According to Solana Foundation President Lily Liu, a recovery for blockchain gaming appears to be a distant prospect. Her prediction comes in the wake of Meta's recent admission that its metaverse project has been a complete failure in terms of user adoption.
On-chain games rapidly lost value after their initial hype. Play-to-earn was one of the main trends driving their development during the 2021 crypto bull market. Currently, the total market capitalization of surviving tokens is around $2.12 billion, but activity is limited. Among these, FLOKI and SAND account for a significant portion of the value, while the former star Axie Infinity (AXS) has fallen to new lows. Trading of game tokens often relies on momentum and traditional listings, despite some projects attempting to pivot to DeFi News.
On-chain games also launched their own metaverse applications, such as Sandbox and Decentraland, which include land NFTs. These projects have also experienced a decline in value, losing millions of dollars. Other games offered overpriced NFT collectibles with promises of higher returns for holders.
The biggest flaw in on-chain gaming lies in minting new tokens to pay rewards, which inevitably leads to the collapse of their native assets. Nevertheless, on-chain games have contributed to the popularization of cryptocurrencies and laid some groundwork for Web3 applications.
So, what are Solana's gaming prospects?
The Solana network's relatively low transaction costs make it suitable for regular transactions. The platform has been used for NFTs and meme coins, which somewhat overshadows its gaming sector.
Despite this, some games remain active on Solana and maintain a social media presence. Users remain wary of projects that overpromise and underdeliver.
On-chain gaming is still possible across various chains, and the infrastructure has improved since 2021. Early game users had to manage wallets, pay gas fees, and buy tokens, whereas current games allow free access and optional item or token ownership. Seamless, invisible wallets and account abstraction have also significantly lowered the barrier to entry for on-chain gaming.
One of Solana's goals is also to offer speed and low fees to carve out a niche in the gaming market. Furthermore, game projects can simply record account and ownership data on the blockchain without relying on rewards or other GameFi elements.