Unpacking Immutable’s Gaming Ecosystem: A Deep Dive

Get your game on to dive into the world of Web3 gaming! The emergence of blockchain has created a whole new realm of possibilities for the gaming industry, offering an unrivaled range of opportunities for players, developers, and investors to explore. The reports in this series will walk you through various gaming blockchain ecosystems as we analyze their unique features and possibilities.

Co-authored with industry leaders DappRadar and BGA, this Yoda Labs Spotlight comprehensively analyzes everything from the team behind the ecosystem, volume trends, and notable projects to the strategic partnerships that could make Immutable the ultimate gaming chain. And, of course, we'll highlight the most anticipated games set to captivate players worldwide.

Table of Contents

1. Immutable: General Overview

2. Why Devs Choose IMX?

   ^{-Immutable Passport: A Cornerstone to Streamlined Web3 Onboarding}

   ^{-Paving the Way for Seamless Web3 Adoption and Innovation}

3. Immutable's Gaming Revolutionaries: The Visionary Team

4. Immutable’s Finance In Focus

   ^{-Scaling New Heights: Tracing the Growth of Immutable}

   ^{-Leading the Pack in Funding}

   ^{-Immutable's Financial Fortress: Weathering the Storms of Risk and Instability}

5. Games Deep Dive

   ^{-Deciphering On-Chain Data: Insights into Immutable's Trends and Games}

   ^{-Exploring Immutable's Best Games: A Quick Overview}

   ^{-Game-Changers: Top Upcoming Games to Keep an Eye On}

6. Immutable's Pulling Power

   ^{-Immutable: The Go-To Choice for Game Studios Migrating to a Better Blockchain}

   ^{-Immutable's Impressive Roster of Partnerships}

   ^{-Gamestop Saga}

   ^{-Immutable Partnership with Polygon: The End Game?}

7. Conclusion

1. Immutable: General Overview

Immutable is an Ethereum scaling solution or Layer 2, intending to create a gas-free NFT ecosystem, enabling users to develop their own decentralized applications, particularly games.

But how did it all start?

The development of Etherbots marked the start of Immutable's saga. Conceived by the Ferguson siblings, James and Robbie, Etherbots is a decentralized Robot Wars game built on Ethereum. And more remarkably, it's considered one of the first blockchain-based games ever developed.

After gaining experience from Etherbots, James and Robbie created Gods Unchained, the first trading card game built on blockchain.

Moreover, the game, a pioneer of its kind, gained enormous traction. But, as it expanded, more issues arose around Ethereum's scalability constraints. To resolve these issues, the team requested assistance from Starkware, a blockchain security and scaling provider.

This partnership ultimately led to the creation of Immutable.

It's safe to say that Ethereum is not the perfect choice for launching and running a game. Operating games on the Ethereum Mainet Layer 1 chain can be costly due to high transaction fees and slow speeds that can lead to network congestion. One of the play-to-earn leaders, Axie Infinity, has demonstrated this scenario with its custom network Ronin, an Ethereum scaling solution.

In this way, Immutable has emerged as a promising ecosystem for Web3 gaming projects, attracting numerous gaming projects and cementing its position as a leading choice for game developers looking to create sustainable and scalable blockchain-based games.

2. Why Devs Choose IMX?

Immutable is one of the preferred blockchains for game developers due to the chain’s properties, such as zero gas fees, Turing-complete general computation through Cairo, and completely carbon-neutral NFT minting.

In addition, the shared global order book of Immutable, allows for enhanced liquidity and higher trade volume across the broader Web3 ecosystem.

With the help of StarkEx's ZK rollups, Immutable can also provide lightning-fast transaction throughputs of up to 9,000 TPS while maintaining the same level of security as the Ethereum network, which is crucial for sustainable and scalable gaming.

Moreover, Immutable's platform has become even more environmentally friendly with the Merge that shifted Ethereum's consensus model from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Immutable will also keep scaling along with Ethereum. In addition, scalability features such as sharding and throughput increases are set to arrive by the end of 2023, improving the network even further.

Immutable also has a solid set of REST APIs that can simplify complex cryptocurrency transactions. Through API calls, users can generate and share NFTs without dealing with smart contracts directly.

Similarly, the SDK from Immutable makes it simple for developers to incorporate APIs and wallets into their applications. As a result, they can produce NFT tasks similar to games in a matter of hours rather than days.

On top of these, Immutable has outstanding uptime and reliability, boasting a 99.9% rate, considerably higher than its closest rivals. For comparison, Solana has only had an average availability of 97%.

Furthermore, Immutable sticks out from competing protocols because it is the only platform to promise royalties at the protocol level, giving creators of assets a fixed percentage of trading costs regardless of the marketplace where the users trade NFTs.

