Top 300 Web3 Games Index: ↓4% today, ↓47% YTD
Ronin Games Index: ↓3% today, ↓68% YTD
Immutable Games Index: ↓7% today, ↓37% YTD
AI Gaming Agents: ↓2% today, ↓44% YTD
Jon’s TX Games Index: ↓4% today, ↓46% YTD
Jon’s 2025 Reboot Index*: ↓4% today, ↓52% YTD
*Definitely not investment advice
The news in the blockchain gaming world has been bad-GOOD and good-GOOD.
The problem is people think the news has been very bad, trending EXISTENTIAL.
As I have attempted to explain, raising $5-10 million of investment to make a game in the period 2021-2023 means that no matter how diligent — or spendthrift — you have been in trying to make your game, by 2025 you will have run out of money.
Give or take, the rule of thumb is it costs around $1 million to run a team of 10 game developers annually. Double check with ChatGPT or Claude.
This is particularly crucial as since 2024, none of those 2021-era investors are still bullish on blockchain games, and almost all “game investors” are looking beyond investing in games.
The result is that a lot of blockchain game developers — some well run, some less so — are shutting down. Crypto Twitter is getting scared because some well known games are also shutting down.
Ember Sword, Blast Royale, Nyan Heroes have been added to the likes of Overworld, Deadrop and The Walking Dead: Empire.
Sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing 📈 in the future 🔮 of gaming 🎮
But the good-GOOD news is that as sad-SAD as the current situation is — and clearly it is for all those concerned — in future, more blockchain games and companies are going to shut up shop for lack of scaling, monetization and funding — bad-GOOD.
This just highlights those teams who are successfully scaling, monetizing and fundraising — and there are some.
Readers of this Substack (and listeners to the BCGW podcast) should not be surprised in this context to see/heard me talking about:
Playful Studios (Wildcard/Thousands),
Mythical Games (NFL Rivals, FIFA Rivals, Pudgy Party),
CCP Games (EVE Frontier),
Proof of Play (Pirate Nation),
Banger Inc (Pixels),
Wemade (Night Crows, Mir4),
The Sandbox (The Sandbox),
MetaKing (Blocklords).
Also play Soccerverse — the fully onchain football world simulator. [This is a referral AD].
Still, in terms of new money hitting a startup bank account, it is happening. Just look to Berlin-based Voya Games, which this week announced a $5 million raise.
Q: Will it be shutting down in 5 years + 2025?
A: Its CEO sold his previous company to Ubisoft for $160 million so more maybe in 2030 he will sell Voya Games to X for YYY million?
The actual answer is Voya has been building its Craft World idle game for the past two years. I’ve been playing daily, own a bunch of NFTs and think this one is going to demonstrate the value of adding a player-owned economy to a web2 game genre that has struggled with long term player retention.
My other big take this week was via attendance at the Avalanche Summit London, at which I probably should have stayed longer.
But one day — the games day — highlighted the fact that Gunzilla’s Off The Grid and Nexon’s MapleStory Universe are very big projects that are leveraging this powerful blockchain primitive to really drive mass market adoption.
Eight days on from the launch of MapleStory N, Nexon’s Henesys blockchain is tracking over 30,000 DAUWs and total NFT trading on its marketplace is over $2 million.
I’d be amazed if it hasn’t breached $100 million by the end of 2025 — 80% probability.
Because, that’s the thing about blockchain gaming. To misquote Hemingway — it will succeed slowly and then suddenly.
Weekly News roundup
Mavens: How will Epic Games App Store ruling impact web3 gaming?
Craft World dev Voya Games raises $5 million.
Off The Grid is coming to Steam; presumably without NFTs.
Bright Star closes down MMORPG Ember Sword due to insufficient funding.
Blast Royale and Tatsumeeko: Lumina Fates closing down.
Sky Mavis’ Aleksander Larsen blames ‘the wrong games and the wrong teams’ for web3 gaming failures.
OpenSea appoints Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson as its first global gaming ambassador.
Onchain game advertising tech Growth Protocol launches its mainnet.
How Animoca Brands will grow in the Middle East and beyond.
Animoca invests in Astar to drive web3 adoption via Sony’s Soneium.
EVM Polkadot ecosystem launches its Moonbeam Gaming Hub.
UNKJD becomes Lineup Games as it expands into multi-game ecosystem.
🔗 Additional Links 🔗
Cozy sim Moonfrost sold its 500 early access bundles at $500 apiece in 30 seconds.
The most expensive NFT traded on MSU is $16,112 for a level 205 character.