamers worldwide as of 2023, and it\u2019s estimated that at least 1.95 billion are casual gamers, according<\/a> to Exploding Topics.<\/p>\n Warwick said gamers interested in earning in-game yield, who are primarily from developing countries and are especially attracted to mobile gaming, are becoming increasingly important as well. <\/p>\n However, Warwick admits there is a \u201cmajor challenge\u201dclosing to coaxing casual gamers into the market because of the perception that blockchain games are of inferior quality.<\/p>\n Despite this, he was optimistic that NFTs, blockchain and Web3 will have a bright future in mainstream gaming. <\/p>\n \u201cNFTs, blockchain, and Web3 have a place in mainstream games in the long term, as mainstream game developers are already working on incorporating these technologies into their games, despite some backlash from their communities,\u201d Warwick said. <\/p>\n \u201cAs more fun and engaging NFT-based games are developed, it is likely that players will experience the benefits of ownership and not want to go back to traditional games,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands shares a similar view<\/a> calling the mainstream casual audience “absolutely critical” for blockchain and NFT games, arguing:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGames are still games regardless of whether they’re casual or mid-core. One of the things that actually made mainstream gaming larger was casual games.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to Siu, the mainstream gaming industry hit a rough patch around 2010 and 2011 and \u201cstopped growing.\u201d The introduction of mobile games helped revitalize and attract a whole new generation of gamers, a feat blockchain games need to replicate.<\/p>\n Siu believes all it will take is one good game to kick off a blockchain gaming boom \u2014 and he predicts it could start in the next 18 to 24 months with hundreds of millions of gamers entering the space.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we’re charting a pretty good chart, but you know, you’re not gonna convert everyone overnight, right? But it’s beginning and people are having fun and also the games are getting better,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cAll you need is one game that\u2019s actually going to be reasonably successful and you\u2019ll basically get large news, and because it’s Web3 what\u2019ll happen is that once it\u2019s very popular, it\u2019ll bleed into the other games.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n NFTs in games have faced backlash from mainstream gaming audiences, forcing several high-profile companies to abandon plans<\/a> to incorporate them, but Siu believes this is only temporary <\/a>until gamers learn more about how the technology works. <\/p>\n \u201cI think they\u2019re trying to be sensitive to their audience. I mean, so that\u2019s the right thing to do as a company. You can’t just say, well, whatever your opinions don\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cMost gamers I speak to say they are all about having digital ownership in games but are still against NFTs, but over time, education will fix that,\u201d Siu added. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2023-01\/57030ec9-108d-402e-be94-f92a337ff6dc.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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