This Week in Crypto Games: CryptoKitties Hit Telegram, 'X Empire' Flip-Flop, and 'Moonray' Goes Mobile

The crypto 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 happy to present 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.

Biggest news

CryptoKitties return: Classic Ethereum NFT project CryptoKitties has returned as a Telegram crypto game. This is the first official product launch under the IP since the original 2017 NFT collection. It serves as a “sneak peek” into the collections’ relaunch on Flow.

Telegram gaming exploded in popularity this year, tempting Dapper Labs—the collection's creator—to jump in on the craze. CryptoKitties: All The Zen tasks you with tapping and rubbing an egg as you upgrade and unlock various in-game cats, and in-game progress will later unlock CryptoKitties-related airdrops on the Flow network with the collection’s relaunch on the horizon.

CryptoKitties Are Back—As a Telegram Crypto Game

Classic Ethereum NFT project CryptoKitties is back—but this time as a Telegram game. This is the first official product launch under the IP since the original NFT collection released in 2017 and serves as a “sneak peek” into the collection’s relaunch on Flow. In recent years Dapper Labs—the creator of CryptoKitties—has focused on expanding its portfolio to include licensed crypto products like NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, and Disney Pinnacle. But with the recent explosion of Telegram gaming, the c...

X Empire ends, then returns: Elon Musk-themed Telegram game X Empire ended its mining phase on Monday, as expected, ahead of its airdrop. This was supposed to be the final step before the token launch, but then the plans changed. The tap-to-earn game launched a new mini-season called the "Chill Phase" for players to fight for more tokens before the airdrop in "the second half of October."

Rewards earned from the initial mining phase will not be affected as they have already been calculated and allocated. Instead, an additional 5% of the total token supply—another 34.5 billion X tokens—has been assigned to a new rewards campaign set to last only a couple of weeks before the token airdrop.

How to Boost Your ‘X Empire’ Telegram Game Airdrop Before the Rewards Cutoff

Elon Musk-inspired Telegram game X Empire turned off its gameplay at the end of September ahead of the planned X token airdrop—and then brought it back with a short “Chill Phase” before the late October token launch on The Open Network (TON). In this last sprint before the airdrop, X Empire has reset all progress, challenging the tens of millions of players to push hard for a share of 34.5 billion additional X tokens allocated for the event. The original airdrop allocations have already been cal...

Moonray auto-battler: The makers of Ethereum action game Moonray have announced a mobile auto-battler set to release in early 2025 to complement its flagship battle arena game. The spinoff game will be set in the same “post-human” world as the original, using the same assets, and will let Moonray token holders unlock special content and rewards.

Also known as “auto chess,” the strategy genre sees gamers place characters on a board, and they'll automatically fight the opposition. Riot’s Teamfight Tactics is the most popular example, but Moonray’s entry into the genre claims to have “more in-depth resource management and counter play,” as well as Web3 integration.

Ethereum Game 'Moonray' Expanding to Mobile With New Auto-Battler

The makers of Ethereum action game Moonray have announced a mobile auto-battler set to release early next year to complement its flagship battle arena game. The spinoff game will be set in the same “post-human” world as the original, using the same assets, and will let Moonray token holders unlock special content and rewards. An auto-battler, also referred to as an “auto chess” game, is a strategy subgenre where gamers place characters on a board that then automatically fight the opposition. Rio...

ICYMI

• Ubisoft will launch a mint of 10,000 NFTs on Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum for its upcoming game, Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E.
• Telegram game Rocky Rabbit returned with new rewards after its airdrop on The Open Network (TON).
• Ethereum card battler Gods Unchained revealed its Tower of Dread expansion.
• Tap-to-earn games Hamster Kombat and Catizen saw their tokens plummet in price after their respective airdrops.
• Strategy game Shardbound will enter open beta on the Epic Games Store on October 9.

Ethereum Strategy Game 'Shardbound' Open Beta Hitting Steam, Epic Store

Strategy card battler Shardbound—which is built on Ethereum layer-2 scaling network Immutable zkEVM—will enter open beta on Steam and the Epic Games Store on October 9, Immutable Games announced Wednesday. This open beta period will run for an undefined period of time as the developers look to rapidly improve the game and “handcraft” its Web3 strategy before a full-fledged release. Shardbound is touted as Hearthstone meets Fire Emblem, blending elements of deck-building and card-collecting games...

• The makers of trading card game Parallel announced key dates for its upcoming Aftermath expansion.
• Animoca Brands and Motorverse teamed up to launch Lamborghini's hub for Web3 engagement, "Fast ForWorld."
• Mocaverse partnered with Square Enix’s game Symbiogenesis to help accelerate user onboarding.
• Polkadot airdropped 10 million MYTH tokens ($2 million) in total to over 450,000 wallets.
• NFT collection Pudgy Penguins released a physical arcade game across the U.S.

• Music-based Telegram game Enkor: Tap to the Beat launched with music from Deadmau5's music label.
• The Telegram crypto game revival of Flappy Bird launched an endless "OG mode."

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

7 Hot Telegram Crypto Games to Play After the ‘Hamster Kombat’ Airdrop

It’s a new era for Telegram crypto games. The long-awaited Hamster Kombat token launch and airdrop happened last week, and while the game is currently in the midst of a short “interlude” season before embarking on an expansive roadmap of future plans, players are starting to look for the next buzzy games to play that haven’t yet launched their own respective tokens. Luckily, we’ve been knee-deep in Telegram games all the while, both playing the other big ongoing games and trying out a bevy of ne...

‘Captain Tsubasa: Rivals’ Telegram Tips Guide : How to Earn the Most Balls Ahead of the Airdrop

Captain Tsubasa: Rivals is a hot new tap-to-earn game on Telegram, and with the license of a major soccer-themed anime brand behind it, a ton of players have signed up to play already. With some kind of TON-based airdrop coming in the future, the race is once again on to collect as much in-game currency as you can to boost any potential future payouts.  Of course, you can tap to earn balls (aka coins or points in other tap games), but like most of these games, the real way to increase your ball...

Biggest Crypto Gaming Tokens Launched in 2024—So Far

Huge tokens have been dropping left and right so far in 2024, and gaming projects are getting in on the excitement. Tokens tied to games and networks have been among this year’s biggest launches as the broader crypto market rebounds and airdrops accelerate. From Portal to Pixels, these are the gaming tokens that have made waves so far this year, ranked by peak market cap to date per pricing data at the time of writing. But there are sure to be more big tokens ahead, so stay tuned—we’ll keep upda...

Edited by Andrew Hayward