It is crucial for the gaming industry's long-term financial health as it ensures that developers will not lose money for their work regardless of the marketplace employed.

Besides, Immutable is highly secure owing to the ZK-rollups, which significantly lowers the risk of major breaches like the $600 million Axie-Ronin heist. This degree of security gives gamers and developers peace of mind and makes it highly improbable that such events will happen on the Immutable platform.

Immutable Passport: A Cornerstone to Streamlined Web 3 Onboarding

Security and onboarding new players are the two foremost challenges plaguing Web3 game developers. Unfortunately, players have a lot of skepticism and misconception about blockchain gaming because of the unusual necessity of having a crypto wallet.

Additionally, the current crop of wallet options is not optimized with players in mind, and they usually get in the way of an immersive gaming experience.

To address these challenges, Immutable is leading the way with their innovative solution, Immutable Passport, which provides an instant wallet onboarding experience for Web3 games. This new feature promises to revolutionize the way gamers interact with blockchain tech and make the transition to Web3 gaming a seamless and hassle-free experience.

Even native Web3 players face challenges maintaining multiple wallets, some created without their knowledge, and many do not even know how wallets work.

In a press release, the firm claimed, "Customer research conducted by the Immutable team found that ease of onboarding, security, compliance, and plug-and-play features were the top priorities for development studios integrating Web3 components into their game."

And it is where Immutable Passport truly shines— by providing a simple, user-friendly non-custodial wallet and authentication solution that simplifies user onboarding through passwordless sign-on and automated wallet creation.

With a convenient email and OTP login and seamless authentication across Web3 games and marketplaces, Passport offers a streamlined user experience that can drive adoption among mainstream audiences.

Moreover, this revolutionary solution benefits both game developers and players.

• For gamers, it provides a secure digital wallet, protection against fraud, and control over their keys and assets through a non-custodial wallet solution.

• For developers, it offers enterprise-grade security and scalability for dapps, maximizing user conversion and studio revenue.

The release of Immutable Passport is scheduled for April 2023; however, developers will soon be able to start integrating Passport. Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians, two first-party titles from Immutable, have already adopted Passport as their wallet and verification solution.

By making the onboarding to Web3 as intuitive as possible using familiar interfaces from Web2, the passport system could help Immutable expand its market dominance in 2023. Moreover, casual gamers may not even realize they are playing blockchain games.

It could mitigate some of their skepticism against Web3. From a broader perspective, the Passport might be the key to mass onboarding traditional Web2 players to Web3.

"Immutable hopes to create a gaming landscape that no longer thinks about blockchain gaming in terms of wallets, bridges, chains and rollups but instead, true digital ownership and fun sit at the heart of the gameplay experience," said Jonathan Reedy, vice president of strategic partnerships at Immutable.

Paving the Way for Seamless Web3 Adoption and Innovation

Eliminating obstacles and creating seamless processes will remain central to the company's product development efforts as it strives to bring the next billion people onto Web3.

Purchasing an NFT is a pivotal step in Web3 that almost everyone has to face. But due to the unfamiliar and perplexing process, mainstream consumers presently experience significant friction when attempting to buy NFTs.

Historically, one of the barriers to entry has been ensuring users have the appropriate crypto, in the right wallet, on a particular network. Furthermore, it has sparked discontent in the community and produced a knowledge divide among mainstream audiences.

To make this process seamless and uncomplicated for traditional users and Web3 natives, Immutable partnered with MoonPay to offer NFT Checkout. Its primary NFT sale checkout feature allows buyers to mint and take ownership of assets with a credit or debit card.

With this debut, game developers will be able to create and sustain healthy economies and will be able to enhance user experience and onboard players effortlessly.

Another milestone in Immutable's endeavors to make Web3 onboarding seamless and boost mass adoption would be the launch of Unity SDK and becoming a Unity Verified Solution.

Unity is the core of over half of the video games developed today. Every month, 1.5M game developers use the game engine to produce titles compatible with over 20 platforms. But up until now, there hasn't been a straightforward method for Unity-based game developers to integrate with Immutable.

As a sign of its dedication to becoming the undisputed champion in Web3 gaming, Immutable built a Unity SDK and became a Unity Verified Solution.

Studios using Unity will now have access to a native SDK that efficiently works with Immutable's platform. The Immutable Unity SDK will shortly offer endpoints for user processes (mint, withdraw, order, exchange, and more) to improve the game through the ownership of digital assets, allowing game makers to concentrate on creating games players will love.

Undead Blocks, the first play-to-earn first-person shooter undead survivor game, was developed by WAGYU games using Unity and Immutable.

On a side note, Immutable participated in the Game Developers Conference 2023, which took place from March 20th to March 24th, 2023. As the premier professional event for game developers, the conference provided an excellent opportunity for Immutable to showcase its platform to industry professionals and expand its reach. During the event, Immutable unveiled its game-changing partnership with Polygon.

