It’s been 12 months since I decided to start writing a daily email about what was happening in the blockchain game sector.
I think, in the broadest scene, I’ve fulfilled that commitment: this will be my 249th article. And taking a look back at them, and I’m pretty happy with the context too.
After all, there’s been plenty of source material to discuss.
But, even then, starting every day with a blank page really does force you to get better at making the decision — what are you going to write today?
Haing a lot of news is helpful as the decision becomes easier. But I think the better emails have been ones where the daily news cycle has connected with my ability to get opinionated at a deeper level — when there’s something more significant to be discussed than the news itself.
As Tyler Cowen repeats, “context is the thing that is scarce”, particularly in this post-AI era.
And the best articles — imho — have been those days when I’ve also been out-of-office, which generally means I have more time to focus on writing something long form, without the distraction of the “pram in the hall”. Sitting in a pub with beer also helps the juices flow.
So, without overly blowing my own trumpet, I’d suggest these have been some of my recent greatest hits.
Of course, I’d also like to thank those people who signed up to be paid subscribers. My default decision is I’m doing this every day because it makes me better at my job and (to some extent) I also enjoy it.
But having paid subscribers is a fantastic second order benefit, so if you’d like to get the next 249 emails, please consider upgrading from the weekly free level.
Funding news
Japanese-centric gaming blockchain Oasys has announced it’s closed a strategic funding round. It didn’t provide the amount of investment raised. Previously it announced a $20 million sale of its tokens in July 2022.
Galaxy Interactive and South Korean gaming outfit Nexon led the strategic round, which was filled out by an eclectic mix of investors including Japanese degens MZ Web3 Fund, Hyperithm and Jsquare plus South Korean VR dev YJM Games, ex-guild-turned-infra provider AAG, and web3 game Chain Guardians.
Oasys has also announced that it raised $0.85 million from the public sale of 24 million of its OAS tokens.
You can get an idea of the project in the video below of the just-launched Oasys hub interface.
M&A news
Animoca Brands has taken a majority stake in Richie Hawtin and deadmau5’s Pixelynx music/gaming-oriented metaverse company.
Based in LA and London, Pixelynx hopes to provide musicians with new ways in which to build communities and share their music. Its current project is Elynxir, a mobile gaming platform integrating music and NFTs with AR and location-based elements using Niantic’s Lightship technology. It’s expected to be available in beta during H1 2023.
You can check out the litepaper — which is fairly detailed — here.
Animoca was the lead investor when Pixelynx announced a $5 million seed investment in December 2021.
This Substack is sponsored by Hiro Capital: Investing in the future of games
Hiring news
DigiDaigaku developer Limit Break has hired Delphi Digital analyst (and reader of this Substack) Ryan Foo as a game economist and designer.
Blur Airdrop news
NFT marketplace Blur has launched its second airdrop, which it claims will be 10 times larger than the first one. In order to claim, qualified users will have to place a bid on a NFT via the Blur marketplace.
In terms of data, since launch, Blur claims to have processed $225 million in trading volume, compared to $357 million for market leader OpenSea, although all of OpenSea’s volume was for trading on its platform. Blur also acts as an aggregator of other marketplaces; indeed it claims to be the #1 NFT aggregator.
The third and final Blur airdrop event will happen alongside the launch of the Blur token in January 2023.
Additional Links
Great podcast with CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson about learnings from 20 years of EVE Online [YT]
“Fun-to-Play” is now apparently a thing!
I’ve got plenty of hardware wallets already but the new NFT-focused Ledger Stax looks interesting, despite the $279 price tag (and e-ink screen).