Gaming studio interest in blockchain tech remains stagnant: study

As more gaming studios pique their interest in investing in Web3, a new study shows that interest in blockchain technology remained stagnant.

The 2023 State of the Game report showed that 23 percent of game developers said their studios expressed some level of interest in using blockchain technology, including crypto, NFTs and Web3, to support their games.

This number represents a very slight decrease from the 27 percent of respondents from 2022 who expressed interest in cryptocurrency and the 28 percent who expressed interest in NFTs.

Looking into the future, about 17 percent of developers said they are in favour of using blockchain technology in games, while 61 percent said they were opposed.

Developers’ sentiment towards the technology appears to be fairly consistent on the topic, as two-thirds of survey takers on both sides of the issue said that they had not changed their minds on blockchain over the past year, the report noted.

When asked to share more about their opinions, many developers said there could be a valuable place for blockchain technology in video games in the future, while noting that some current usages are either unsustainable or predatory.

Others said that the risks outweigh the benefits, and that existing technologies serve similar purposes that negate the need for the blockchain.

The report also highlighted that game developers are looking to Epic Games’ Fortnite to be the front runner for metaverse breakthroughs.

When asked which company is best positioned to deliver on the promise of the metaverse, Epic Games/Fortnite earned 14 percent of the vote, the highest of any individual company. Next was Meta/Horizon Worlds and Microsoft/Minecraft (7 percent each), Roblox (5 percnet), and Google and Apple (3 percent each), with VRChat and Nvidia also receiving some mentions.

However, developers remain wary, the report noted. Forty-five percent, of respondents didn’t select any companies/platforms, instead stating that the metaverse concept will never deliver on its promise.

This number is up from 33 percent in 2022, with many of the responses from this year specifically citing the unclear definition of the concept, the lack of substantial interactivity and the high cost of hardware (VR headsets in particular) as barriers towards sustainable metaverse experiences.