Making Moves

When Axie Infinity blew up last summer it was seen as a statement that Play-to-Earn gaming had arrived and was here for good. Since then, the sustainability of games like Axie has been challenged and the blockchain was hacked – time for another category to take a slice of the gaming market?

• One of the key criteria of a sustainable Play-to-Earn game is that it doesn’t just rely on new users to perpetually fund it – that can quickly lead to accusations of being a Ponzi scheme.
• Move-to-Earn (M2E) games are aiming to address this by making their products worthwhile playing on a standalone basis, where earning is secondary to the primary benefits of staying fit.
• Genopets is a hyped M2E game currently in demo mode, which uses NFT spirit animals that evolve through your daily activity. Users will be able to earn the in-game currency $KI and stake the governance token $GENE.
• STEPN, another Solana-based game, is currently attracting the most users per month. Players purchase NFT sneakers and have their movement tracked by their phone’s GPS to earn in-game $GST.
• Dustland Runner is similar, but where players can earn $DOSE on the Tezos network by completing workout missions.

Given the early-stage of Genopets and the high floor price for STEPN, it’s too early to say whether these early Move-to-Earn products have cracked the sustainability nut, or whether this is just a repeat hype train that will lose its lustre. While we wait to find out, get out of the house for a run!