We have discussed NFTs or non-fungible tokens before, mostly in the form of digital art and collectibles. Not only do some of them sell for millions of dollars, they can also be re-sold on secondary marketplaces for gains.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that we’re now seeing pieces of virtual land inside games being sold as NFTs:
In some games, players can buy digital deeds for real estate in the form of an NFT, which proves the authenticity of a certain plot in a specific game.
The real estate will appreciate as more players join the game and scarce land is sold to other players who require the plots for certain tasks and missions.
It’s not just buy-and-hold. Those ‘assets’ are being put to ‘productive use’:
Players can then rent out their land to other gamers, charge others for using it or even sell it—either within the game or on a third-party exchange such as OpenSea.
That real estate, too, can be sold for large sums:
A group of people last month paid $1.6 million for Citadel of the Stars, a large kingdom in the unreleased fantasy role-playing game Mirandus
virtual world The Sandbox sold about $2.8 million worth of land in a pair of well-received sales that now have the company valuing its digital properties at about $37 million.
The sale of properties in games that are not even released reminds me of Bollywood/other Indian movies, which start making money through sale of music weeks before the movie’s release.
Finally, this quote in the article captures well the appeal of virtual assets such as this:
“It doesn’t matter what watch you have anymore to a lot of people, what car you drive, what shoes you wear—we can’t even go outside,” said Mr. Zirlin “What’s becoming increasingly more important are your digital items and identity.”
We live in interesting times.