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The explosion of the NFT market in 2021 along with Facebook's announcement of its rebrand to Meta created a fast-growing fascination for the "metaverse" play-to-earn games. With the explosion of games like The Sandbox and Decentraland, it seems like we've only begun to scratch the surface of the potential in blockchain-related gaming.
A research conducted by Strategy Analytics predicts that the Metaverse market could reach a valuation as high as $280 billion by 2025. New games are entering the market at a rapid speed. Many crypto influencers believe the next hidden gems with a potential to 10x profits or more could be found in the Metaverse and P2E gaming niche.
For those looking into interesting projects to invest in with big potential and a reasonable market cap, here are three games or gaming ecosystems to watch closely as we enter 2022.
1. Vulcan Forged
Vulcan Forged is a Blockchain gaming ecosystem giving access to its users to a wide variety of fantasy games. Like most blockchain gaming platforms, Vulcan Forged includes its own NFT marketplace where players can buy and trade NFTs usable in games. The entire ecosystem is powered by its very own token: $PYR. PYR token is an ERC20 and Polygon-compatible utility token that can be used in-game.
One of the platform's most important games is Vulcan Verse which launched in beta in mid-2021. Vulcan Verse has a rich and complex lore that even inspired award-winning British fantasy authors Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson to turn the NFT game into a trilogy of books.
2. Bloktopia
Bloktopia is another complete gaming ecosystem built on blockchain technology. What differences it is that its focus is not only on gaming but also on providing a home for people who wish to learn about the world of crypto.
The Bloktopia metaverse is represented as a skyscraper built with 21 levels, in honor of the 21 million Bitcoin. Calling itself the "home of crypto", Blocktopia aims to provide its users (named Blocktopians) with a central hub where they can have access to information about crypto and participate in immersive experiences all in one place.
Bloktopians will also be able to push the boundaries of their creativity by creating scenes, challenges, artworks, and more using the ecosystem's user-friendly builder tool. More advanced creators will have access to the platform's SDK to populate the world with games and applications.
Bloktopia has its own utility token called BLOK based on the Polygon blockchain. BLOK holders can stake the coin in exchange for acquiring a certain level (dependent on the amount of BLOK staked) allowing them to participate in IDOs for future projects to be hosted on "the Block". The next IDO is for a project called SynCity, the first-ever Mafia Metaverse.
3. Star Atlas
With its movie-quality graphics, Star Atlas is a game that catches the eye, to say the least. Star Atlas' universe is an intergalactic world where players can fly ships and travel in space. The game is ruled by the ATLAS token allowing players to buy NFT assets in the game's marketplace that can then be used in-game.
Star Atlas has extensive lore making it a fascinating game to dive into. Players start by choosing to belong in one of 3 factions: Oni, Mud, or Ustur, and then start the game in a faction-secured safe zone. From there, players can then decide to explore deep space where every star and planet visible is explorable.
From a monetary perspective, the team behind the project looks for encouraging the monetization of time spent in the world while facilitating the transfer of these gains from the metaverse to the real world.
From their white paper:
Digital assets owned always belong to the holder, and crypto assets earned can be converted into fiat currencies friction-free. We believe this is the model for the future of gaming.
Are you ready to enter the Metaverse?
No matter our feelings about it, the metaverse and metaverse-based games are here to stay. Not only that but there's a chance it will be an increasing part of the internet's future. Real estate on virtual places like The Sandbox or Decentraland will become as valuable as real-world assets, if not more.
The good news for crypto investors is that we are still extremely early in the field and there are a ton of opportunities for getting in on interesting projects. There are many more games that could've made this list with a variety of market caps, so it's for each one to do their own research and invest in projects they truly believe in.
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