This Week in Crypto Games: 'Axie Infinity' Studio Layoffs, 'W-Coin' Burn Before Airdrop

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 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

Sky Mavis layoffs: Sky Mavis, the developer of NFT game Axie Infinity and Ethereum gaming network Ronin, confirmed last week that it laid off 21% of its workforce. In a statement, co-founder Nguyen Thanh Trung, called it a tough decision but said it was unrelated to the firm’s budget or financial health.

“Instead, it is a strategic move that allows for a sharper focus and positioning Sky Mavis for hypergrowth in 2025 and beyond,” he explained. The firm is shifting its priorities with its long-term plan, focusing on the Ronin wallet, Mavis marketplace, Axie Infinity and a related new game due in Q1 2025, Web3 game publishing, and expanding the Ronin Network.

W-Coin burn: Players of the W-Coin Telegram tap-to-earn game will want to open the game right now—or at least very soon—to prevent having their tokens burned. This comes after W-Coin implemented a new inactivity rule ahead of its upcoming airdrop on the The Open Network (TON).

On Thursday, the developers announced that anyone who is offline for three days will have 5% of their supply burned each day thereafter until they log back on. The Telegram announcement said that this was to “ensure only active players shape the W-Coin ecosystem.”

Compared to other tap-to-earn games, this rule is unusually brutal. For comparison, X Empire allowed players 30 days of inactivity until a single token was touched. W-Coin is expected to launch its token this month.

Record-breaking Moonray: Ethereum-based arena battler game Moonray broke the record for the largest free gaming NFT mint on OpenSea to date, after users minted some 220,629 “Jadeon Adam” character skins over a 48-hour period.

This NFT is an earthy green in-game character skin that they can wear while fighting. The free NFTs, minted on Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network Base, were claimed between November 19-21.

ICYMI

• An Attack on Titan-themed survival game launched in metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox
• Telegram game Major started airdropping its token to players on Thursday.
• Soccer-themed Telegram game Captain Tsubasa: Rivals revealed its token, which will be called JOHN.

• Hong Kong gaming firm Boyaa Interactive dumped its $50 million in Ethereum to buy more Bitcoin.
• Battle royale shooter Off the Grid is now available to play using cloud gaming.
• Warden's Ascent, a turn-based RPG using the Pixelmon IP, was revealed on Tuesday.

• Midnight Society released a new phase of testing for Deadrop.
• Square Enix's crypto narrative game Symbiogenesis started its third season.
• Metaverse platform Lamina1, co-founded by famed author Neal Stephenson, launched its L1 token.
• The makers of Telegram game Farm Frens and the broader Everseed IP will launch a token in the “coming weeks.”

GG spotlight

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

Edited by Andrew Hayward