This Week in Crypto Games: 'Off the Grid' Token, GameStop Goes Bitcoin, SEC Clears Immutable

By Ryan S. Gladwin

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

SEC drops Immutable investigation: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed its investigation into Ethereum gaming platform Immutable with no enforcement action, the company announced Tuesday via a blog post.

Back in October 2024, the Commission issued Immutable a Wells Notice over alleged securities law violations relating to sales of the platform’s IMX token. The SEC had also questioned representations about the token's backing, particularly regarding a pre-launch investment from Huobi Ventures.

With this investigation now over, Immutable CEO Robbie Ferguson said that the investigation found “zero wrongdoings” and praised his team for continuing to build despite the ominous Wells Notice. The company itself also posted on X, stating that it a “huge win” for Web3 gaming and for “everyone who believes in digital ownership rights.”

The SEC has now dropped the vast majority of its cases and known investigations against crypto firms, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Off the Grid mainnet: Popular shooter Off the Grid has been running on the GUNZ testnet, built as a dedicated Avalanche L1 chain. On Friday, it was confirmed that GUNZ would transition to its hotly anticipated mainnet on March 31, with the GUN token launching alongside.

This comes after Gunzilla Games Director of Web3 Theodore Agranat estimated a Q1 2025 launch back in December, adding that he wanted the game to be fully featured and polished by then. Since then, a black market for in-game skins has bloomed, showing clear signs that players are keen for the upcoming crypto integration, which will allow in-game items to be sold for crypto.

Forgotten Runiverse launches: Ronin role-playing game Forgotten Runiverse launched in early access on Wednesday, allowing users to master spells and earn rewards as they explore the open fantasy world based on the Ethereum NFT collection, Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult. 

This comes after three years of development work and more than 1 million hours of testing, according to a post by Ronin Network, which became the game’s new home after it opted to migrate from Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum last year. 

Now officially live after three playtest periods, the Forgotten Runiverse opens with its first major game content update, named Moonlit Wilds. With this update, players can now access land plots, build new structures, craft and mint items, as well as master up to 32 spells while embarking on quests.

GameStop goes Bitcoin: Video game store turned meme stock icon GameStop updated its investment policy on Tuesday to add "certain cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin" as "permissible investment instruments." This was then followed by a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, claiming that it is now permitted to use Bitcoin as a “Treasury Reserve Asset.”

The next day, on Wednesday, GameStop announced that it plans to raise $1.3 billion via convertible senior notes in order to fund “general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of Bitcoin.”

This approach takes a leaf out of Strategy’s playbook, as that firm (formerly known as MicroStrategy) has issued billions of dollars worth of convertible senior notes to purchase more Bitcoin. GameStop’s move came just weeks after CEO Ryan Cohen posted a photo on X with Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.

ICYMI

• Crypto shooter Kompete shipped an update with a new plasma grenade, map improvements, and reduced respawn times.
• Rainbow wallet users can mint a free pet in the whole farming and character collection game SankoPets.
• New bosses came to Arbitrum RPG Pirate Nation as its token briefly pumped last week.
• Avalanche shooter Off the Grid continued to see its black market flourish despite its mainnet being just days away.

• Solana game Star Atlas is collaborating with SingularityNET to integrate AI agents into its online world.
• There’s a first-person shooter that apparently records every single bullet on-chain via Ethereum layer-2 MegaETH—which its creator admits is just a "silly experiment."
• Solana shooter Nyan Heroes is back with its latest playtest, including its biggest airdrop yet.

• Gunzilla Games, the creator of Off the Grid, acquired and rebooted legendary magazine Game Informer after it was shut down last year.
• Mobile strategy game Fableborne returned for a closed play test on Ronin.
• Marblex's Immutable-based mobile game Self-Made Billionaire is set to launch on April 7, and is ready for pre-order on the App Store now.

• The makers of trading card game Parallel launched the title on Android in the Philippines on Tuesday, the first step in a delayed rollout for the mobile versions.
• The makes of Tokyo Beast, an Immutable-based game, released a launch trailer.
• Anime-inspired NFT collection Azuki opened pre-orders for starter decks for its upcoming trading card game.
• Arbitrum game AI Arena started a competition with 500,000 NRN ($18,000) up for grabs.
• Crypto MMORPG Treeverse went live and started its first season.
• Kamigotchi, a crypto pet collection game, completed a funding round with 81 participants, adding that mainnet details are coming soon.
• Immutable trading card game Gods Unchained launched its season two battle pass.

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

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