Crypto gaming guild Yield Guild Games has invested in another eight games, taking its stable to 18, as the play-to-earn movement takes off.

The gaming guild operates by loaning valuable NFT in-game assets such as virtual racehorses and battle pets to players in mostly developing countries so they can begin earning money from the games with no upfront cost.

Full-time players of Axie Infinity, the most popular play-to-earn game, can make as much as US$750 a month or more through gameplay – more than the minimum wage in some places.

The guild then takes a cut of their earnings in return for the loan of the NFT assets.

The new games are CyBall, Thetan Arena, KOGs SLAM!, MOBOX, Aavegotchi, DeHorizon, Influence and Genopets.

They were identified for their strong play-to-earn models.

“Community involvement is a key factor of any potential YGG game purchase,” said Sarutobi Sasuke, YGG’s head of partnerships.

“The team reviews the gameplay and game economics to ensure that the games have a robust and fair game economy that rewards players adequately for the time and effort put in by them.”

He added that it’s important for the game to have a guild, team, or league component as it incentivises group effort among the guild’s scholars (the players who are being loaned the assets).

YGG has raised a total of US$22.4 million this year, including investments from Delphi Digital, BITKRAFT, a16z and a token sale.

Some of the in-game assets YGG has purchased include the 46th-largest asteroid in Influence, a massive online multiplayer space strategy game; five YGG-branded legendary MOMO NFTs for MOBOX; exclusive YGG-themed land plots for Aavegotchi, a Tamagotchi-like game; and a Dragon racing team for DeHorizon, a fantasy metaverse.

Yield Guild Games paid 22 Ether for the Influence C-Type carbonaceous asteroid, a trade worth US$98,000 at the time, according to Etherscan.

YGG already has partnerships with Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, Zed Run, Illuvium, Star Atlas and a number of other games.