The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, with prominent games released, token airdrops piling up, and a 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.
Top stories
PIXEL for RON stakers: Ahead of Monday’s PIXEL token launch, the developers of the game Pixels announced Saturday that they are offering a surprise airdrop to Ronin network users who have staked the RON token.
Pixels took the snapshot on February 8 and will reward 20 million RON in total to stakers across two waves, with as much as 3,955 PIXEL handed out to each eligible wallet. Full details via the tweet embedded below.
Without the @Ronin_Network community, Pixels would not be where it is today. We are pleased to announce one set of final rewards dedicated to $RON stakers.
Allocation and Distribution:
We have reserved 20 million $PIXEL to be distributed in two phases:
1⃣ 10 million right now!… pic.twitter.com/uuGjmLLmee
— Pixels (@pixels_online) February 18, 2024
ApeChain’s coming: The ApeCoin DAO voted this past week to build a dedicated Ethereum scaling network using Arbitrum tech, in collaboration with Offchain Labs and Horizen Labs. Set to launch in Q2, the so-called “ApeChain” will be built to power games in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, but can also be used for DeFi apps and beyond.
Read our interview with Offchain and Horizen execs—along with perspective from Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre—about how Arbitrum’s proposal beat those from other Ethereum scalers, and why it may be beneficial to the Ape ecosystem.
How Arbitrum Won Over ApeCoin DAO—And Why Yuga Labs Is All for the ‘ApeChain’
Nearly two years after Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs made the very public suggestion that the ApeCoin DAO—the community of holders that governs the token—should consider launching its own chain to avoid Ethereum mainnet fees and hiccups, the so-called “ApeChain” is finally coming. And it’ll run on Arbitrum tech. On Wednesday, ApeCoin DAO voters picked the Ethereum layer-2 scaling network proposal from Arbitrum creator Offchain Labs and ally Horizen Labs, the original technical partner b...
Bits goes bust: The Ordinals sale for Bits, a Bitcoin gaming project that would have the community of asset holders collaborate with a core team to design a game, went awry last week. Incubated by DFZ Labs, the company behind the Ethereum NFT project Deadfellaz, Bits planned to sell 10,000 Ordinals inscriptions—but saw meager demand.
Bits cut the price and supply, with pseudonymous DFZ co-founder Betty saying that the team owned “misjudging the market”—but ultimately, only around 600 units were sold. The project still plans to push ahead, based on her latest comments.
Bitcoin Ordinals Gaming Project Bits Slashes Price, Supply After ‘Misjudging’ Market
After the late Tuesday launch of the Bitcoin Ordinals gaming project Bits failed to pull in as much demand as expected, the project announced on Wednesday that it was slashing prices and the total supply of its assets. “A stumble at the start never determines the rest of the journey,” pseudonymous DFZ Labs co-founder Betty said on Twitter. “While we own misjudging the market for supply and price here, we’re moving forward with an amazing team and adjusted supply/price.” A stumble at the start...
Oasys + Com2uS: Gaming blockchain Oasys has attracted some major players, including Ubisoft, Sega, and Bandai Namco—and it added another last week in Korean gaming giant Com2uS, which will bring its XPLA ecosystem over to the chain. The OAS token popped on the news, setting an all-time high price in the process.
ICYMI
- Avalanche-based app Battle.tech launched last week, offering a crypto-driven way to support up-and-coming esports players while potentially benefiting via the rising prices of their player passes. It’s Friend.tech for gaming.
- Creatures from the NFT project Moonbirds will be added to the Bored Ape metaverse game Otherside after Yuga Labs announced the acquisition of Proof on Friday.
Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs Acquires Moonbirds NFT Startup Proof
Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs has acquired Proof, the NFT startup behind the Moonbirds collection and the Proof Collective membership program, the company announced Friday. According to Yuga Labs, the company has completely acquired Proof and all of its properties, including Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, and Grails. Yuga will add the Proof team into its staff, and integrate the Moonbirds collection into its upcoming Otherside metaverse game. Proof co-founder and CEO Kevin Rose, a tech e...
