Play and Own (P&O) gives your users ownership over their digital assets, turning those assets into collectibles and enabling them to get even more value through secondary markets. For you, this could mean a new way to unlock revenue streams, acquire the right users, and build a community around your games.
Recently, we conducted a survey to find out what gamers think about P&O. The answers we got back were clear - a majority of users we surveyed want player ownership and say they are even willing to pay more to have it in their games. Yet, there remain some sticky myths surrounding P&O that are holding many developers back from mass adoption.
To bust these myths and create a more accurate picture of what player ownership is, below are the most common misconceptions we hear, and the truth for each.
Myth: the tech requirements needed to enable P&O are too demanding for most developers
Behind this myth is the idea that to integrate player ownership into your titles, you need to have a technical team that’s proficient and experienced in blockchain coding (the tech, in part, at the foundation of P&O). In other words, you need to know how to build a decentralized app from scratch.
The truth: you can integrate player ownership into your games with no technical blockchain know-how
It may have been true in the past that you needed a highly-skilled technical team to integrate decentralized assets into your games, and support their management. But these days, there are solutions - like Astra - that do the heavy lifting for you. They can take care of the smart contracts - and handle wallet creation, minting your assets, publishing, and balancing the economy of your game. It’s a single, easy-access entry point into P&O without the need for a technical team.
Myth: player ownership won’t work on mobile
Most users who interact with decentralized apps and player ownership have historically done so through PC - not on mobile. So, the thinking goes, the infrastructure hasn’t been built to accommodate mobile users. On top of that, due to the decentralized nature of the ecosystem, it's harder to regulate - making it difficult to offer titles through mobile app stores.
The truth: player ownership isn’t just mobile-friendly, it can be mobile-first
While it may be true that in the past decentralized apps were kept mostly to PCs, that’s no longer the case. Thanks to new innovations enabling studios to give users the benefits of decentralization and player ownership on their mobile devices, the P&O experience isn’t only confined to desktops. Going one step further, there are solutions that are able to leave cryptocurrencies out of the equation and pass all transactions through the IAP mechanisms of mobile app stores - meaning your game can easily start and scale with mobile audiences.
Myth: P&O solutions and tech have bad UX that causes users to churn
A major problem for the ubiquity of player ownership in the past was the complexity of its tech. Just to enter into the world of player ownership meant that users had to have a decent understanding of blockchain technology, access to communities through Discord, and be able to store assets in a third party wallet. And that’s before they even get started playing the games or collecting and selling assets. However, things have changed since then.
The truth: player ownership can be user-friendly, familiar, and easy to navigate
Player ownership has had its UX growing pains - but that’s changed. As the technology matures, many developers have found new and better ways to offer users entry into player ownership.
New solutions have made it easy to integrate player ownership, mint assets, and enable trading directly in your games. And these advancements have created a better UX for users: marketplaces, apps, wallets, and platforms are now familiar (they look and feel like apps users already have experience with). Users can now get ownership over their assets, collect, and trade them as easily as browsing Instagram or shopping on Amazon.
Myth: users don’t understand the benefits of player ownership
A concern we hear from some developers is that despite the clear value in player ownership, they fear that users are intimidated by and mistrustful of the technology. But, in reality, users (particularly gamers) have been finding ways to create player ownership for a long time.
The truth: many users are already finding ways to trade and collect digital assets
We know how a lot of players feel about player ownership. We asked them. But even without those insights, there’s a tremendous amount of proof that many users not only understand player ownership, but are already actively seeking it out and creating it for themselves. From Diablo, to Counterstrike, Fortnite, and much more, collectible gaming marketplaces persist and have huge followings. It makes sense - gamers are often collectors, and the same drive that compels them to catch every Pokémon translates directly into player ownership in games, too.
In this context, player ownership isn’t a leap of faith - it’s the next step. P&O provides the same trading, collecting, and community-building that many users want, but makes it even easier to access and trust.
Want to learn more about player ownership and how you can take the next step? Contact us.