Immutable also regularly conducts hackathons to encourage developers to build on their platform and explore the possibilities of blockchain gaming. Their last hackathon in London saw over 300 developers participate, creating 25 new games on the Immutable platform. The company offered a total of $10,000 in prizes to the winners.

3. Immutable's Gaming Revolutionaries: The Visionary Team

Immutable's success can also be attributed to its talented team, which has grown to more than 300 employees. The platform's focus on hiring top talent and fostering a culture of innovation has helped it stay ahead of the competition and drive the adoption of NFTs in mainstream gaming. Let’s take a brief look at the team.

• James Ferguson, the CEO and Co-founder at Immutable, featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, worked at Appliances Online as Lead Frontend Developer and co-founded Shopyak.

• Robbie Ferguson, Co-Founder at Immutable and brother of James Ferguson, named on Forbes 30 Under 30 and had prior experience in Blockchain Data Analysis at KPMG.

• Alex Connolly, the CTO and Co-Founder at Immutable, possesses computer science, blockchain, and public speaking expertise.

• Aviral Avasthi, ex-Vice President of Marketing at Polygon and marketing head at Uber, Tinder, and others, onboarded Immutable as SVP of Marketing. He recently left immutable.

• Jason Suen, who held various leadership roles at Shopify, including Regional Head and Director in Southeast Asia, is the Chief Commercial Officer of Immutable.

• Justin Hulog, a former Riot Games Southeast Asia General Manager, joined Immutable as the Chief Studio Officer.

• Devon Ferreira, well-known for his recent success as marketing chief and brand builder for the Avalanche, spearheads Immutable's marketing and brand development efforts as its Chief Marketing Officer.

• David Bicknell, ex-finance director at Meta, recently joined Immutable as the Chief Financial Officer.

4. Immutable’s Finance In Focus
Scaling New Heights: Tracing the Growth of Immutable

Since its inception, Immutable has caused a sensation in the crypto and gaming community. And the past twelve months have only added fuel to the fire as Web3 gaming's appeal has skyrocketed.

The most popular titles in blockchain gaming, such as Illuvium, Guild of Guardians, and PlanetQuest, proudly identify Immutable as a collaborator. Additionally, it has integrations with prominent marketplaces like Rarible.

Immutable, formerly Fuel Games, obtained its first round of financing in July 2018 and its Series A round of funding in September 2019 with involvement from NASPERS, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase, and others.

Pouring fuel to the flames, Immutable secured $12.5 million in less than an hour, followed by $60 million in a Series B round of financing at a valuation of $410 million in September 2021. Afterward, the company raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $2.5 billion valuation.

With an arsenal of new funds, the team intends to maintain its dominance of the Web3 gaming sector and boost its overall headcount to over 600 workers by 2025.

This financing has been essential in luring top gaming partners worldwide while maintaining Immutable's cutting-edge technology and a robust library of top Web3 games. To put it into perspective, Immutable onboarded over 50 games in Q3 2022 alone, and another 1,000 games are being developed in a test setting.

Immutable has had a remarkable 2022, marked by several milestones that reflect the platform's explosive development and commitment to innovation. The growth from five games at the beginning of 2022 to over one hundred games today is a testament to the platform's ability to draw developers and interest users. As evidence of its success and expanding user base to more than 1.5 million active wallets.

Although Immutable may have fewer live games than other blockchain gaming platforms, the company is taking a deliberate and steady approach to its growth strategy.

Rather than rushing to launch as many games as possible, Immutable focuses on building out its infrastructure and providing game developers with a comprehensive suite of tools, solutions, and technologies to create high-quality, engaging games that run seamlessly on the blockchain.

This approach aims to create a more robust and sustainable gaming ecosystem in the long run, providing a better user experience for gamers and a more lucrative revenue stream for developers.

By investing in the platform's foundation and establishing key partnerships, Immutable is poised to become a leading player in the blockchain gaming space.

Leading the Pack in Funding

Immutable, according to a report by Delphi Digital, has gained recognition as the undisputed leader in Web3 financing for 2022.

Immutable has secured an astounding $900 million in funding for its exclusive games and platform-based multi-chain games, with approximately $300 million going to the former and more than $600 million to the latter.

These remarkable numbers reflect both the increasing appeal of Immutable-based games and investors' positive outlook regarding the platform's future potential.

With this unprecedented infusion of capital, Immutable entered 2023 as the best-funded Layer-2 Web3 game environment, surpassing competitors such as Solana and Polygon. The research states that Immutable’s meteoric ascent can be credited to its platform's impressive development, which increased from five games to over one hundred in just one year. This remarkable development demonstrates the platform's attraction to investors and developers and underlines its potential to dominate the Web3 gaming market in the coming years.