- Crypto gaming projects will see $175 million worth of token unlocks in the last half of February, led by The Sandbox (SAND), Immutable (IMX), and Parallel (PRIME). Such unlocks are watched by crypto investors due to potential price impact.
- Solana role-playing game Aurory opened up limited-time public access through the Epic Games Store through February 26 for its Seekers of Tokane experience, with $50,000 worth of AURY token rewards available to players.
Solana Is Soaring—You Can Earn More by Playing These Games
Solana has been surging again lately, rising 38% this week alone to pass $200 for the first time since 2021—and it has skyrocketed from the sub-$10 mark it hit in late 2022. And if you’re looking to fill your wallet with even more Solana, then why not earn more by playing games? Numerous play-to-earn games are based on Solana, and either reward players with SOL itself or another token within the Solana ecosystem, which can be swapped for SOL at an exchange. In some of the examples below, you’ll...
- The GameStop-themed GME meme coin on Solana continued its rollercoaster-like trajectory last week, gradually falling by more than 70% before surging by the same percentage in less than a day. It’s not dead yet.
- Champions Ascension, a combat game with Polygon NFTs, is currently holding a weeklong event around its alpha game launch called The Emperor’s Legendary Crystals. The event will award more than $15,000 worth of prizes.
- Forgotten Playland, a colorful game that recently raised $7 million in funding, announced plans to launch its FP token on February 21. No word yet on an airdrop.
GG spotlight
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
Why Crypto Game Pixels Is Launching a Token: 'Now the Fun Starts'
It’s been a busy—and buzzy—few months for the crypto game Pixels, which saw surging interest after migrating from Polygon to the Ronin blockchain in October. But while the game has been in development since 2021, founder Luke Barwikowski said that next week’s launch of the long-awaited PIXEL token makes it feel like “day one” for the team as they fully implement the social farming game’s crypto vision. “The fact that we're launching on Binance… the fact that all of this stuff is happening and we...
'Crypto: The Game' $100K Winner Skipped Strategy, Wrote Poems for Rivals
Players of the smash reality TV series “Survivor” have employed various techniques over the years to outsmart and outlast rivals. But have any of the contestants ever cruised to a win by penning poems for other players and generally being so darn wholesome? That’s the approach taken by pseudonymous player MFL in the first season of Crypto: The Game, a “Survivor”-inspired experience that captivated the crypto industry with a blend of real-world scavenger hunt elements, online gameplay, and strate...
How AI Generates Dynamic Text Adventures in 'Infinite Worlds' Game
Among the ever-increasing number of uses for generative AI, imaginative gamers are using the technology to create new forms of choose-your-own-adventure games. One developer putting its stamp on the text-based game genre is Friendly Fox Games, which announced the launch of its first game Infinite Worlds on Wednesday. Using OpenAI’s GPT-4 and AI image generator Stable Diffusion, Infinite Worlds lets players dive into adventures set in premade games—or, using prompts, create their own adventure na...
How to Make the Most of the 'Nifty Island' Play-to-Airdrop Campaign
Launched in open beta last month, Nifty Island is one of the biggest crypto games of the moment. That’s in part because it delivers a compelling, crypto-infused take on Roblox and Fortnite’s Creative Mode, serving up creative tools and letting people build and play without spending a dime. The other part of its appeal is the ISLAND airdrop ahead. Nifty Island’s play-to-airdrop campaign has undoubtedly been key to its recent rise in attention, and the game’s co-founder Charles Smith recently joi...
Ronin Effect: Why 'Pixels' Ditched Polygon Ahead of Ethereum Token Launch
The PIXEL token for the blockchain farming game Pixels will debut on Monday via Binance following the latest play-to-airdrop campaign that helped drive surging adoption for both the game and the network it runs on, Ethereum sidechain Ronin. It’s the culmination of a long journey for Pixels that started in 2021, and founder Luke Barwikowski told Decrypt’s GG this week that the PIXEL token launch feels like “day one” for the game as it fully embraces its tokenized vision. But that path didn’t begi...
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
