In fact, the idea of NFT games originated in 2012 with the release of Diablo III. The peculiarity of this RPG was that it implemented a free auction between players. That is, any user could sell or buy an item for in-game currency, which, in turn, could be purchased for real money through microtransactions. Diablo III did not open America in this sense, but it was here that Blizzard first used the idea of free exchange/sale of items between players using fiat.
After 5 years, when NFTs have already become an integral part of the global cryptocurrency system, Canadians from Dapper Labs decided to make the most massive product, i.e. an NFT game for Android (Diablo III was distributed only for PC, and the auction was closed later). At the same time, Dapper Labs used all the current trends. Firstly, they created their game on the Ethereum blockchain, which was trying to actively compete with Bitcoin at the time. Secondly, their game is a dApp, i.e. a decentralized program.
And thirdly, we have a full-fledged NFT game. What does this mean? Let us describe it with a specific example. The main mechanics of the game is the breeding of virtual kittens (a la modified Tamagotchi). Each kitten is an NFT token. It is irreplaceable and cannot be transferred to another user without the owner’s consent. But the main thing is that two kittens can give birth to a third, which will also be an NFT token. Thus, the owner has a chance to earn money.
At the start, the most expensive cryptocurrency was $117,712. The largest sale took place on May 12, 2018, when a virtual cat was sold for $140,000. This is about the profitability of top NFT games.
The main thing here is that all cryptocurrencies (i.e., NFT coins) belong not to Dapper Labs (the developer) but to Axiom Zen, which produces cats under the Nifty license. It is this license that is responsible for the fact that users who “breed” cats get the right to own new cats, but cannot use them outside the application. Instead, they can sell them and withdraw the funds to their crypto wallet and then convert them into fiat.
This is how NFT games of the Play-to-Earn format appeared. Currently, such games have already been released or are planned to be released in the near future by such titans of the gaming industry as Square Enix, Ubisoft, Konami, Epic, Capcom, and EA. Although we are not talking about AAA-class projects yet, most of these games are dApps for mobile devices. This is understandable, because we live in the era of portable gadgets, and many people are already used to playing on Android or iOS instead of PC.