The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever, with prominent games released, token airdrops piling up, and a near 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 and a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.
Biggest news
PIXEL is nearly here: Popular Ronin social and farming game Pixels will launch its awaited PIXEL token on February 19, and has already started allocating tokens to play-to-airdrop campaign winners. Crypto exchange Binance has a Launchpool that rewards token stakers with PIXEL rewards in the lead-up to the listing on the 19th. On top of all of that, the Pixels Foundation has raised $4.8 million from various backers.
Shrapnel opens up: Avalanche first-person extraction shooter Shrapnel launched its early access version late last week, and then launched its first three-day play event on Thursday with $100,000 in SHRAP token rewards. The game faced some technical issues at the time, which is to be expected from early access games, and they were due to outsized demand, which isn’t a bad thing.
We went hands-on with the early access build—read our Shrapnel impressions and watch a few minutes of gameplay footage:
‘Shrapnel’ Early Access Preview: The Long-Awaited Crypto Shooter Already Shines
One of the most anticipated blockchain games is finally here in early access: first-person extraction shooter Shrapnel touched down in the Epic Games Store last week. It’s a compact sliver of gameplay from the unfinished Avalanche-based shooter, but one that already shows immense promise as a game poised to compete with the heavyweights of the online shooter genre. Neon Machine announced Shrapnel’s early access debut last Friday and held a brief online session for media and content creators, whi...
Bits on Bitcoin: DFZ Labs, the studio behind the Deadfellaz NFT collection on Ethereum, announced Friday that it has incubated a Bitcoin Ordinals gaming ecosystem called Bits. The project will debut 10,000 character profile pictures (PFPs) on February 13 via Magic Eden, and holders can help shape and contribute to the game they ultimately develop.
MAVIA drop: Heroes of Mavia, a Clash of Clans-like mobile strategy game with crypto and NFT hooks, was released last week and then proceeded to follow that up with its MAVIA token drop on Tuesday. Some 100,000 players were given a share of tokens, along with NFT land owners who took part in earlier staking campaigns. The MAVIA token has been on the rise since, too, spiking to a new high on Friday.
Shrapnel STX1 Early Access Gameplay
Gameplay footage from the STX1 early access gameplay demo of Shrapnel, a first-person shooter built on Avalanche.
ICYMI
- An NFT mint for the Otherside game Legends of the Mara went awry this week, with high Ethereum network gas fees getting in the way. Yuga Labs’ jumbled response didn’t help, and it begs the question of whether the Bored Ape maker will ditch ETH.
- Mystery Society, a new Among Us-like social deduction game with optional NFT cosmetics, launched its beta test Friday ahead of an eventual free-to-play rollout. Creator Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow also announced a $3 million fundraise.
- Worldcoin’s blockchain-based World ID, which provides “proof of personhood,” will be tapped by Web3 esports platform Community Gaming to verify players for tournaments. The iris-scanning Orb is not required.
- Mastercard and MoonPay teamed up to launch a UEFA Champions League trivia game, which is gated by an NFT access pass that’s free for cardholders. Players can earn game tickets, including to the Champions League Final.
- Shardbound, an indie PC strategy game from a few years back that’s being revived as an NFT game, is holding its next playtest this month. The Immutable zkEVM game will let in up to 2,000 players on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins announced a team-up with marketplace Magic Eden, part of which will explore ways to put Magic Eden into Pudgy games. Pudgy World is set to launch in alpha on zkSync this quarter.
GG spotlight
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
Why Treasure Is Building ‘Infinity Chains’ on Arbitrum to Power Ethereum Games
Crypto gaming ecosystem Treasure had options. Built on Arbitrum, the platform—which currently spans 15 games—attracted proposals from the Optimism, zkSync, and SKALE teams in recent weeks to migrate to another Ethereum scaling network. Instead, Treasure intends to double down on Arbitrum. This week, the ecosystem’s core team announced plans to launch a Treasure Chain built on Arbitrum and using its existing MAGIC token to pay for gas, with a web of “Infinity Chains” that can power the various ga...
'Project Orion' Preview: Everything You Need to Know About the 'Cyberpunk 2077' Sequel
With renewed interest in Cyberpunk 2077 after the release of patch 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion, CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is gearing up for the sequel, officially codenamed "Project Orion." According to CDPR, over five million copies of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty were sold in 2023. Not bad for a three-year-old game with one of the most disastrous launches in gaming history—and cumulative sales topped 25 million late last year. While little has been shared about the storyline of the ne...
Are Live Game Shows the Future of Crypto Gaming?
Earlier this week, The Solana Hunger Games took Twitter (aka X) by storm. Now a crypto-fueled version of the TV reality series “Survivor” has people scouring Brooklyn for secret codes, and competing in online arcade games to oust each other from their crypto island. Dylan Abruscato, former head of partnerships of the breakout mobile game show HQ Trivia, said he leveraged what he learned from the daily trivia show to create Crypto: The Game, which began its first 10-day run on Monday. “HQ made f...
Ownership Doesn’t Need Blockchain or NFTs, Entertainment Execs Say
Despite weathering an historic storm of collapses and scandals, the gaming and Web3 industries didn’t stop building. To continue that trajectory, attendees at the SEG3 conference in Los Angeles agreed that ownership rights and the resulting revenue are important. Less clear, however, was whether blockchain technology has a role to play. SEG3, coming to California after two years in Europe, is pitched as a "global meeting place for sports, entertainment and gaming industries to connect and learn...
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
