A week of magical thinking
Time to change the tune?
It’s been a week without much formal blockchain gaming news. But even if the waves on top are dampened, the currents beneath are strengthening.
In part this is a product of how most tokens — particularly gaming — continue to get beaten down in terms of price.
Even top games such as Pixels — which has over 200,000 DAUWs and a solid plan in terms of what its dev team wants to do to create a sustainable economy — seems like it’s on a one-way elevator. PIXEL is now down 94% from its all-time-high in March 2024.
On the other side of the utility coin, Pudgy Penguins’ memecoin PENGU is down 85%.
Recent launches haven’t performed any better either. Azuki’s ANIME — TGE 23rd January — is down 85%, while InfiniGods’ GOD — TGE 26th January — is down 65%.
And it’s hard to see how new launches such as Berachain’s BERA, Game7’s G7 or B3’s B3 tokens are going to experience anything different.
The fact is the world doesn’t need more blockspace. I don’t really think it ever has but certainly not now considering the number of new L2 and L3s launched in 2024. The market doesn’t have any appetite for new tokens either, which is why everyone is dumping their allocation at TGE and moving on.
Continuing a theme discussed on Monday and Tuesday, one symbolic trend I’m tracking in this context is the number of gaming tokens in the top 100 cryptos.
It’s currently a mere three — IMX, GALA and SAND — with gaming-adjacent memecoin FLOKI dropping out of the top 100 yesterday.
Tuesday’s headline “Now with added FLOKI” really didn’t last that long.
But, of course, there is another way.
As highlighted in my podcast with Mythical Games’ CEO John Linden, he’s been unrelenting in his view that ‘web3 gaming isn’t mainly about profits, it’s mainly about digital identity’.
That hasn’t stopped the MYTH token experiencing the same downward pressure as all other gaming tokens.
But the way Mythical’s games such as NFL Rivals present NFTs as being valuable for their in-game utility — with their market value something only exposed if you choose to sell them or enter the marketplace — means most players will have a different relationship compared to raw crypto games, which tend to highlight the price of everything but fail to highlight anything of value.
It’s a similar situation with Limit Break’s Apptokens to which I’ve been warming in recent days. This protocol allows developers to set minimum and maximum prices for their game tokens, or restrict the trading of tokens on exchanges, forcing players to value them for their pure in-game utility.
Of course, it’s unclear whether either of these approaches will work in terms of gaining user adoption. Maybe degens just like to degen!
Nevertheless, current conditions seem the ideal opportunity to try something else.
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Weekly News roundup
Zed Run sunsetted to make way for Zed Champions.
Planet Mojo unveils its AI x player economy.
Beamable raises $13.5 million to decentralize its existing gaming infra.
What to expect from “open gaming superchain” B3?
Game7’s G7 mainnet goes live.
NFL Rivals’ Super Bowl event launches with predictions and exclusive cards.
Move-to-Earn app StepMania launches via Telegram.
As discussed below — and check out my new cap!
Another KOL Goes Apptoken (Sorta) news
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