The question I got asked the most during Gamescom was “What’s exciting you the most?”.
Although I waffled through some responses, it was a good question in that I knew I didn’t have a good answer. Hence it required some more thought.
Some more thoughts later, I’m still not sure I have a *great* answer but I do have some additional thoughts!
Of course, the simple response to this question is to throw back some exciting game titles, which will be launching in the coming months. Certainly there are enough of them.
Blocklords, Champions Ascension, Champions Tactics, Metalcore, Off The Grid, Shrapnel, Wildcard…
I’ve also just come off a podcast recording with nWay’s CEO Taehoon Kim talking about Wreck League, which launches with its Yuga Labs-licensed season one on 14th September. There’s lots of really interesting stuff there, especially in terms of the interaction between web2 and web3 players, as you’ll find out when Blockchain Gaming World episode #140 airs next week!
And this not to ignore already live titles such as NFL Rivals, Nitro Nation, Mojo Melee, Hunters On-Chain, Skyweaver, Cross The Ages etc.
But as much as I think the next big wave of blockchain gaming hype will be led by a couple of signature titles, what’s actually exciting me the most is the fact that the answer is complex to articulate.
Because I know I am excited: ever the optimist I’ve always thought 2023 would be a year in which blockchain games would be seen as key trend for the whole web3 sector, and I still think that’s a strong possibility despite the declining number of months available.
I’m also excited that these live and upcoming games are so much more sophisticated in their economic modelling and discipline to connect asset value to gameplay progress rather than the speculation that’s gone before, although it could be argued this restriction has been forced by market conditions.
But — perhaps the best answer to the question — is I’m excited because only the true believers are still building. It’s been a really tough 15 months and I don’t think anyone expects a significant change in sentiment any time soon, although we all hope for it.
Yet those teams who believe allowing players to own in-game assets will make for better experiences for players, better communities and — yes — more successful businesses for developers too, are finding their own ways to build out that vision.
And that process is — in its own way — truly exciting because no-one knows exactly what will work so everyone is having to experiment, exploring the paths that will get us eventually to the goal.
Which isn’t to say that the process itself also isn’t a bit scary. It is! And maybe that was part of my unconscious uncertainty in answering the original question during Gamescom. It’s been much too easy in the blockchain game sector to be overly confident about success.
I hope that’s not the case now. But I also hope we’re still excited because short-term difficulties should only delay, never derail a long-term vision.
This Substack is sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing in the future of gaming
Calendar
Fableborne’s Primordials tournament ends — 2nd September
Legendary: Heroes Unchained NFT holders’ alpha ends — 4th September
Martial Premiere League launches head-to-head matches — 6th September
Wreck League box open and game launch — 14th September
Zeedz launches its public alpha — 5th October
Mojo Melee Amazon Prime Season 2 news
The second part of Mojo Melee’s Amazon Prime Gaming collab has just been released. Subscribers who log into their Amazon Prime Gaming account and then log into (or create) a Mojo Melee account will be able to claim the new Dawn Striker champion NFT and its chroma skin.
Dawn Striker is a dynamic character, which moves around the battlefield, targeting your opponent’s weakest champion, so expect it to mix up the meta! It will be claimable until 26th September.
In addition, the game has launched its own NFT marketplace for its Mojo and champion NFTs, which run on the Polygon blockchain. Supported wallets include Sequence and Metamask plus others via WalletConnect.
Idle Ninjas On XPLA news
Com2uS has announced South Korean web2/3 mobile game Idle Ninja Online will be launching on its XPLA chain. Released in 2021 on BNB in terms of its NINKY token with NFTs following in early 2022, it looks like the project is rebooting with this news. To-date, it’s been downloaded over one million times from Google Play, with around 210,000 active players claimed.
The launch on XPLA — via a dedicated server — will occur in conjunction with a major game update during September. The server will feature the new XNINKY token, which can be obtained by playing the game’s competition mode.
Additional Links
Epic Games Store now lists over 50 blockchain games.
Big Blockchain Game List now tracks 914 titles.
Mrs Jordan’s first gameplay video.
Did you check out BlockchainGamer.biz’s top 10 most anticipated games?
It’s time to complete Blockchain Game Association’s annual survey