Persisting Speculation is Why Blockchain Games Have Yet to Go Mainstream

Speculation has accompanied blockchain games right from the start. Crypto Kitties, one of the first successful blockchain-based games, inspired research on the effects of speculative and enjoyable aspects on users’ behavior back in 2019. Researchers developed a web crawler and collected data, which they analyzed via fixed panel regression.

The results showed that the game’s internal aspects correlated positively with item selling, and its external aspects exhibited a negative correlation with selling. In other words, the game had both enjoyable and speculative aspects, making it challenging to establish the main reason people played.

Speculation hasn’t gone anywhere since, and frequently overshadows enjoyment. Players buy in-game assets anticipating that their prices will increase, not because they find inherent value in them. In the cryptocurrency market, value is not tied to traditional revenue streams or physical assets; prices often rise based on perceived future value rather than solid fundamentals. All of these factors have made blockchain games a fertile ground for speculators to thrive.  

The unpredictable approach characterized the rise of the play-to-earn model, which gained popularity through projects like The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Decentraland. Speculative rumors that GTA 6 could incorporate P2E mechanics have emerged recently, sparking significant interest; however, no major gaming franchise has yet adopted the P2E concept.

Some insiders consider blockchain games a practice that attracts financial speculators under the guise of online gaming. The early days of P2E promised players ownership and other benefits while encouraging publishers and financiers to exploit them. The promise of a living wage from simply playing blockchain games proved empty, and developers who experimented with P2E now consider it unsustainable.

Why speculation persists despite P2E’s decline 

Economic uncertainty prompts risk-tolerant individuals to engage in speculative investments. Token prices surge with positive market sentiment, but they fall just as drastically when the market sentiment shifts. Traders capitalize on short-term gains in this highly volatile environment, but also risk significant losses in the event of a market correction.

Social media hype drives FOMO. Many people jump in when a particular cryptocurrency gains momentum, driving the price even higher, until its level becomes unsustainable. Some blockchain game projects collaborate with sports events for hype, while others feature brand names on their list of partnerships, even though these are often proposed collaborations rather than actual partnerships.

Another reason speculation persists involves a lack of regulations and transparency. Crypto gaming platforms are subject to rigorous anti-money laundering regulations in some jurisdictions, which include monitoring all transactions, verifying players’ identities, and reporting suspicious activity. Other jurisdictions lack regulations entirely, and global regulations do not yet exist in the sector, which is potentially problematic. Their absence leads to unclear tax obligations, risk of scams and fraud, and even token seizure in some cases.

Players who earn tokens or NFTs may not be aware of when or how to report their gains, which can lead to tax penalties or other legal issues. Rug pulls tend to be more common in jurisdictions without clear regulations. Potential players may be aware that any tokens they accumulate may be frozen or devalued if a government suddenly bans or restricts their use, and this deters them.

The lack of global regulations is also problematic for blockchain game developers. They need to navigate different rules in each jurisdiction, which the game publishers plan to enter, increasing legal costs and complexity. Lack of clarity discourages institutional investment and makes forming global partnerships risky. Finally, uncertainty over whether in-game tokens are “securities” could expose projects to legal enforcement. For all these reasons, the average gamer continues to stay away from blockchain games.

Only games that add real value survive

The point of blockchain games was never speculation, but offering experiences that couldn’t exist without using a blockchain. Some gaming platforms have never lost this focus, which is why Web3 gaming strategy is transitioning to immersion. Major shifts are already underway, manifesting in higher-quality games and cross-platform compatibility.

Tokens are increasingly being designed with inherent value. For example, utility tokens are valuable for in-game purchases or character upgrades, while governance tokens grant a say in how the platform develops. NFTs prove ownership of assets, and players can buy, sell, or trade them freely.

Engaging gameplay remains at the core of successful titles. Players won’t stay if the game lacks enjoyable mechanics and meaningful progression. Instead of trying to replace genuine engagement, the reason people play games in the first place, ecosystems like Mythical Games opt to support and enhance the player experience.

