I'm sure there are a lot of people out there, alongside myself, who see the huge potential upside in altcoins as mechanisms of video games and virtual economies.
Huge potential, or wishful thinking? Sit there for awhile and think about it from you being an owner of a game company. Why would you want to introduce some third party into the equation and have to deal with the volatility of the price of those coins? You're creating an extra headache for yourself that's simply not worth it. Couple or so years back I implemented bitcoin/litecoin/dogecoin payments for some clients. After awhile, all of them had me remove it as it simply wasn't worth it to them.Game companies can realize increased profits by implementing a taxation system on player-to-player transactions and/or sell crypto as a premium currency. Emerging games can also use crypto as a method for increased exposure- if they incorporate themselves into an existing network of players by utilizing some global currency, they'll be able to bring in players already using said currency. It's also a huge draw in and of itself. Many players (illegally) coordinate real-world transactions in games like Eve Online, Guild Wars 2, Runescape, World of Warcraft, etc. Making a game that allows and even promotes such actions is a huge hook.
Unless a crypto is going to increase their profits by a significant amount, they're not interested. Selling crypto to players? Do you think they want to get the legal headaches? Things like in game currencies that they allow people to use to buy things like lockboxes is already a huge gray area for them and a potential legal risk. We all like to think that there are or will be many people using some currency that it makes it a big financial incentive for companies, but that's simply not the case. I've recently been going through companies that used to accept a variety of coins to see what the status is and the vast majority have stopped accepting crypto. It's just not ready for that and there's no where near enough incentive for them to use it. The only case that can currently be sold to a company is if a payment processor handles 100% of everything and just sends them a "check" where the amount they're getting is equivalent or more than what they would get from fiat.
"Companies" as a whole is a poor indicator for video game companies in particular.
Right. And my "opinion" (since that's all either of us have), is based on working as a contractor for goods and services companies that were interested in crypto, and also 5 years of working for one of the top 10 game companies for several years. I'm sure if I hadn't of had those experiences I'd think as you do on the matter.
