Play-to-Earn Falls as Blockchain Gaming Shifts to Ecosystem Plugins

According to an organization focused on advancing the systems in the entertainment industry, blocking gambling is at a new level of maturity, with more and more people able to play games more easily.

Nevertheless, there are changes in the industry that could lead to significant changes as conventional game developers enter the fray.

According to a survey conducted by the Blockchain Game Alliance ( BGA ) this week, the changing tides coincide with major studios like Sony and Square Enix gaining ground in layer-2 solutions. &nbsp,

But public perception remains a crucial obstacle.

According to the report, 66 % of jobs continue to try to build credibility, dispelling the myth that blockchain activities are connected to fraud.

Despite this, the ease with which gamers can get into blockchain games has improved, with onboarding friction rates dropping from 79.5 % last year to 53.9 % in 2024. &nbsp,

This is primarily due to better consumer experiences, which lessen the trouble of getting started with blockchain activities.

The BGA President Sebastian Borget stated in the report that” the concept of player empowerment is at the heart of this rise.”

Borget addresses the possession narrative that has been the main draw for video game developers interested in blockchain-based activities. According to the report, over 71 % of respondents believe that this is the” single biggest benefit that blockchain gaming provides.”

More attempts have been put into UX and UI since the last market loop, giving a smooth experience similar to what players did believe from Web2 games, according to a pass of the statement.

The alliance noted that the trend will change in 2025, shifting more toward player experience over economic mechanisms.

Blockchain gaming platforms are moving away from explicit crypto features like NFT and key markets to smooth integrations where Web3 features operates in the background.

Play-to-earn shifts to a fresh meta

The Blockchain Game Alliance shared its projections with Decrypt, and now there is a fresh meta for bitcoin games.

The switch from unified to blockchain-based game infrastructure demonstrates how games have embraced the possession narrative, according to BGA.

Blockchain integration allows real digital rights through on-chain property monitoring and trading, while traditional video games rely on local server networks for stability and data management.

In that respect, the play-to-earn concepts that came out around 2020 have also undergone a significant change, focusing more on how on-chain traits could be used for games.

Such a change has spawned versions that are merit-based and activity-driven, notes Andrew Campbell, better known in Web3 areas as Zyori.

According to Campbell,” The original play-to-earn design suffered from two crucial flaws: hyper-inflationary benefits that grew uncontrollably with customer adoption and a lack of sufficient token sinks to create negative force.”

Completely on-chain activities and intelligent worlds

The report also presented two new terms: autonomous worlds ( AW ) and fully on-chain games ( FOCGs ). They claim that games are largely intelligent experiences that live wholly on-chain.

This includes sport rules, person items, and in-game economics, rather than just keeping some pieces on-chain while running the show’s primary client on regular, consolidated servers.

Autonomous worlds enable games to “improve based on community input” by placing “elements of game state and logic on-chain”, Gillian Pua, chief of staff at Sovrun ( formerly BreederDAO ), told .

With advancements in AI merging with blockchain infrastructure, this factor also affects how fully on-chain games could be played in the near future.

” With on-chain transparency, AWs also provide the perfect foundation for AI Agents to thrive, enabling intelligent, adaptive gameplay that responds to real-time player behavior”, Pua said.