In what has to be one of the most stunningly bad predictions I’ve seen about the concept of blockchain-based video games, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian recently had this to say about how pervasive the concept will become in the future on the Where It Happens podcast:
"90% of people will not play a game unless they are being properly valued for that time," Ohanian, who now runs VC firm Seven Seven Six, said on the show. "In five years, you will actually value your time properly. And instead of being harvested for advertisements, or being fleeced for dollars to buy stupid hammers you don't actually own, you will be playing some on-chain equivalent game that will be just as fun, but you'll actually earn value and you will be the harvester."
So, he’s saying in five years, 90% of gamers will be playing games on the blockchain that allow them to “earn” value by their loot/currency having some sort of token equivalent that has actual value.
This is frankly absurd, based on the current market.
For starters, five years from now means we are still inside the PS5 and Xbox Series X console generation, along with whatever hardware Nintendo inevitably decides to put out next. It’s more or less impossible to believe that dozens and dozens of mammoth franchises played on these systems are suddenly going to go on the blockchain, especially given the gaming communities exceptionally hostile response to even a whiff of NFTs invading traditional games. Developers are equally skeptical, laying out countless challenges “going to the blockchain” presents whenever this topic comes up, making everything extremely convoluted, if not technically impossible, in addition to the potential damage to the environment this would cause.