Mythical Games is best known for NFL Rivals, an arcade-style football game that has been downloaded more than 7 million times. Electrifying action and endless excitement make the gameplay stand out. You can unlock football superstars and collect and upgrade collectibles of your favorite NFL players, join a squad and team up with other players to earn in-game rewards and climb to the top of the leaderboards, and gather limited-edition player cards with exclusive designs to gain an edge over the competition.

Mythical Games is also behind Blankos Block Party, a pioneering game with more than 4 million installs. The platform closed the PC game at the end of 2023 and started developing a Blankos mobile game. Blankos NFT items, with more than a million in circulation, migrated to Polkadot in September 2024. Trading reopened on the Mythical Marketplace shortly thereafter, and the Blankos community remains active.

FIFA Rivals is Mythical Games’ latest contribution to immersive gaming

Mythical recently launched FIFA Rivals, a dynamic, mobile football game with live events and league tournaments. Players can acquire exclusive digital player cards with their favorite FIFA stars, take advantage of game-changing boosts in Super Mode, and compete for the title of the world’s greatest soccer coach. The Mythical Platform provides the option to integrate marketplace functionality directly into the game client.

FIFA Rivals categories include gear, player, and fragment. Gear types include kit, ball, emblem, boot, etc., and the five fragment types are vision, heart, soul, form, and mind. Players can try to collect all five and combine them into the associated player or burn a fragment to level that player. Items are tradable on the Mythical Marketplace and come in five rarity levels: common, rare, mythical, epic, and legendary. 

The net balances accumulating into gamer wallets used in the Mythical Marketplace exceeded $4 million at the end of May 2025. As of the end of June, more than 6.6 million wallets were active, and approximately 19 million transactions have generated gas fees on the Mythos blockchain so far in 2025. More than 4.6 million MYTH tokens have been burned to control inflation and increase the value of the ecosystem’s native token.

Simplicity, sound monetary policy, and friction in acquiring tokens drive immersion  

Simplifying onboarding for new users is the first step in taking blockchain games mainstream. Players must be taught about tokens and NFTs through gameplay rather than walls of text. Platforms can abstract network fees to reduce friction for novices. Involving players in platform governance, as Mythical Games does, creates a sense of personal investment.

AI tools can create more immersive game worlds by generating endless quests, maps, and personalized stories. AI tailors the gameplay to each individual and can enhance security by flagging suspicious behavior.

Integrating player choices to impact the story’s outcome is among the most effective ways to make narratives more immersive. Players can contribute by branching narratives, where different decisions lead to different plots and endings. Platforms can gather feedback from players during testing and use the information to adjust and improve the narrative.

There are hopes that the next Cambrian explosion in gaming will come from blockchain despite its struggles, not from Steam or the App Store. For this to happen, the respective monetary policy must be in place. The first consideration within tokenomics is whether the token supply is deflationary or inflationary. Deflationary supply can increase demand for tokens, but also slow down the game if it attracts a large number of holders whose main activity does not involve directly interacting with the game.

An obvious risk of inflationary supply is that it might exceed demand. However, higher supply also helps ensure that a sufficient number of tokens is available to facilitate game activities. The in-game economy tends to suffer when there are more players selling items than existing players spending money or new players joining.

Projects should monitor which game loops are used to generate tokens and watch for any action that produces an excessive proportion of a single resource. Appropriate controls include taxing in-game transactions to reduce supply and creating token sinks for players to spend their tokens.

There’s also the issue of token velocity, which represents how often users trade a token compared to holding it. There is no compelling reason to hold a high-velocity token, e.g., a token that delivers no additional value apart from being required to pay a fee or execute another specific function. High-velocity tokens are exposed to speculation and volatility and tend to be unsustainable. Staking can slow down velocity, but only if it is accompanied by real value.

Creating opportunities for spending and trading helps retain value within games, and introducing challenges to acquire tokens will deter value-extractive players without affecting gameplay. Examples include issuing tokens only to players who win, turning resources into off-chain assets, emitting off-chain assets that players can upgrade to NFTs with in-game resources, and adding earn limits.