The ultimate point of playing video games has always been to have fun. Whether it’s Space Invaders or Sonic or Red Dead Redemption, you hit the start button and do your thing until game over – and then you probably wipe the sweat off your hands and do it again.
But a new class of games is emerging where playing is an investment opportunity – and even potentially a way to earn a living. So-called play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox have been exploding in popularity recently.
What they have in common with many previous classics is that they include complex economic ecosystems. In the 1980s blockbuster Elite, for example, players travelled from planet to planet, trying to increase their credits by buying and selling things like weapons and commodities. Or in life-simulation franchise The Sims, players buy everything from pizzas to houses with Simoleons.
But in these older games, the in-game currency had no value in the real world. There have also been games like World of Warcraft where a grey market for exchanging in-game items and characters grew up around them. But play-to-earn games take this to a whole new level. So how do these games work and where are they heading?
