Play-To-Earn<\/a> (P2E) gaming, once blockchain gaming\u2019s most promising format, is currently suffering a crisis of confidence.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The rise of the P2E space is due to a convergence of many different trends. Cryptocurrencies exploded in popularity in the early 2020s. With their presence in the mainstream, many players entered what had previously felt like the Wild West. The corresponding rise of NFT gave the space the technology to push earning and collectibility in new directions.<\/p>\n DeFi<\/a> platforms have also increased the utility of in-game currencies and items, as they can be traded and used outside of the game. But today, P2E currently looks to be in a very bad way.<\/p>\n Some of the industry\u2019s brightest stars are in seriously bad health. Axie Infinity<\/a>, for a long time the world\u2019s most popular P2E title, is one such example. According to\u00a0ActivePlayer.io<\/a>, the last 30 days have only seen approximately 430,000 players. Which represents the game\u2019s worst month since October 2020. The game\u2019s native token is also down approximately 93% from its all-time high in August 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the space\u2019s fundamental problems is that many P2E players logged in to make money. When the likelihood of good returns evaporated, so did many of the players. When you remove the earning potential, many games aren\u2019t that fun, either.<\/p>\n Damian Bartlett, the Team Lead for W3E, the world\u2019s first Web3 LAN gaming tournament, wants to see good blockchain-based games that offer the same quality experience as their Web2 predecessors. \u201cI see many players align with my own views. We want fun games and the ability to own our own assets that we would buy anyway on our favorite traditional games. P2E has made speculative assets the focus, and the game itself is often a secondary priority. Many of these games DAO\u2019s and therefore proposal votes are dominated by the will of a few whales. Not the majority of the players. It just causes of a cycle of everything being about money and the cryptocurrencies tied to the games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA good Web3 game will simply be a fun game that people are playing regardless of assets, some NFT assets they can buy if they choose to and the ability to buy in and sell out without the complications of unstable game currencies devaluing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n However, perhaps the industry\u2019s fatal floor was the format itself. Many P2E titles are structured in ways that resemble colorful, fun-for-a-moment Ponzi schemes. (A Ponzi scheme collapses when the operator is no longer able to attract enough new investors to pay returns to existing investors or when too many investors try to cash out at once.)<\/p>\n Frank Ma, CEO of Ultiverse, is one person who believes the format was doomed from the start. \u201cIt is not based on a legitimate business model, but rather on the constant recruitment of new investors. The scheme does not generate returns through any sort of productive activity, but rather through the contributions of new investors. It is a zero-sum game, where the gains of early investors are coming from the losses of later investors. So, it ultimately collapses, leaving the majority of investors with significant financial losses.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Axie](\"https:\/\/s32659.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/axie-infinity-gameplay-2.jpg.optimal.jpg\")
Play-To-Earns Look Like Ponzinomics, Say Critics<\/h2>\n
The Industry Wants a More Sustainable Model<\/h2>\n