[Feature] Free-to-Own, the Next Big GameFi Model? Don’t Miss the Hype Train!

June 2022 is the summer of free mint NFT. Leading by goblintown.wtf, numerous NFT projects turned free-to-mint and made wonder in the bear market. However, it all seems good while it lasts. After the sensation month of June, NFT collectors and enthusiasts have already gotten tired of it. Just imagine there are at least 20 – 30 free NFT projects for you to mint on a daily basis, by paying a little gas fee and you are good to go. As “no roadmap. no promise. no whatsoever” becomes the slogan of these free NFT projects, most of them are undeveloped, unpolished, and useless JPEG digital images.

While most free mint projects are valueless, still it is harsh to tar all of them with the same brush. Occasionally, there are one or two projects that stand out. The most recent that hit a home run is a digital “waifu” NFT collection called “DigiDaigaku”, which was launched on August 10th. NFTs of 2D anime girls are no news in the scene but this time, it’s a different story. DigiDaigaku isn’t just any other PFP collection that we often see, it comes with promising utility and well-known venture capital firms and individuals, such as Paradigm, FTX, Coinbase, etc. The NFT was developed by Limit Break, a Web3 gaming company that was built by a team of Web2 veterans in the mobile gaming industry.

The tweets on August 4th by the founder, Gabriel Leydon, have already given out hints

DigiDaigaku started out as a stealth mint, with no presale advertisement and publicity. The official Twitter page (@DigiDaigaku) has no tweet at all before the launch, and the first tweet was an anime girl holding a lollipop captioned “hi” emoji, which made this NFT collection smells like a rug pull.

However, for those who did their research and figured out Limit Break was the company behind, went “FOMO” in the secondary market. The floor price of DigiDaigaku was starting around 0.3 ETH and skyrocketed to almost 2 ETH on the very first day. As there wasn’t any follow-up announcement or roadmap released by the team, the NFT’s floor price then retraced back to 1 ETH after the hype was gone. One week after its launch, Leydon held the first Twitter Spaces AMA to discuss about his gaming company and DigiDaigaku. Since then, the floor price started to climb slowly and steadily. On August 29th, the project showed its hand by announcing $200 million in funding by the aforementioned VCs. This good news led to a whopping 10 ETH floor price hike in a single day, a wonder that is rarely seen in the history of NFT.

Source: NFTGo

So what’s the new innovation DigiDaigaku brought to the NFT scene? Free-to-Own (F2O). According to Twitter user @0xRyze, also a game developer, F2O consists of three aspects. Firstly, the community may start playing for free. Unlike many blockchain games, such as Axie Infinity and STEPN, a player is required to purchase the game NFTs in order to start playing the game. The second point is about ownership. “The developer builds a big audience of people who are excited about the game and owning part of it. They become advocates for the game way before the game comes out. They all hope it succeeds because they own these assets,” said Leydon. Last but not least, factory NFTs. The initial NFT assets can become the “factory for future assets,” meaning they can be used to generate more NFTs in the future. Leydon isn’t sharing his full plan yet, as he doesn’t want others to copy him. Will DigiDaigaku succeed? Nobody knows, but as an NFT enthusiast, I sincerely wish Limit Break can “break the limit” by creating one really interesting crypto game, that focuses on fun rather than financial attributes and ROI.

As for my two cents, free stuff is not always equalized to bad stuff, free-to-X does work but it required the support of big spenders aka “whale”. To maintain the game quality and to deliver interesting content consistently, a sustainable revenue model is very crucial. If nobody pays, early backers and investors are not going to be happy. And also, who is going to pay for the game developers? Collecting transaction fees alone is not going to work. CEO of Binance, CZ, has the same concern as mine, “if everything will be free in the world, why do we have to work so hard.” Some may criticize him for being salty but what he said is indeed a fact. Nevertheless, I am still anticipating the future outcomes of DigiDaigaku. But to buy one NFT for 11ETH (~$17K) in such a bear market right now? Probably not.

Written by: [Coinlive] Nell