Crypto Unicorns Founder Says P2E Gaming Is in a Long “Mature Stage”

Crypto Unicorns founder Aron Beireschmitt talks to NFT Steez about the key components blockchain gaming needs to create sustainable gaming economies and gain.

As the hype surrounding games and play-to-earn (P2E) platforms began to die down in early 2022, Web3 attendees began to stress the need for games to be more "fun " and less focused on finance. In the most recent episode of NFT Steez, Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond spoke with Aron Beireschmitt, CEO of Laguna Games and Founder of Crypto Unicorns, about the sustainability of P2E-focused blockchain games.

For Beireschmitt, the evolution from a play-to-earn model to a play-and-earn model suggests that there is still experimentation and maturation to be seen for these games. “Nothing has changed in game creation,” says Beireschmitt, but thanks to blockchain technology, crypto natives and gamers can now play, own, and potentially monetize from these patterns of play and earning. The big question is: is it sustainable?

As for the shift in sentiment around P2E and the way Crypto Unicorns is approaching it, Beireschmitt said it is “charting a path to sustainability through the combination of economic farming simulation” with the “ real-time skill-based game loops to attract more users to its ecosystem. These game loops should not only have some semblance of form and function, but should also be fun and engaging for gamers, according to Beireschmitt.

However, he also acknowledged that blockchain-based games are not for everyone and that the target population of Crypto Unicorns is more of those who are crypto natives.

According to Beireschmitt, there is a lack of "incentive alignment for free play", whereby developers maximize the extraction of value from the minority of gamers who spend on free games. This disparity creates a "paradigm mismatch", whereby Web3 games allow players to achieve a new level of autonomy and ownership over in-game items, assets, and skills.

For Beireschmitt, this is what makes the play-and-earn model "compelling", since players can potentially win along the way while playing their favorite game. Web3 not only...