It's tough to keep tabs on the ever-changing crypto gaming space, thanks to the constant flow of news: everything from big game launches and fun degen experiments to token price swings and occasional project collapses. It's a lot to follow.
Luckily, we're plugged in at Decrypt's GG. We cover the biggest happenings throughout the week, and then this weekly roundup provides a quick way to catch up, as well as find a bunch of other little bits of news from throughout the week.
Top stories
Self-destruct crypto PC: B3, a layer-3 gaming protocol built on Ethereum's Base network by former Coinbase employees, has acquired gaming PC manufacturer Andromeda Insights to expand into hardware. The acquisition enables B3 to control the entire gaming stack—protocol, games, and hardware—while giving Andromeda additional resources.
B3, a layer-3 gaming protocol built on Ethereum network Base by former Coinbase employees, announced Tuesday that it has acquired gaming PC manufacturer Andromeda Insights to help fuel its push into hardware. And it’s starting with a crypto-focused PC setup, complete with a storage drive that can self-destruct at the press of a button.
The move is designed to enable B3 to capture the entire gaming stack—protocol, games, and hardware—while providing Andromeda with additional resources to meet pro...
Their first joint product, the B3PC, is a crypto-focused gaming PC featuring unique security capabilities. Most notably, it includes a self-destruct storage drive that can be instantly wiped via secure digital deletion or physical destruction of NAND flash chips through a high-voltage shock. The PC also integrates a hardware wallet, encryption, on-chain game support, and offline transaction modes.
B3 co-founder Daryl Xu emphasized that high-performance gaming increasingly demands real-time rendering and AI integration, positioning the hardware as purpose-built for crypto and AI gaming futures. The B3PC is available for preorder with a $200 deposit and expected Q1 2026 delivery. B3's protocol supports 80+ games, and launched its native token in February.
Avalanche battle pass: Avalanche has launched a free-to-mint NFT called the Avalanche Battle Pass to unite its gaming ecosystem and reward cross-game participation. Created by Ava Labs and Playfull, the pass is available through Magic Eden marketplace and follows the popular "battle pass" format pioneered by games like Fortnite. (Solana launched its own similar Game Pass in April.)
Crypto gaming on Avalanche is gaining steam thanks to high-profile launches like Off the Grid and MapleStory N. Now, the blockchain's gaming ecosystem has its own NFT pass to connect games and reward players for diving into them.
Launched on Monday, the free Avalanche Battle Pass is a free-to-mint NFT available via the Magic Eden marketplace, created in collaboration with Ava Labs and Playfull.
Once the pass is minted, users can register it at the Playfull website and then make progress by playi...
Players mint the NFT, register it on Playfull's website, and then earn rewards like in-game NFTs and AVAX tokens by playing partnered games. The pass supports over a dozen games including Off the Grid, MapleStory N, Spellborne, and DeFi Kingdoms.
Ava Labs Gaming Lead Parker Heath describes it as an "on-chain watering hole" that connects fragmented gaming communities across Avalanche L1 chains. Despite broader blockchain gaming challenges of late, Heath highlighted strong user numbers, with Off the Grid attracting 300,000+ daily users and MapleStory N reaching 770,000+ users since its May launch.
ICYMI
- Pudgy Penguins game Pengu Clash launched on Telegram last week.
- Avalanche game Forgotten Playland implemented in-game NFT support last week as part of its biggest update yet.
Social party game Forgotten Playland is further entrenching itself in Web3, formally integrating with Beam Network, an Avalanche L1 chain, while unveiling new content and a battle pass.
With the update and blockchain integration, most in-game assets within Forgotten Playland become freely tradeable, allowing players to exercise one of the promises of decentralized gaming and entitling them to own a piece of the game economy.
Players will be able to own two different types of NFTs on the platfor...
Weekend reads
Avalanche massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) MapleStory N has been inundated with bots and hackers since its massive launch in May.
Keith Kim, head of strategy at developer Nexpace—the blockchain arm of gaming giant Nexon—told Decrypt this week that thousands of accounts are being banned every day to maintain the game’s integrity for legitimate players.
Hackers, glitchers, attackers, and exploiters are common in every kind of video game—we’ve lived through the Call of Duty h...
Since the days of games like Pitfall on the Atari 2600, every console released has some kind of new feature—a giant leap in graphical power, analog sticks, controller haptics, and so on.
Along with those features come games that take full advantage of them.
Super Mario 64 wasn't the first game to use an analog stick, but it announced to the world that analog sticks are here and gave the Nintendo 64 a firm place in video game history.
Sonic the Hedgehog showed us that Sega could—at least for a...
Spending $300 million on a game is one way to set that game on the road to success; ultra-detailed, immersive games like Assassin's Creed Shadows and next year's Grand Theft Auto 6 appeal to gamers looking for a cutting edge experience.
But $300 million doesn't promise you a good game—just a big one. We're not even six full months into 2025, and indie developers can't stop dropping great games on us, from genuine all-timers to zeitgeist-catching games that we all can't resist picking up and chec...
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