A week of falling tokens
Top 300 Web3 Games Index: ↑1% today, ↓59% YTD
Ronin Games Index: ↑1% today, ↓62% YTD
Immutable Games Index: ↓4% today, ↓57% YTD
AI Gaming Agents: 0% today, ↓61% YTD
Jon’s TX Games Index: ↑1% today, ↓57% YTD
Demonstrating once again that this is not the season for launching new game tokens, three new game tokens have launched in recent days.
The highest profile is the GUN token for Gunzilla Games’ Gunz blockchain, which will eventually be the platform for its console game Off The Grid, and perhaps other games too.
However, despite the GUN token and the Gunz mainnet going live this week, Off The Grid is still running on the Gunz testnet, with no date given for when assets will migrate. Further confusion has arisen as testnet token holders have been told that these tokens will not be migrated at a 1:1 basis, although some game assets will be.
To further annoy those who have been using the Gunz infrastructure, including mobile game Technocore and the Gunz mobile wallet — which has been live since 2023 — the GUN token was launched through Binance’s Launchpad, which is not available in some countries, including the US. There was no airdrop to previous players.
In this way, 400 million tokens were instead given away to Binance account holders, all of who appear to be — unsurprisingly — selling off the free money they were given.
The price of GUN is down 57%. But it’s not the worst performer.
The IMT token for Immutable-based mobile idle RPG Immortal Rising 2 is down 74% from its launch seven days ago, while Immutable MMORPG Ravenquest has seen its QUEST token drop 17% since it launched.
No wonder that Ronin-based MMORPG Forgotten Runiverse has decided to ditch its own XP token launch, instead choosing to use the already launched PIXEL token from Pixels.
Not only does this reduce cost and complexity but the more games you can attach to a single token, the more chance you have to build utility into its economic model — at least that’s the plan.
⚔️ Playing RavenQuest? Get $20 of Ravenpacks via my referral code.
More positively, The Sandbox has launched its latest six-week-long alpha. Alpha Season 5 is backed by $1 million-worth of SAND token, which players earn by completing various experiences — including the headline Jurassic World game — earning XP and unlocking rewards via a free battle pass. Players can also buy additional NFTs to unlock more experiences and rewards.
I’ve only dipped into the game but found it fairly playable and will be attempting to do as much of the battle pass as possible in the coming weeks. If nothing else, I have a T-Rex dino egg to hatch!
The other big news of the week was that blockchain gaming distribution platform Ultra has raised $12 million for its reboot, with the promise of more investment to come.
I caught up with new CEO Gus van Rijckevorsel, who will feature in episode #196 of Blockchain Gaming World.
As you might expect, he’s a very enthusiastic and ambitious character so I think there will be plenty of interesting things to discuss next week!
Sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing 📈 in the future 🔮 of gaming 🎮
Weekly News roundup
Pixels’ PIXEL token expands to Forgotten Runiverse.
Despite plummeting IMT token price, we’re here “for years to come” says Planetarium CEO JC Kim.
Shrapnel becomes first licensed web3 game on China’s official blockchain.
Football management MMO Soccerverse partners with HyperPlay.
Nyan Heroes drops game trailer unveiling Q4 launch.
Pirate Nation launches PVP alongside 10 million PIRATE prize event.
Delabs Games on how messenger-based games drive web3 adoption.
Why gaming’s success on Sui will also drive DeFi adoption.
ONE Fight Arena is our Game of the Week.
As discussed below:
Additional Links
Pixels isn’t a game, it’s going to be a play-to-earn marketing network.
NFT trader Adam Hollander is OpenSea’s new chief marketing officer.
GUN investor Piers Kicks (Delphi) 🥾 kicks back on GUN FUD.
Beam game Forgotten Playground has hit 100,000 Epic Games Store downloads.
One Year Ago: Mocaverse is launching a token launchpad.