The key blockchain gaming news from 2023

What happened?

Instead of our usual Friday weekly roundup, today we look back across 2023; a year that started in the shadow of FTX’s implosion — which particularly impacted the Solana ecosystem — but which ended in boom times, especially for the Solana ecosystem. How times change!

Certainly Solana-based projects such as Star Atlas, which maintained their composure and vision through such trying times are to be applauded and well deserve their financial boost.

More generally, other trends — as highlighted in the granular news below — included traditional game companies such as Zynga, Ubisoft and Square Enix announcing and launching product. As in 2022, South Korean game companies such as Nexon, Line and Krafton were in the vanguard, especially in terms of capital committed.

What blockchain to deploy on was a crucial question for many games in 2023 thanks to the rise of both general purpose L2 chains and specific gaming infrastructure such as Ronin and Immutable. Pixels’ success moving from Polygon to Ronin was a particular highlight.

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Distribution channels were also much discussed with Epic Games Store ending the year as the place to be for blockchain PC games, while other options include Ultra and Hyperplay. Meanwhile Apple and Google’s app stores seem to be a growing opportunity, as demonstrated by the relative success of Mythical Games’ NFL Rivals.

Of course, these trends are not complete and most will continue to shape the industry into 2024.

January

• Yuga Labs' Dookey Dash launches

• Limit Break announces ERC721C standard for enforced royalties

• Plai Labs raises $32 million for Champions Ascension

February

• Kratos raises $20 million for Indian web3 gaming push

• Dookey Dash golden key NFT winner sells it for $1.6 million

Check out a hour-long discussion of everything that happened in 2023 below.

March

• CCP Online raises $40 million for blockchain EVE Online game

• Mocaverse NFTs mint out

• Square Enix announces Symbiogenesis

• Nexon announces MapleStory Universe

• Immutable and Polygon partner for zkEVM infrastructure

• Sky Mavis announces first thirdparty games on its Ronin blockchain