In your own virtual world, you’re running down a street, buying prostitutes, robbing people, killing cops. Through it all, you’ve got bitcoins at stake. This is the sort of game which could be forthcoming thanks to new technology like, Bitcoin, the digital currency designed in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Grand Theft Auto, the open world action-adventure video games series, could get more open-world: that is, by incorporating digital currency. Here’s how.
The game, created by David Jones and Mike Daily, features fictional locales modelled on American cities, such as Liberty City, Vice City or San Andreas. The open world layout allows players to choose missions to progress the story, while at the same time engaging in side-quests that includes a heavy dose of action-adventure, driving, third-person shooting, occasional role-playing, stealth and racing.
The game is adult in nature containing violent themes, while being satirical and humorous. What if, during these side activities, players could earn, steal, win bitcoin, just like in reality. It is exactly this sort of gaming technology that could, when all is said and done, prove to be bitcoin’s killer app alongside payment services. Gaming, to be sure, is one of the biggest virtual markets in the world, and it could prove to grow even bigger when it incorporate a quasi-gambling element.
Grand Theft Auto V brought in more than $800 million worldwide. Three days after release, the game surpassed one billion dollars in sales, making it the fastest selling entertainment product in history. It broke several Guinness World records including bets selling video game in 24 hours, best selling action-adventure video game in 24 hours, highest grossing video game in 24 hours, fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion and others.
By putting money at stake, the game, or another like it, could create demand among not only the gaming community, but, also, the Bitcoin community and the millions of users who log onto the internet each, not for entertainment purposes, but to make money.
There are already many gaming projects in the works for Bitcoin, such as the in-game virtual currency known as BitCrystals which will be available to the game Spells of Genesis in the coming weeks. But such advents are not quite the achievement that an open-world game – bolstered by the power of Bitcoin – would indubitably be.
