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Reddit co-founder predicts play-to-earn games will dominate sector in five years

Reddit co-founder predicts play-to-earn games will dominate sector in five years

The co-founder of social media site Alexis Ohanian has said that play-to-earn blockchain titles will be dominant in the market in the near future.

Speaking to the Where It Happens podcast – as reported by Business Insider – Ohanian, who currently runs the VC firm Seven Seven Six, said that he reckons the vast majority of people will be engaging with play-to-earn titles. These are games primarily where users are given cryptocurrency in return for playing.

"90 per cent of people will not play a game unless they are being properly valued for that time," Ohanian said.

"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."

A number of blockbuster games firms have said that the blockchain will have a huge impact on the games industry, including Square Enix, Ubisoft, Take-Two and EA.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.