4 ways Brands and Rights Holders can use gaming NFTs

NFTs have increased in visibility and understanding in the past 6 months thanks to the success of the NBA’s TopShot App and the creative arts space. An NFT is a “Non-Fungible Token” – essentially an asset in digital form which the market assigns a value to. In TopShot the assets are video clips of plays from the NBA with different levels of rarity. Users then determine how much they value each video clip and how much they are willing to buy it from another user. This creates a 2^nd-hand marketplace for trading much like auction houses in the art world or trading players in the football world.

The main difference is that the “ownership” of the asset is logged to the blockchain. This means any person, tool or service can access the blockchain to verify authenticity and identity of the owner. The NFT space also mirrors what we see in trading cards and the school playground sticker packs – rare stickers had a much higher value and you may be able to trade multiple other stickers for a rare sticker.

So how can brands and rights holders get involved with gaming NFTs?

The concept of “Living Assets” is the whole purpose behind Freeverse, a company that enables people and companies to create NTFs. Living Assets are defined as those that can have their properties over time. This could be upgrades based on usage by the player, or rollbacks and degradation if they aren’t used. Living Assets are the direct opposite of what NBA’s TopShot offers which are moment in time, fixed assets as they are video clips with an existing rarity level.

Both Living Assets and Static Assets can provide value to a brand and rights holder. We’ve highlighted a few ideas below of how gaming NFTs can be utilised.

• Assets related to times of the year: This could be either Living or Static and focuses on releasing an NFT tied to what is happening in the real world at specific times of year. This could be a Cup Final like the SuperBowl, a religious holiday like Ramadan or Christmas, the launch of a new product or the NBA Draft. Living Assets may have their stats boosted at special times of year and then rolled back when that special period is over. For example, an asset may offer double experience, double rewards or some other utility and then roll back to a basic level.

• Assets related to boosts or powerups: This is a concept we recently discussed with the team at Freeverse where powerups inside a game could be created as NFTs. The ability to combine powerups that are gaming NFTs could make them stronger (like Thanos combining the Infinity Stones into his Gauntlet) or they could be improved over time by usage. This example would have them as Living Assets but they could also be created as Static Assets.

• Assets related to Characters or other in-game content like exclusive levels: Other content inside games could be created as exclusive content only accessible and usable to owners of the NFT. These could be special character skins/outfits, levels or other related content. If the number of Assets is limited the rarity and value of the Asset will increase. For a brand this could be a character skin with an emote of eating your product if you are an FMCG brand. The recent release of the Neymar Jr skin in Fortnite could have been positioned as an NFT with a special extra skin, emote or backpack for those users who purchased an NFT.

• Assets related to virtual currency or subscriptions: Another way Assets could be used is for virtual currency or subscriptions. The Asset could automatically issue the owner with additional virtual currency for the game every month. Brands and Rights Holders could work with game developers to create special NFTs that are only available to customers of the brand or members of the property.

With the ability to create gaming NFTs through a platform like Freeverse there are new opportunities for Brands and Rights Holders. NFTs also present an opportunity for long-term visibility and awareness of a product, brand or property as they will eternally exist on the blockchain. How much would that be worth to you over the lifetime of the Asset?