Reasons why web3 gaming isn't dead
Reasons why web3 gaming isn't dead
Rounding up the week with optimism
It’s been an interesting week in blockchain gaming, with parts of Crypto Twitter getting all-excited that “Web3 gaming is dead”.
By which — I think — they meant that the gaming tokens they’ve been trying to flip have gone down in price again. Not the same thing at all.
Indeed, the week started with the DAO running Ethereum L2 Arbitrum passing a proposal created by some Arbitrum-based gaming companies to allocate 200 million ARB tokens (currently worth $180 million) to invest in gaming over the next three years. In addition, $25 million will be allocated to fund an organization to drive the process.
It’s not clear to me how effective this investment will be. Much of it may be spent trying to attract existing games from other blockchains. But it’s still a ballsy move.
On Tuesday, I dove into the data from Mythical Games’ NFL Rivals, which as well as breaking $6 million in lifetime trading value, also hit $1 million in trading volume during May, up 58% compared to April.
It’s also tracking to rise a further 9% in June; not bad for the NFL offseason.
On Wednesday, it was podcast time. I spoke to Pixels’ CEO Luke Barwikowski about the rise of the most popular blockchain game to 1 million daily active unique wallets and what he hopes will be beyond, with the launch of chapter 2 next week.
However, as ever, what most impressed me about talking to Luke was his combination of short term hustle and long term thinking.
He commented that Pixels continues to focus on building and releasing content quickly while it has competitive advantage, while also hiring experienced gaming staff to create the sort of company that will still be thriving in five years time.
It’s a tricky balancing act but with the game not too far away from proving out a balanced economy, it’s arguable that Pixels is the closest thing we’ve yet seen to a sustainable blockchain game.
You can check out a transcript of the podcast here.
Thursday was more of a magical mystery tour as I researched the $3 million funding for web3 casual mobile gaming outfit Unite, which it transpired was a rebranded version of Kevin Chou’s web3 casual mobile gaming outfit Taki.
It’s preparing to launch its node-based reward system; a process that will be fuelled by a $2 million giveaway.
The other big news of the week was the launch of Pirate Nation’s PIRATE token, which is one of the few recently-launched gaming tokens to perform well, albeit it’s very early days.
But, thanks in part to a listing on Coinbase, PIRATE is up 162% since its first Coingecko tracking on Thursday.
More generally, however, key aspects of the launch were that the only people to receive the token were NFT holders and those who had played the game. There were no pre-sales and no launchpads, so fewer people who wanted to immediately cash-in.
Indeed, 71% of tokens have been staked for future rewards, which it’s believed will be related to the token underpinning the Apex blockchain on which Pirate Nation and other future games from its creator Proof of Play will run.
Clearly, web3 gaming is not dead for everyone.
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Weekly News Roundup
147 blockchain-enabled PC games are now listed on Epic Games Store.
Gamee’s Wat Protocol racks up 2 million wallets on Telegram.
Animoca’s Japanese Sorah launchpad goes live with Captain Tsubasa NFTs.
Gumi joins Injective blockchain as its first Japanese validator.
How Animoca’s Motorverse is building out a web3 ecosystem for digital petrolheads.
NDUS Interactive raises $7.5 million for Sui-based thirdperson shooter Xociety.
Pixelverse raises $5.5 million to build out its TON-based web3 gaming ecosystem.
As discussed below … including a big chunk of “is web3 gaming dead?”.
Additional Links
Nine Chronicles is going to hard fork its blockchain as it moves to Proof of Stake.
Arch crypto VC fund Paradigm has raised an impressive $850 million for its third fund, although this is down compared to its monster $2 billion second fund, announced in late 2021.
Overwatch Arena hasn’t attracted the degens: only 50 ETH bridged ($175,000).
Guild of Guardians has completed its four week-long $450,000 GOG token giveaway. I got $13.
Ember Sword’s EMBER token launched; down 57% today.
Check out the Big Blockchain Game Report Q1 2024 👀 here or 👀 via PDF.