I haven’t worked on an overview of the blockchain gaming sector since May, when the world was a very different place.
In fact, trying to write a new version this week has proven particularly fitful given the market eruptions in recent days.
Still, my overarching thesis that most crypto assets will go to zero but some will not — and they are the magical bit: something from nothing — has only been reinforced.
I guess true believers believe — that’s the point.
More specifically, the ‘0’ or ‘1’ thesis is powerful because it decouples the fundamental value of blockchain, and in this case blockchain gaming, with the current price of any or indeed almost all assets.
The reason some will trend to ‘1’ is that player ownership of assets, and people being able to price their passions via exchange on an open marketplace is a fundamental improvement on games’ current monetization methods, which are both inflexible for developers and exploitative for players; a bad combination.
Anyone with 39 minutes to burn can see my fuller explanation of what’s going in the following video.
Of course, all the details may be very different next week.
This Substack is sponsored by Hiro Capital. Investing in good times and bad.
App Store Launching news
Com2uS has launched the first web3 mobile game on its new XPLA blockchain. RPG Dear, Ella is now live through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The game will combine in-game non-crypto currencies with its underlying XPLA token. There will also be NFT characters, which can be crafted and bought directly. Further features including guilds and NFT staking are planned 2023.
However, the game’s blockchain elements are not available in China, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea because of local regulations.
World Cup Web3 Gaming news
With the World Cup looming, FIFA has announced some official games with blockchain components. The move is part of FIFA’s new non-exclusive model for gaming and esports that sees EA’s FIFA 2023 as the final exclusive game in the series.
In terms of the games, AI League: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition is a 10-week prediction game that will onboard players into Altered State Machine’s AIFA Football project, as they can unlock four in-game NFT characters.
Official World Cup assets will also be available in mobile web3 game Upland, while physical/digital outfit Phygtl is doing something with golden balls, AR and NFTs. FIFA is also launching its own Top Shot-style collectible moment NFTs via its new FIFA+ project, which uses the Algorand blockchain.
More Soccer news
Sorare has put some of its $730 million to work, signing up Lionel Messi as its new ambassador.
Team mate Kylian Mbappé took up a similar role in June, while Serena Williams is also involved. Her husband Alexis Ohanian, heads VC Seven Seven Six and invested into Sorare in a personal capacity.
Gerard Piqué, Antoine Griezmann, Rio Ferdinand and César Azpilicueta have also invested into Sorare, which as well as its soccer game has since released similar NFT experiences for NBA and MLB. It claims two million registered users for the soccer game, which launched in 2019, and is currently doing around $30 million of trading monthly.
Japanese developers Thirdverse and Blocksmith & Co have announced that Yuto Nagatomo will be the ambassador for their forthcoming web3 game Captain Tsubasa Rivals.
Nagatomo currently plays for FC Tokyo and will be part of the Japanese national teaam in Qatar, playing in his fourth world cup.
Based on the soccer manga series, Captain Tsubasa Rivals is an NFT-based game including the Rivals story PVE mode and a PVP mode. The game will also have its own utility and governance tokens, and provide the ability to mint new characters by burning two existing players.
Indeed, as is often the case with Japanese games, the whole design seems very (overly?) complex. You can check out the whitepaper here.
Jobs news
Interesting given the timing but FTX’s ex-head of games Steve Sabin has just been announced as Scopely’s SVP of web3 games. According to LinkedIn, he left FTX in October after eight months. He previously worked at Warner Bros. Games (including on Game of Thrones Conquest) and Sega Networks.
Vacancies news
We’ll see how this goes but I’m going to attempt a regular list of what I consider interesting vacancies. Ping me if you want inclusion!
Angry Dynomites Labs (Berlin) is looking for a Game Systems Designer, with skills including tokenomics.
Boomland (Remote) is looking for a web3 blockchain publishing manager.