Although there was widespread criticism of the play-to-earn (P2E) model in 2023, some maintained their faith in the Web3 gaming model. These individuals are focused on exploring how this model can be used as a “superpower” unlocked by the crypto space.

In 2023, the play-to-earn model came under great criticism and was generally seen as a “flawed” system. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell said this model is why gamers hate cryptocurrencies, and some predicted the demise of the Web3 gaming model.

Despite this, Luke Barwikowski, CEO of Web3 massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Pixels, continues to look for solutions on how to make P2E work and thinks it will give Web3 games a competitive advantage over Web2 rivals.

Barwikowski explained how the Pixels team is navigating the blockchain gaming space and what they are doing to make P2E gaming more sustainable.

“We are trying to understand how we can make play-to-earn work and make it sustainable. “We know we need to change how the game works and functions,” he said.

According to Barwikowski, Chapter 2 of Pixels brought major gameplay and system changes that affected players’ progress and interactions in the game. The manager said this brings them closer to their goal of making P2E gaming sustainable.

Despite criticisms of the P2E model, Barwikowski stated that he has a firm belief that this model is one of the biggest innovations in gaming and Web3. “Play-to-earn is the single biggest innovation unlocked by Web3 and the greatest superpower of Web3 gaming,” Barwikowski said.

Barwikowski thinks Web3 is about coordinating incentives to maximize specific ecosystem goals. He emphasized that Web3 and gaming projects need to figure out how to make this work.

Barwikowski stated that Web2 game companies are naturally profit-oriented. These companies want to maximize their revenue and have the budget to do so. Web2 companies raise money and spend it on advertising and ecosystem growth.

Pixels CEO said that they do not spend this money on advertising in Web3 games. Instead, they are trying to figure out how they can give this money “directly” to players. However, he stated that this does not mean just distributing tokens and not thinking about generating income.

Barwikowski said, “It is our job to build a technology that will do this coordination. The thesis continues in the same way. In the long run, you need to spend more tokens to run play-to-earn than the amount of tokens you give away each month. “It’s not that easy,” he said.

“Play-to-earn is a hyper-competitive user acquisition innovation compared to Web2 games,” Barwikowski added. The manager emphasized that this is “two sides of the coin” and that a fun game should generate income like Web2 games.

Additionally, the CEO also explained that Web2 games are starting to realize the shift in gaming paradigms. He added that Web2 game companies began to be “scared” of this innovation and thought that once Web3 found the right balance, it would be very difficult for Web3 games to compete with Web2 games.