Initial Game Offering (IGO) launchpads are the latest trend in the crypto world and the concept is similar to Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The only difference is that in IGOs, the platform hosts gaming projects that are based on NFTs or tokens as their in-game currency and rewards.
Investors can put their funds into the gaming projects offered by IGO launchpads and expect significant ROI once that gaming project is launched on major crypto exchanges or gains popularity in the ever-increasing gaming community.
With the rise of blockchain gaming, IGOs are becoming the next big thing in the crypto space. Games like Axie Infinity (AXS), CryptoBlades (SKILL), and Alien Worlds (TLM) have thousands of daily active users. Axie Infinity is currently leading the pack with over $1.1 billion USD in sales so far in 2021. While Axie Infinity has launched its initial token sale of $AXS on the Binance launchpad, players in the game earn income primarily from its Smooth Love Potion ($SLP) token. $SLP are obtained by completing daily quests, competing with other players (PvP) and battling monsters in adventure mode (PvE). Players can trade $SLP to fiat on exchanges like Binance, and users in the Philippines can check the SLP exchange rate to PHP directly on CoinMarketCap.
Owing to this huge popularity, several IGO launchpads have surfaced, including Gamefi (GAFI), Enjinstarter (ENJINSTARTER), Gamestarter (GAME), Seedify.fund (SFUND), and others.
GameFi is one of the first launchpads to feature the concept of initial game offerings (IGO). Currently, there are two IGOs live on GameFi platform, namely $KABY Pool and Deathroad IGO. Both games are offering their initial tokens to gamers who can either store them and wait for the price to go up or use the tokens to enhance their blockchain game-oriented experience.
Enjinstarter is another IGO launchpad that offers unique projects and features that include yield farms, NFTs-based platforms and DeFi platforms. The project is built on Enjin's Jumpnet, a platform for game developers to build communities and run marketing campaigns to boost gaming projects.
The main purpose behind offering IGOs is to provide early access to gaming assets that early investors can bank on and expect a significant return on investment in the future.
IGOs may seem a good investment, however, before investing in any IGO platform or projects that are in its initial game offering (IGO) phase, a few things should be considered:
See the holder benefits of the native tokens. Check the percentage of benefits and compare them with other IGOs.
Check whether the IGO launchpad is providing guaranteed allocation. This may cost higher than IGO launchpads that use a lottery mechanism; however, in that case, allocation is not guaranteed.
Evaluate the ROI of the active IGOs offered on the platform. A launchpad with a history of good projects is likely to provide major returns on most of its upcoming projects.
Check the launchpad's holder value which acts as a performance metric for any IGO launchpad. A high holder value amounts to a higher token valuation, which implies that investing in that IGO may prove to be beneficial.
Check the number of token generation events of an IGO launchpad. A higher number of events imply the platform strives to host quality initiatives to boost its overall valuation.
In summary, investing in IGOs and IGO launchpads is like any other investment decision. You have to evaluate whether the IGO launchpad has a good standing and aims to provide support for major gaming projects in the future.
