The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!
Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re debuting This Week in Crypto Games.
Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week, and lastly give a brief update on the buzziest gaming airdrops of the moment.
Biggest news 🎮
GME 2.0: There’s a GameStop-inspired meme coin on Solana—and like most buzzy meme coins (including Dogecoin and BONK), it shot up rapidly before starting to crash down to earth. It also echoes GameStop’s own meme stock saga, but this token isn’t an official project.
GME was down by over 50% as of early Friday but then was climbing again on Saturday morning, so who knows where it’ll be come Monday? Interestingly, Friday was also the day that GameStop’s own official NFT marketplace shut down, as announced in January.
From NFT Punchline to $8 Million Raise, ‘Pixelmon’ Preps for MON Token Launch
Pixelmon began its crypto odyssey as one of the most egregious examples of NFT FOMO, as collectors shelled out $70 million for knockoff Pokémon creatures that were so ugly, even the game’s founder called the artwork a “horrible mistake.” But two years and an ownership change later, between a fundraise and an impending token launch, Pixelmon is gunning to have a big 2024. On Tuesday, Pixelmon announced an $8 million seed raise featuring prominent backers in the crypto world, such as Animoca Brand...
Pixelmon plans: At the peak of NFT bull market hype in 2022, degens dropped $70 million on creatures from Pixelmon, a crypto take on Nintendo’s Pokémon sensation. The artwork, which the game’s founder called a “horrible mistake,” became an industry punchline.
But two years later, with new ownership (as of late 2022) and upgraded artwork, Pixelmon is turning into a real gaming ecosystem with games large and small—and newly minted $8 million seed raise from major backers ahead of a MON token launch.
Shrapnel early access: Anticipated extraction shooter Shrapnel, built on Avalanche, announced its early access launch on the Epic Games Store late Friday. Owners of “Extraction Pack” keys can grab the limited chunk of early gameplay and compete in upcoming sessions, help shape the game as it evolves, and potentially earn a share of SHRAP token rewards.
Binance Pours Cold Water on NFT Game That Pulled In $115 Million for Its Mint
SkyArk Chronicles, an anime-style fantasy game, just held a huge NFT mint with eager collectors pledging $115 million worth of Ethereum for a chance to claim one of its character assets. But now Binance Labs says that its investment in the studio behind the game was misrepresented in the run-up to the mint. Earlier this month, SkyArk Studio announced that Binance Labs—the crypto exchange’s venture capital arm—had led its $15 million funding round, which preceded the sizable NFT mint. But in trut...
Binance pushes back: After fantasy game SkyArk Chronicles pulled in $115 million worth of bids for a buzzy NFT auction last weekend, Binance Labs called out the game studio for apparently misrepresenting its investment. SkyArk apologized, but the public pushback from the crypto giant’s VC arm left a lot of skeptics and grumbling NFT buyers in its wake.
ICYMI ⏱️
- The Immutable zkEVM layer-2 scaling network on Ethereum launched this week in an early access mode as games like Guild of Guardians, Shardbound, and MetalCore plan their moves to the chain before the first half of the year ends.
- Card-battler Parallel, which earned GG’s 2023 game of the year honors while still in closed beta, launched a fresh in-game season this week with new NFT cards—and teased an open beta rollout that sounds imminent.
- Yuga Labs teased a new Otherside-themed mobile game this week, in development with studio Faraway. It looks like some sort of management or casual strategy game, and comes amid the launch of Serum City—a game from Faraway and Novel Labs featuring Mutant Apes (but not Yuga’s official Ape branding).
Explore. Craft. Conquer. Rise. Kodas make the best Captains. 🫡
Coming 2H 2024 pic.twitter.com/y5OorfFw9n
— Yuga Labs Gaming (@yugalabsgaming) January 30, 2024
- Forgotten Playland, a game world with “Toy Story” vibes and colorful mini-games, raised $7 million in seed funding from the likes of Merit Circle and Spartan Group.
