What if bitcoin can be used in buying online game items ?

[Ronni]

This question comes into my mind since I am a big fan of different online games and those games are using money to buy certain items for your hero/character. This can be a good reason for bitcoin to make its way on gaming industry, what if they are also involve in gaming ? is it more convenient for the gaming industry to buy items using bitcoin ? We all know that there are many online games that are popular around the world and also there are tournaments involving such online games and the rewards are very huge and it also counts in millions of dollars. So I think, bitcoin should really make its way in the gaming industry.

[Kprawn]

This is already happening and the best game I have seen that incorporated Blockchain technology has to be :

https://www.augmentorsgame.com/  This game got some good exposure when it was pitched to some investors in the

reality series, Shark Tank. A lot of games does not use Bitcoin directly, but you can buy tokens with bitcoins to upgrade

your character and to improve your game. I expect a huge increase in in-game Bitcoin based games, when the Lightning

Network becomes more mainstream. The Lightning Network will make micro transactions cheaper and faster and that is

what these game developers are looking for at the moment. 

[Winderer]

It will be implemented very soon, a lot of projects announce this functionality.

[Lieldoryn]

Bitcoin can be used as a payment system to purchase all goods on the Internet. But it seems to me that bitcoin has now become a significant brake for the gaming industry. Miners swallowed up all the stocks of the GPU. At the same time, the price of GPU is so high that it is impossible to buy them for non-commercial purposes. I think that this situation significantly reduces the demand for computer games.

[babala]

Once bitcoin was used in buying online games, many people will buy bitcoins. As we all know, many people were addicted in online games, if bitcoin was allowed to purchase something used in online games, it has a larger potential market. Because of this, results to increase in market price.

[Tharel]

I believe in the year 2016, there's already an online games that can be purchased through bitcoin. It's Valve that has partnered with Bitcoin payment. Kindly check this link for further information.

https://www.theverge.com/2016/4/28/11525482/bitcoin-steam-valve-bitpay

[kevoh]

As long as your average gamer does not suffer long delays (and high transaction fees) when using bitcoin to purchase and participate in online games then bitcoin might have a chance to make it in the gaming industry.

There are also other crypto projects that bitcoin has to compete with in the gaming industry. Some are games that were developed with currencies using the blockchain like Huntercoin and Motocoin while others are designed as a digital distribution platform for the gaming multiverse like Abyss where gamers can earn from in-game activities and other social activities.Also game developers get to benefit from this platform.

[Markyway88]

I am a gamer too and I think it is best if the cryptocurrency will be used as a payment in an online games. I hope there is a possibility to have a discount if we will use directly a certain token. If that happens, I will buy some gems in my game in order for my character to have a strong skills and armies.

[think3214]

Your idea is really useful for game developers. I think if this approach is very convenient for gaming enthusiasts. But if the player earns Bitcoin, it's great, which attracts a lot of gamers. Game developers will earn big money from placing ads of other units.

[BitcoinHodler]

it also already happened with Steam (Valve corp.) they are one of the biggest gaming platforms in the whole world with millions of players and they added bitcoin support but unfortunately last year they stopped it because the fees were very high!

maybe we can see that happening again in a year or so with Lightning Network and if we can accept the fact that bitcoin not being a currency is dumbest thing in the world...

[kaya11]

There is already a third party in or country that allows us to buy credits on steam, and you know steam is a big one by valve corporation. I can buy ingame items or even the game itself using my account in the third party. This app is called coins.ph, I will buy the credit using my BTC wallet and they will send me confirmation and then top it up.
This kind of technology is very helpful to gamers like me, when I top up my account not using the app, they would take a 20% of the total amount I want to put in my steam account, but when I use my BTC wallet, there is never an interest, it's a zero. Nice to have this kind of things around right?

[Janation]

Once bitcoin was used in buying online games, many people will buy bitcoins. As we all know, many people were addicted in online games, if bitcoin was allowed to purchase something used in online games, it has a larger potential market. Because of this, results to increase in market price.

People will not be attracted to buy bitcoin just because games accepted it as a payment. It will be more like people especially gamers who are using bitcoin will eventually be using bitcoin to pay games and game items.

As far as I know Steam accepted bitcoin but ceased accepting it because of it's volatility and high fees.

[kimmali]

It still depends whether the game accepts digital currency payments or not. I've found out some governments allow bitcoin as payment. It is actually cool that you gotta pay a game using bitcoin. Since online games are popular,it is better if the developers of online games connect it with bitcoin so that the other players will be interested with bitcoin. It will be a good advertising device.

[Pursuer]

when we are talking about bitcoin's usage in some thing, two things are required.
first which is the most important step is the users' willingness to use bitcoin in that "thing" (online games here). if people don't want to spend their bitcoin at all, then adding it to an online game or gaming platform changes nothing and it won't happen in first place because there is no "demand for it". so we have to first see if there demand or not. and I think there is because Steam and the reports from BitPay support this.

second is the platforms willingness to add bitcoin. sometimes these places resist change and don't want to change what is good and working. their mind can change if they see the demand is high enough. again like Steam where the demand for bitcoin payment was pretty high so they gave in and started accepting bitcoin.

[mrcash02]

Only this isn't enough anymore, it's too basic to just accept Bitcoin as payment method for in game items. Online games should allow their players to sell their account's items and gold for real money too. Many games politics forbid their players to exchange the items and gold they conquered in game with their own effort. However I don't expect too much from these already established games, maybe in the future good decentralized online games will appear overcoming all the currently ones in all possible aspects.

About prizes being in BTC for tournaments, I think it's hard for legal reasons.

[hrvalino]

I think some new companies are already connecting blockchain technology/bitcoin to online games. I'm not only sure which. Well with the current trend of bitcoin and we can see that blockchain technology is the future, I believe that it will soon happen with famous online games. After all, gaming companies are also trying to apply emerging technologies to provide best gaming experience on gamers.

[VitKoyn]

This question comes into my mind since I am a big fan of different online games and those games are using money to buy certain items for your hero/character. This can be a good reason for bitcoin to make its way on gaming industry, what if they are also involve in gaming ? is it more convenient for the gaming industry to buy items using bitcoin ? We all know that there are many online games that are popular around the world and also there are tournaments involving such online games and the rewards are very huge and it also counts in millions of dollars. So I think, bitcoin should really make its way in the gaming industry.

There are digital distribution platforms like steam that already supported purchasing of game credits using Bitcoin, but after a year Valve Corporation (developer of steam) already stopped accepting Bitcoin before this year started for the reason that it is so highly volatile or being unstable currency and that time transaction fees are very expensive. Other gaming platforms that is reportedly accepts Bitcoin purchases are Play-asia, Kinguin, and G2A but I don't know much about them or if they still accept Bitcoin since I don't use those platforms. For me even transaction fees already dropped, Bitcoin still needs some improvements so I'm waiting for lightning and schnorr signature to be implemented and see how it can change everything.

[Aminmon]

But it is a serious problem, at present most of the game equipment is not particularly expensive, so use bitcoin need to afford the expensive fee, so it is not suitable to use bitcoin as purchase game equipment.

[FalcoonRed]

I think it's a good idea because it will affect the bitcoin market price and also can simplify online game transactions.

[SlickTight]

There are some now, and it happens now, buying online game items using bitcoin as a payment. And this will be good for bitcoin, because many gamers now is buying online items, items in online games. This will help bitcoin a lot.