A Small Experimental Proposal of Indie Game Licensing Business Model using NFT
There are probably someone else that has already done something like this.
I want to see everyone else doing something similar so that we have customary market rules and a business model to follow.
Today I have uploaded my first NFT "artwork" on Rarible to experiment whether a game licensing business model using NFT platforms is feasible or not.
The concept of business model is based on a decades-old arcade game business model, but it is not meant to compete against the existing model. Maybe it can not only be used to help indie game developers to distribute licensed indie games online but also in the real world arcade. A main difference is that the license ownership and right to use is backed by blockchain technology.
The NFT
Pachinko Takoyaki Ginjirou License No. 00001 Auction at Rarible
A license of the full HTML5 game is listed at Rarible for sale. You could own a license for resale, customization, and operation at your website. Licensee will have the game files (you need a web site or server to run this game), instruction cards in English and Japanese. Game demo is currently exhibited at an "authorized dealer".
Issues of NFT
First, legal aspect. I am not quite sure how much the rights in parties involved can be guaranteed or protected with what we are using at Rarible right now. Falcon Rappaport & Berkman PLLC has published a nice article to outline issues on the legal side of NFT. So almost everything still seems to remain wild-west.
The legal aspect might start evolving rapidly once we start seeing NFT supporting Ricardian contract as in EOS which is advertised as legally binding and human readable form of blockchain contract system that can be used in addition to or in tandem with smart contract.
Second, fees to publish (mint) NFTs. Steps to upload NFTs are made easier at Rarible yet the total sum of cryptocurrency that covers all the expenses (gas fees) remains unclear and is often volatile affected by the current cryptocurrency market conditions. I had to pay a total sum of about 100 Euro including withdrawal fees to complete my first NFT upload. I would have been able to pay 10 to 20% less now than what I paid at that moment.
Third, tax. Tax money paid must be completely transparent and accountable therefore should be traceable as much as NFT can be. We should have a right to know what tax money is used for to the last cent including from missiles deployed for somewhere to pencils used at a remote public office.
Prospects of NFT and Game Licensing Business Model
Piracy or legal gray areas for whatever reasons will continue to exist no matter what we do any way. But game developers will continue to struggle to find feasible business models at the moment.
If a video game emulation boom emerged in the late 1990s should have been totally banned, we would have lost most of video game heritages from the last century forever if MAME did not survive. We would not have seen a concurrent trend of officially emulated classic video games on major video game consoles.
We seem to find it very convenient because games on the major consoles are guaranteed to work without mysterious workaround or hustles. And copyright holders can also keep on benefiting from their intellectual properties while our descendants will be able to play old games like we can enjoy reading old novels or movies.
I personally believe in free society to eventually find a middle ground for the indie game business model that benefits all of us.