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
GUN expands to Solana: Off the Grid's GUN token expanded to Solana on Thursday, after originally launching on Avalanche's GUNZ network. This move was designed to lower entry barriers for users, and aligns with Gunzilla's multi-chain strategy. The GUN token's price has fallen sharply over the last week amid the expansion, per data from CoinGecko.
Off the Grid’s GUN token is set to expand to Solana on Thursday after originally being launched exclusively on Avalanche, which powers the battle royale shooter’s dedicated L1 network, GUNZ. A Solana-themed skin pack has also been released for the game, marking the ecosystem expansion.
The move is largely motivated by lowering the barrier for entry for users to buy the GUN token, as well as part of what an official X post called the project’s “multi-chain ethos”—suggesting that other chains coul...
Despite the token decline, in-game NFT sales are growing. Off the Grid's marketplace processed $666,600 in volume across a 30-day span from early June into early July, with notable skin sales like the $5,499 Tacoma Pioneer gun skin.
Existing GUN tokens will remain on Avalanche with optional bridging to Solana available. While the Solana expansion may improve accessibility, skin traders are more focused on the upcoming OpenSea marketplace integration, which they believe will significantly impact the skins economy.
Why crypto games keep failing: It's been a rough year for crypto games, with many once-hyped titles shutting down in recent months.
The team behind the Fortnite-like battle royale game OpenSeason has stopped production on the Ethereum-powered shooter—and instead launched a nudity-filled, crypto-infused puzzle game called Booby Bot.
Inspired by Battle Nips, a cult internet game played across various forums and websites, Booby Bot asks players to guess where a woman’s nipples are hidden on a grid of 100 squares. Booby Bot evolves the concept further by using AI to generate the images, and requires players to find a tattoo whil...
Last week, we got confirmation of another promising game that's gone offline: OpenSeason, a meme-infused riff on Fortnite's battle royale shooter template, which closed down its servers amid growing costs and shrinking funds. The team behind the game has pivoted to Booby Bot, a simple gambling game featuring AI-generated female nudity.
Got time for a rich weekend read? We spoke to crypto game developers about the common pitfalls they're facing lately, including fading hype, growing pressure around token value, and the immense difficulty in developing quality games.
Crypto gaming has seen a troubling trend of projects shutting down or being abandoned after years of hype, token sales, and chaos. Experts say it isn’t much of a surprise considering how challenging game development is, and pointed to gaming tokens as a flawed system that applies too much pressure to projects in their infancy.
It's easy to say that we all saw it coming, but in reality, a lot of the recently discontinued titles were once-promising blockchain experiences.
Deadrop, for example, wa...
ICYMI
A U.S. magistrate judge has recommended dismissing Logan Paul’s former assistant from a federal class action lawsuit over the failed NFT project CryptoZoo, marking the latest development in a widening legal saga that now includes multiple lawsuits and a high-profile defamation battle with a YouTuber.
In a court document filed Monday, Magistrate Judge Ronald C. Griffin said the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas lacked personal jurisdiction over Danielle Strobel, who was listed...
Weekend reads
The flexibility of Arbitrum’s tech stack may be gaining traction on Wall Street through Robinhood and its stock tokenization push, but the Ethereum layer-2 scaling network’s qualities should eventually make it a go-to hub for game developers, according to Offchain Labs CEO Steven Goldfeder.
In an interview, Goldfeder said that companies like Xai Games and Proof of Play are leveraging Arbitrum’s architecture to create custom blockchains for gaming, showcasing how the Nintendos of the world may on...
Bitcoin is hovering just below its all-time mark of nearly $112,000 set in May, maintaining recent momentum as analysts project another record surge in the near future.
If you’re keen on stacking satoshis however you can, then here’s one way that won’t cost you anything but time: You can earn Bitcoin by playing a bunch of free games. Decrypt’s GG has been covering the rising trend of free-to-play mobile games and apps that offer up small bounties of Bitcoin for playing levels and seeing ads all...
Mythical Games released its blockchain-powered mobile soccer game FIFA Rivals two weeks ago, and we’ve been testing it out to see if this iOS and Android game is worth your time.
Due to the sheer size of the soccer fanbase, Mythical Games told Decrypt that it believes the title could be 20 times larger than NFL Rivals, its most popular crypto game that launched two years ago.
In a nutshell, FIFA Rivals feels like an even more simplified, crypto-infused, and online-playable riff on Score! Hero, a...
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