Ubisoft has announced details of the first NFT drop for its forthcoming PC-based PVP tactical RPG Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles.
The Warlords are a 9,999-strong pixelated PFP collection, which will be distributed via a free mint on Ethereum in Q4 2023. They won’t be in-game characters themselves, however, acting as tickets for the future mint of the playable champions.
Initial access to The Warlords mint will be chosen through participation in contests and community engagement but will end in a public mint until all 9,999 Warlords are minted. 8,000 will be available for players, Ubisoft will keep 999 for giveaways and 1,000 will be distributed by the Oasys blockchain on which Champions Tactics will deploy sometime in early 2024.
To be eligible for the mint, players will need to be over 18, have a Ubisoft account and a crypto wallet.
As for the game itself, details remain sketchy. What we do know is that prior to each PVP battle, players will pick three champions from their collection. Ubisoft says there will be thousands of unique champions to collect. Indeed, players will be able to create their own champions “using the power of the Bloodstone”, whatever that may be.
Interestingly it appears that the game technically won’t be free-to-play and that players will require champions in order to play.
However Ubisoft suggests that initial access could be free because “there will be a free champions drop at launch. More information coming soon”.
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Calendar
Arc8 GameFest starts — 16th November
Symbiogenesis mints its first 500 characters — 21st November
Nine Chronicles M goes live — 22nd November
Rumble Racing Star enters open beta — 22nd November
Gas Hero’s community test starts — 27th November
Illuvium launches via Epic Games Store — 28th November
See you at Future of Gaming in Helsinki? — 29th November
Funding news
US developer Bazooka Tango has announced a $5 million investment round, which was led by Bitkraft, which also led its $2.5 million seed round in March 2020. Other participants included existing investor RW3 Ventures and new investors Sfermion and 1Up Ventures.
Bazooka Tango is currently working on turn-based action strategy game Shardbound, which runs on Immutable. The funds will be used to launch that game, make strategic hires, and deliver additional titles that are already in-development.
G2A Does NFTs news
Game asset reseller G2A has launched G2A Geekverse, an NFT marketplace and minting launchpad. It’s currently offers a curated selection of mainly gaming-focused NFTs from projects on Polygon, although it also supports Ethereum and BNB. In order to access the marketplace, users have to have a G2A account and a crypto wallet, although G2A allows them to create a simple wallet using email sign-in. The marketplace only supports crypto payments at present.
According to Decrypt, G2A CEO Bartosz Skwarczek commented: “We wanted to find out how closely gamers are related to technology and concepts of blockchain gaming.
“It turned out that players are quite familiar with the blockchain gaming industry, and a significant portion of them already play web3 games and have even engaged in NFT trading from games.”
Currently G2A will not charge marketplace fees and it “will aim to” honor creators’ royalties rate — whatever that means. In future, additional blockchains and fiat payment rails will be supported, and more tools will be provided for projects to promote their NFTs.
Beyond The Moon news
Phantom Galaxies is now available in early access via its own website, Epic Games Store, HyperPlay and Ultra, plus a non-web3 version on Steam. Obviously, on Steam it’s getting review bombed as an NFT game — 265 reviews “Mostly Negative”.
However, Blowfish Studio’s CEO Ben Lee says he’s not too bothered. “We’re here to change that attitude and we have thick skins!”
Within 24 hours, the PC-based F2P space combat mech game has done about 30,000 installs. The game will remain in early access for around a year as it builds out features and more blockchain integration.
Additional Links
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Pirate Nation has launched its game shop, currently selling ship skins and island decorations.
Monopoly-style mobile game Upland has launched its first 3D mini-game - a gun firing range.
Sky Mavis has announced the winners of its two-week Axie Game Jam 2023.
Pareto alert: 24% of US population is responsible for 79% of game spending ($41 per month).
Nominations for the Top 50 Blockchain Game Makers 2024 are now open.