Is View-to-Earn the New P2E?
When reflecting upon the in-game economic models that exist within Web3 gaming, Play-to-Earn (P2E) is a salient paradigm that not only defined Web3 gaming with its explosive growth in the last bull cycle but also shifted player’s expectations when it came to playing games with earning potential. In hindsight, however, P2E faced sustainability issues as game developers struggled to strike a balance between long-term playability and lucrativeness within their titles. When we think of what paradigm could supersede this, it’s impossible to overlook the View-to-Earn approach, which enables players to earn points or revenue for watching ads during their play sessions.
View-to-Earn gaming ecosystems potentially offer maximum earning benefits without compromising the core gameplay experience and player retention. Successful View-to-Earn games need two things: a solid gameplay loop that can attract and retain players, and an advertising mechanism that enhances rather than detracts from the player experience. When executed well, View-to-Earn games, particularly those with innovative, immersive advertising formats, can boost player engagement, create more monetization opportunities for developers, and prevent brands from delivering low-quality advertising that damages their brand image.
What is Play-to-Earn (P2E) Gaming?
Play-to-Earn refers to a gaming approach where players earn real-value assets from playing a game. Players can accumulate in-game assets and items in the form of tradeable NFTs on open marketplaces for various cryptocurrencies. Before P2E, players could only earn from traditional gaming by competing in championships or special events with prize money. P2E became popular because earnings from in-game play were readily available and even served as a viable full-time income replacement in some parts of the world. However, the model faced challenges during the 2021 bear market when the value of many gaming ecosystem tokens fell, causing players' earning potential to drop sharply. This downturn led many players to abandon these games, indicating that future P2E titles must reconsider their economic models.
View-to-Earn: The Future of Game Economies?
Since then, new paradigms, such as View-to-Earn, have emerged. This approach allows players to earn revenue, in-game assets, and other real-value rewards by viewing ads within games. This concept isn't entirely new, as many traditional Web2 games use this strategy. However, with impending innovations in the ad-tech sector, significant opportunities await game developers, players, and brands to achieve their financial goals with less effort.
Immersive Advertising & Player Satisfaction
One such innovation involves new advertising formats. Most in-game advertising to date has been intrusive, interrupting gameplay, leading to negative brand attribution and reduced player retention. To address this, innovations in ad formats are crucial. ReneVerse exemplifies how immersive and non-intrusive formats can mitigate these issues. In games like Real Cricket 24 and Petopia, ReneVerse's Borderless Ads support various IAB-standardized image and video ad formats within the playable environments. These ads generate millions of impressions for advertisers in the ReneVerse ad network, without measurable drops in player retention or satisfaction. Future implementations of 3D in-game product placements, known as Branded Assets, could further enhance immersive advertising and improve brand attribution.
Player-Centric Incentives & Agency of Choice
Another innovation relates to the "Earn" part of "View-to-Earn". Most games with in-game ads overlook the distribution of incentives to participants and stakeholders. Traditional in-game ads either show minimal wealth distribution to players or reward systems that demand significant time commitments. ReneVerse flips this concept, allowing players to passively earn for the impressions they generate while playing their favorite games, with ads playing in the background. Players can choose when to pay attention to the ads they see, providing them with the control over their ad-viewing activity. This approach incentivizes players to engage with in-game ads, leading to improved player retention.
Intuitive Developer Tools
The success of View-to-Earn rests on the games themselves. Developers looking to monetize their games through advertising need solutions that are easy to use and quick to implement. ReneVerse offers a no-frills toolkit that gets ads into games with precision and customizability without extra coding. The SDK for Unity games makes it simple to create Ad Surfaces within game environments, so games can get up and running with Borderless Ads in as little as two weeks. Real Cricket 24 by Nautilus Mobile, for example, now allows brands to reach its audience of over 8M+ MAU using this toolkit.
View-to-Earn isn’t the Only New Way-to-Earn
While View-to-Earn is a solid mechanism for fostering a thriving gaming landscape, it doesn't have to be the only one. Whether your game is a classic P2E game in Web3 or a traditional, free-to-play title without blockchain/crypto, a View-to-Earn game that implements ads well doesn't interfere with the core gameplay. This is how synergistic ReneVerse is designed to be with other game monetization and growth mechanisms.
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