- Darewise, the maker of metaverse game project Life Beyond from Animoca Brands (that’s making big moves around Bitcoin Ordinals), teamed up with NFT project Deadfellaz for future collaborations.
GG spotlight 👀
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
What's Next for Arbitrum's Gaming Network After the XAI Token Launch
Xai, the layer-3 gaming network built on Ethereum scaler Arbitrum, kicked off 2024 with a bang, launching its XAI token to early supporters and then announcing that noted NFT game studio Laguna Games will bring Crypto Unicorns and related titles to the network. So what’s next? More games, of course. Ex Populus, which co-founder and CEO Tobias Batton described to Decrypt’s GG as the “labs company that serves the Xai Foundation,” is a game studio—and its games are set to be the first out the gate...
'Doom' Runs on Bitcoin and Dogecoin—And Now Gut Bacteria Too
Influential first-person shooter Doom can run on just about anything, from ATM machines to pregnancy tests and beyond, including blockchain networks. But even with a fervent group of fans hellbent on porting Doom to everything, this example is way out of left field. A new student study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says that Doom could theoretically run using E. coli bacteria. First reported by Rock Paper Shotgun, the experiment continues the trend of showing that the cl...
People Are Going Nuts for This New 'Crypto-AR' Game on Solana
A new game studio called GG.zip launched early access for “Solana Hunger Games” Monday and quickly almost melted Crypto Twitter (Crypto X). As of today, more than 100,000 people are following the account on X, and their site crashed yesterday after being hit with over 2 million page views in its first 24 hours, the founders said. Solana Hunger Games, which is modeled on the popular "Hunger Games" series (sort of), will reward players who hunt down treasure in a mobile phone-based Augmented Reali...
You Can Play Games Like 'Doom' on Bitcoin and Dogecoin—Here’s What That Means
If you’ve seen headlines about classic games like Pac-Man and Tetris running on Bitcoin, or a pixel-perfect port of iconic shooter Doom being playable on Dogecoin, you might be wondering: Wait… what does that even mean? Fair question! The explanation isn’t all that complicated, thankfully, but the whole concept of video games running on blockchains designed solely for the purpose of digital money doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the surface. But thanks to the launch of NFT-like protocols on...
Airdrop ETA 💸
MixMob: Solana-based game MixMob airdropped its MXM token this week to NFT owners and beta players. It debuted on ByBit and there are staking rewards available, plus there are more token earnings and Saga smartphone benefits to come.
Solana's 'MixMob' Game Sets MXM Token Launch, First Airdrop Details
Solana gaming platform MixMob will launch its MXM token this week, and we have first details for how the airdrop will work—and how many tokens will be provided to early supporters. MixMob will launch the MXM token this Thursday, February 1, and the team says that the token will be listed on Bybit and “other leading” crypto exchanges. MXM is the governance token for MixMob, and it will also be airdropped to early users. According to a MixMob representative, the project will give out 63 million MX...
Portal: Cross-chain gaming token PORTAL was expected to launch its airdrop in January, but announced this week instead that it was launching a dashboard ahead of the impending drop.
WUF: The WAX NFT network took its first wallet snapshot this week for the impending airdrop of WUFFI (token name: WUF), a gaming meme coin that various WAX games plan to integrate ahead of a planned expansion to Solana. No word yet on the actual token drop.
Game On: The Hottest Upcoming Gaming Token Airdrops on Ethereum, TON, Base and Beyond
Airdrop season is in full swing, with apps, protocols, and other projects seizing upon bear market vibes and regulatory shifts to finally drop their tokens—and potentially reward millions of crypto users in the process. What exactly is an airdrop, though? When it comes to crypto tokens, an airdrop is typically a way for a project to reward its early users and contributors by giving them a share of a newly launched token, all while spreading the tokens far and wide for decentralized governance. W...
MOCA: Mocaverse, the Animoca Brands metaverse gaming community, is getting a MOCA token via the MOCA Foundation. No word yet on timing or airdrop details, but Mocaverse will officially support the token and is lining up partners alongside it.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
