3 GameFi Companies to Watch in 2022
GameFi & NFT projects that go way beyond hype.
Table of contents:
1. The year where it all started.
2. Three projects to look out for.
2.1 GALA Games
2.2 Immutable X
2.3 Enjin
2.4 Yield Guild Games — Honorable Mention
3. GameFi is still an unpredictable sector.
4. Three tips GameFi investing.
5. TL;DR
GameFi, or blockchain gaming, basically made 2021 “the year where it all started.”
GameFi soared last year partly due to the massive adoption of play-to-earn gaming around the world, but that was only possible because the technology only recently evolved to power better games.
The concept of play-to-earn was pioneered by a little game called Axie Infinity. I’m sure anyone reading is familiar with it to some extent. And how can you not be? It grew over 17,000 percent last year as millions of players logged in every day to breed, battle, and complete quests inside this virtual world.
But here’s a question for you:
Do you think Axie Infinity will continue to soar and hold the top spot in 2022?
Or will other games and gaming studios overtake the giant and become the trend-setter in the world of crypto gaming?
Regardless, it’s probably a good idea to learn about the gaming cryptos that are on all the experts’ watchlists.
With blockchain gaming set to continue its growth, let’s learn about the gaming cryptos that could potentially dominate GameFi in the next couple of years.
#1 GALA GAMES (GALA)
The price of Gala Games’ cryptocurrency hit an all-time high in November with a meteoric rise of about 5X in a month.
Since then, it has fallen back down (as should be expected after such hype.)
The company remains largely unphased by changes in price and focuses on creating a catalogue of games that they say are “games you’ll actually want to play.”
Right now, one of their play-to-earn games called Town Star, is the only one that’s ready to play and can be accessed through their website here.
Their collection of soon-to-come games is nothing short of badass with a survival shooter, an intergalactic strategy game, a tower defense game, a fantasy RPG, a card strategy game, and a bunch of other eye-catching pieces.
As with pretty much any GameFi company, they’re branching off and creating an NFT ecosystem around each of their games.
Assuming that they deliver real slam-dunk hits like they promise they will, and people play them, there’s no reason why Gala Games won’t be one of the top crypto gaming companies a couple of years from now.
#2 IMMUTABLE X (IMX)
Blockchain gaming is centered around NFTs. They’re like building blocks for the entire virtual universe. You can think of them as just a form of digital ownership (whether it’s a piece of land, an in-game yacht or an item like a sword, or an outfit for your avatar), but they’re so much more than that.
Many NFTs are built on the Ethereum platform, but with gas fees the size of the average oil barrel, the NFT business can get pretty expensive.
One way to get around these high fees is to use a layer 2 — a solution that sits on top of an existing layer 1 so it can improve its performance.
Immutable X is a layer 2 on Ethereum that’s focused all around NFTs.
And it promises zero gas fees, instant trades, and carbon neutral NFT creation.
It had a meteoric rise in 2021, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. With more and more NFTs for marketplaces, games, and applications finding their home on the Immutable X layer 2, it’s safe to say it’s one of the companies that’s going to last in the long run.
#3 ENJIN (ENJ)
Enjin is another GameFi company focused on NFTs. Notice a pattern?
Enjin makes it easy for you to store, buy, sell, and create your own NFTs.
In terms of its gaming aspect, Enjin essentially lets people create NFTs that can be traded between different games.
That’s one of the more promising and exciting aspects of blockchain gaming — in the past, you might have had to spend hours and hours playing the game, only to be left with a personal sense of accomplishment and an array of items you worked to create that are now largely worthless.
But now, blockchain gaming will allow you to effortlessly sell them, trade them, and make them a part of an interchangeable gaming economy.
With this being the main focus of Enjin, I don’t see it going anywhere but up and forward in the next few years.
#4 YIELD GUILD GAMES (YGG) — Honorable Mention
One of the more unnerving things about games like Axie is that you need to own at least three Axie non-fungible tokens (NFTs) just so you can participate.
And that was a rule that was set back when the cheapest Axie cost about 10 dollars a pop. But with the growing popularity of this play-to-earn staple, they went up in price to about $200. So that means $600 just to get started playing the game. Not exactly serendipitous if you ask me.
This isn’t a problem we only see in Axie. Countless games out there require you to pay upfront to get involved.
Gaming guilds essentially let people who don’t want to spend that kind of money sign up and borrow the items they require.
Basically, the guild buys assets in these different games and starts lending them out to members. The members can then play using these assets, and in the future, when in-game progress is made, they can pay the guild a cut of their earnings. There are a few worthwhile guilds out there, but Yield Guild is one of the well-established guilds you can start with.
This honorable mention is here to show that there are interesting facets to the play-to-earn gaming sectors which we have yet to discover. And with more projects like this coming out and showing us the potential of GameFi, I’d say we’re set for an exciting future.
GameFi is still an unpredictable sector.
One of the biggest challenges for people who want to invest in GameFi (in the U.S.) is that the majority of gaming cryptos can’t be listed on U.S. exchanges.
That’s why investors have to use decentralized exchanges to access the tokens related to these games.
Before you go investing in play-to-earn projects with a sleek smile and your life’s savings in your pocket, make sure you understand the risks involved. Investor protection in this sector is largely inexistent.
Another broader challenge for all crypto gaming investors is the sheer number of tokens out there. They see the huge returns of Gala Games and Axie Infinity, and they expect all the play-to-earn garbage that enters the market to succeed at the same rate.
If you want to actually know what you’re doing (and what you’re investing in), you have to make sure you:
#1 Play the games you get involved in. Want to know if a project has potential? Join its community. You’ll see how much hype and genuine interest there is in the project by testing out its platforms, becoming a part of its social media groups, and lastly, playing the actual game.
#2 Do your research. If you’re buying a GameFi token because you’re afraid of missing out on the next big 100x coin, you pretty much deserve to flop. Instead, why not research the industry, gather all the information you can, and carefully compare options until you come out with a clear winner?
#3 If you’re investing your money, invest in ecosystems — not games. Don’t forget that the majority of crypto games are built on smart contract platforms such as Solana or Ethereum. If you don’t really feel like you understand crypto gaming that well, just invest in the ecosystems that make crypto games possible, and you’ll always come out on top in the long term.
TL;DR:
There are obvious upsides to play-to-earn gaming, but there are still a ton of unknown variables about how this sector will even develop.
If you’re going into this as a player, that’s easy — just find a project with a large community that you enjoy playing.
And if you’re coming at this as an investor, only invest a small percentage of your portfolio and stick to ecosystems, not games.
