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
Off the Grid token launch: Gunzilla Games, the creator of crypto battle royale game Off the Grid, launched its Avalanche L1-based GUNZ gaming network on Monday, rolling out its GUN token in the process. In the hours following the token’s launch, it sank 24% and has continued to tumble throughout the week.
The token launch received some criticism from market participants due to an apparent last-minute change to the tokenomics that removed an unlock for seed and strategic investors. One source familiar with the matter told Decrypt that this decision was made a couple of weeks ago and was approved by investors. On top of this, the previously scheduled unlock would have only released up to 5% of the investors' total allocation—a likely insignificant amount to most involved.
The GUN token tied to popular battle royale game Off the Grid launched Monday with the mainnet rollout of the Avalanche L1-based GUNZ gaming network. And ahead of the in-game mainnet integration, GUN has continued to fall in value over the course of the day.
GUN is currently priced just above $0.76, down over 24% since launch, per data from CoinGecko. GUN rose as high as $0.115 earlier Monday, but has since dipped by nearly 34% in the hours since touching that peak.
It's common for newly launche...
Despite the blockchain hitting mainnet, Off the Grid itself remains on testnet. This means that in-game items can only be traded for testnet GUN tokens, which hold no real-world value. When the game transitions from testnet to mainnet, players will keep their skins and items but their GUN balances will be wiped. As a result, skin collectors have told Decrypt that prices for items have spiked as players look to shift their testnet tokens and keep a hold of their items.
The game’s transition to mainnet is expected to come over the “next few weeks.”
Logan Paul CryptoZoo lawsuit continues: The lawsuit brought against YouTube detective Coffeezilla by influencer Logan Paul is moving forward, after a U.S. judge denied the sleuth’s request to dismiss Paul’s claims with prejudice.
This comes after Coffeezilla (whose real name is Stephen Findeisen) made a series of videos and social media posts calling out Paul’s CryptoZoo NFT game, which never launched despite people investing a substantial amount of crypto into it.
Logan Paul’s lawsuit against YouTuber Coffeezilla is moving forward after a U.S. magistrate judge denied the crypto sleuth’s request to dismiss Paul’s claims with prejudice.
Counsel for Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, filed a motion to dismiss the claims in February on behalf of Findeisen and Coffee Break Productions LLC, claiming that the alleged libelous statements were not capable of defaming Paul.
Texas magistrate judge Henry J. Bemporad disagreed, noting that Findeisen’s...
Coffeezilla's lawyers filed in February to dismiss the case, claiming that the alleged libelous statements were not capable of defaming Paul. But a Texas magistrate judge disagreed, pointing to Findeisen’s use of the word “scam” as meeting the defamatory definition, highlighting his role as a crypto investigator as another key factor.
Vibe coding competition: Minecraft-esque crypto voxelverse and world-building game Hytopia is asking creators to build web-based mini-games with its development kit—and help from AI. Hytopia is offering $5,000 in total prizes across the best three vibe coders in a new AI “vibe coding” competition. Judges will take a week to evaluate the created games after the 14-day competition comes to a close.
Minecraft-esque crypto voxelverse and world-building game Hytopia is asking creators to build web-based mini-games with its development kit and help from AI, offering cash prizes to the creators of the best three games in a new artificial intelligence “vibe coding” competition.
The competition will be open for the next 14 days, after which judges will take a week to evaluate the vibe-coded outputs. Vibe coding is a popular new term for coding via conversation with an AI assistant, whereby users...
Vibe coding is a rising term for coding through conversations with AI assistants, allowing users of all skill levels to simply “vibe” on thoughts and ideas and not stress about lines of intricate code, leaving the AI to handle the specifics.
ICYMI
Pixels and Forgotten Runiverse, a pair of crypto games on the gaming-focused Ethereum scaling network Ronin, are teaming up to bring Pixels’ PIXEL token to the Runiverse—the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG that just opened to the public in early access.
Forgotten Runiverse, developed by Biosonic, is based on the lore of the Ethereum NFT collection Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult. The game opted to move from layer-2 Arbitrum to Ronin in July 2024 and will eventually have it...
- The makers of crypto first-person shooter Shrapnel partnered with the Chinese government to become the first licensed Web3 game built on the nation’s official RWA Trusted Copyright Chain.
- ...but Blockworks reports that Shrapnel maker Neon Machine is running out of cash, and that the China play was made to keep the studio going.
- Crypto game Infected is moving from Base to Solana over "demand" issues, which Base builders pushed back on.
- Solana idle role-playing game Defi Dungeons launched on Wednesday.
GG spotlight
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
The Switch is Nintendo’s best-selling home console of all time, and widely beloved for its rich library of games—a dramatic turn from the middling Wii U before it. But it’s been eight years since the Switch launched, and fans are getting antsy for Nintendo’s next big thing.
Luckily, it's coming. Following years of leaks and rumors, and even a couple official acknowledgments that the next-gen model was coming, Nintendo formally revealed the Switch 2 console in January 2025—and now we know when we...
April continues Microsoft's impressive list of releases.
After years of watching the company flounder when it came to getting critically-acclaimed games out the door, the company is on the rampage.
Indiana Jones in December, Avowed in February, and now South of Midnight in March. We know Doom: The Dark Ages and Ninja Gaiden 4 are still coming, and rumors continue to mount of Xbox studio Bethesda releasing a remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in the near future.
There are tons of games c...
Nintendo fully unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2 this week, and it sports a bigger LCD screen, updated Joy-Con controllers that can also be used as mice, two USB-C ports, and a better kickstand. It can also play games at 4K resolution on your TV, and 1080p at 120 frames per second on the Switch 2 itself.
Of course, none of that would even matter if there weren't some killer games on the way. We'll see a few big ones right at launch, with more to come later—and we've combed through the announcements...
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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