Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022, the NFT Winter Olympics

Launched a few days ago on Android and with a forthcoming release on iOS, Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 mixes winter sports and NFT for an original cocktail. Available worldwide since the day before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the title boasts of being a significant gateway to the world of NFT via an audience opening that only a competition as large as the Olympics could bring.

Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022, the official play-to-earn

Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 is a free-to-play game in which players take part in the winter sports events we all know. In a cartoon style, it offers a colourful party-game version of the Winter Olympics competition. Bobsleigh, skiing and snowboarding are all on the agenda, as revealed in the trailer for Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 below.

The game is officially licensed and focuses on fun multiplayer play-to-earn action. There is no realistic racing here as boosts and skins a la Fortnite are present at the starting line. As you progress, you accumulate NFT pins that you can trade and resell via the nWayPlay marketplace. These NFTs are also available via lootboxes and, beyond their individual value, they will bring in-game bonuses to their owner such as power-ups or extra speed for example.

The title is currently available for free on the Google Play Store. In addition, the studio behind the game has already committed to providing regular content after the official launch, to enrich the Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022 gaming experience with more game modes, events and sports to try out.

For the past few months, announcements have been pouring in about NFTs in video games and, while they don't strike me as an uninteresting mechanic, they do raise a crucial point about the growing presence of the financial aspect of video games for the player, no longer just out of the game but well and truly in-game, with every action. I hope that some studios will come up with innovative ideas around NFTs rather than using them as the future cash cow to replace lootboxes, which have become almost too common.

I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but we're already seeing problems arise with mobile games like MIR4 that hide a badly aged MMO under a play-to-earn rug instead of producing truly innovative content. And we know how fast "inspiration" goes in the Android and iOS jv industry!