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.

'Axie Infinity' Developer Sky Mavis Lays Off 21% of Staff, Confirms New Game

Sky Mavis—the development firm behind the NFT game Axie Infinity and the Ronin gaming network—laid off a significant portion of its employees. Sky Mavis co-founder Nguyen Thanh Trung wrote in a Nov. 23 tweet that the company “made the tough decision to let go of 21% of our workforce.” He claimed that the decision 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,” h...

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.

Telegram Game 'W-Coin' Will Start Burning Players' Airdrop Allotments—Here's Why

Telegram game W-Coin has introduced an inactivity rule ahead of its upcoming airdrop on The Open Network (TON). While this is standard practice for tap-to-earn games, it is unusually brutal for players. Anyone who is offline for three days will have 5% of their supply burned each day until they log back in. By comparison X Empire, another tap-to-earn game, allowed players 30 days of inactivity before any tokens were touched. “This ensures only active players shape the W-Coin ecosystem, increasin...

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.

'Moonray' Gives Away 220K NFTs in OpenSea’s Largest Gaming Mint

Ethereum-based arena battler game Moonray is now responsible 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 mint gave players 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. Moonray is an Ethereum-based combat arena game available on PC via the Epic Games Store. It...

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.

Telegram Tap-to-Earn Game ‘Captain Tsubasa: Rivals’ Reveals Token Plans

After players spent the last couple months racking up millions of in-game soccer balls, the developers of Captain Tsubasa: Rivals—a tap-to-earn game on Telegram—announced first details this week about the planned crypto token attached to the game. Captain Tsubasa: Rivals will launch a token called JOHN, which “inspired by the adorable dog of our legendary goalkeeper Wakabayashi,” per an official announcement. “With his signature eyebrows, JOHN is here to bring even more excitement to your journe...

• 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:

You Can Earn Bitcoin by Playing Mobile Solitaire Games—Here's How Much

There's a slew of crypto-infused games out there that let you earn Bitcoin while you play—and you don’t have to buy any NFTs to get started, or spend any money at all. Solitaire is one of the most popular games to be injected full of Bitcoin rewards on iOS and Android, with two main games that let you stack sats (or satoshis, a.k.a. 1/100,000,000 BTC) while stacking digital playing cards: THNDR Games’ Club Bitcoin: Solitaire and Bling Financial’s Bitcoin Solitaire. Both games are broadly simila...

Most Anticipated Video Games Releasing in December 2024

Parts of the year that we used to consider dead zones for games—January and February, the doldrums of summer—are now just as likely to be hotspots, with companies releasing blockbuster games right when no one else is. December, though, marks the last few weeks before Christmas, and has now become the home of Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards (ft. Hideo Kojima). As such, it still tends to be a pretty quiet month, with most of the big holiday releases hitting store shelves in the weeks prior. As su...

Here Is Today’s 'Captain Tsubasa: Rivals' Telegram Game Daily Combo

Editor's note: This story is no longer being updated daily as of December 8, 2024. Captain Tsubasa: Rivals is a fast-rising Telegram tap-to-earn game that puts a different kind of spin on the Hamster Kombat formula. Yes, it’s still largely about tapping the screen and investing your earned in-game coins into upgrades, all with the hopes of a future airdrop. In this case, however, “Captain Tsubasa” is a classic Japanese IP tied to beloved anime and manga series dating back more than 40 years. And...

Edited by Andrew Hayward