While Polygon narrowly trails Immutable in funding with $850 million, its exclusive titles have had trouble finding an audience, earning just over $150 million over the year. Contrarily, investors have shown a preference for Immutable's exclusive titles, which have received more than twice as much financing. To a large extent, Immutable's success can be attributed to its emphasis on providing its users with high-quality and engaging gaming experiences.

Immutable's Financial Fortress: Weathering the Storms of Risk and Instability

Regarding its long-term vision and value stability, Immutable has proven to be a resilient player in Web3. Despite the FTX debacle, which left many in Web3 financially impacted, Immutable avoided significant losses due to its strategic decision to keep its cash and assets separate from FTX.

Co-founder Robbie Ferguson took to his personal Twitter to share that the company has a significant 3.5-year cash runway, giving them ample time to weather any potential storms. As Ferguson noted, Immutable has no funds or assets tied up in FTX's platform, which has helped insulate them from the financial fallout of the FTX incident.

In addition to its financial prudence concerning FTX, Immutable has also proven to be immune to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Co-founder Robbie Ferguson reassured on March 10 that Immutable had more than $280 million, predominantly in USD, in the bank and did not use financial leverage.

This level of financial stability and independence highlights Immutable's commitment to sound financial management practices and positions the company as a robust and reliable player in the ever-evolving blockchain gaming space.

5. Games Deep Dive
Deciphering On-Chain Data: Insights into Trends and Games

Immutable emerged as the fastest-growing blockchain and NFT gaming platform in the Web3 gaming space in 2022.

According to a recent DappRadar report, the platform witnessed a whopping 250% jump in trading volume from $24 million in 2021 to over $87 million in 2022.

Moreover, Immutable was the only leading platform to witness green figures, recording the most significant surge in Web3 for the year.

This growth is impressive, given that the price of ETH decreased by 67% since January 2022, while IMX declined by 92% in the same period.

It is undeniable that the success of the popular game Gods Unchained has played a crucial role in driving this growth. The game has 93% dominance on Immutable by transaction count and 89% by UAWs.

In addition to the trading volume, Immutable has witnessed a significant upsurge in sales count, rising by 287.04% from 2.3 million in 2021 to 9 million in 2022.

This growth can also be attributed to Immutable’s staking system, which requires users to stake IMX tokens and trade at least one NFT on the platform during the staking cycle to earn rewards.

The trading volume and sales count data paint a clear picture of Immutable's domination in the space, exhibiting significant growth in both metrics. Overall, Immutable's success demonstrates the surging adoption of Web3 gaming platforms in the mainstream gaming industry.

Analyzing the NFT trade volumes across various games on Immutable in 2022 reveals some fascinating insights. Notably, Book Games is the frontrunner, boasting an impressive trade volume of over $100M, with Gods Unchained not far behind with less than $100M in volume.

However, what's even more striking is the sizable gap in trade volumes between the top two games and the rest. Both Hro and Illuvium Land have trade volumes below 25M, with Illuvium Land handling the least volume. It is worth noting that this is not unexpected since both games are still in their very early stages.

These figures suggest that while some games have managed to build a strong NFT economy on Immutable, there is still room for growth and opportunity for new games to carve out space in Immutable.

The NFT trade volume trends of games in Immutable during 2022 are intriguing. Book Games stands out with the highest NFT volume at the beginning of 2022. Book Games volume had a downfall in January; however, a spike in February ensured a peak NFT volume above $30M in April.

On the other hand, Gods Unchained started 2022 with nearly $20M in NFT volume and went on to experience a gradual decline. Nevertheless, it showed signs of recovery by August, surpassing 20M, only to fall again in December. However, Gods Unchained has a surging trend in 2023.

In contrast, Hro, Illuvium Land, Cross The Ages, and BLOCKLORDS BANNERS displayed comparatively weaker performance in 2022. Nevertheless, the NFT volume of Cross The Ages, BLOCKLORDS BANNERS improved by the end of 2022 and entered 2023 with a surging trend.

These trends highlight the need for developing new features and enhancing existing ones to keep players engaged and maintain a healthy NFT trading volume. Additionally, Immutable offers an ecosystem that enables games to scale efficiently and a community that helps developers and gamers alike.

Gods Unchained holds the top position in terms of UAWs. But there is a notable disparity between the leading game and the others.

On a side note, UAW or Unique Active Wallets provides insights into the level of engagement of players with a game, indicating the number of distinct wallets interacting with the Smart Contracts. On the other hand, the monthly average UAW measures the daily number of unique wallet addresses engaging with the game each month which is then averaged for the month.

According to data on unique active wallets (UAWs) from January to February 2023, Gods Unchained appears to be the top-performing game. Its UAW count is significantly higher than other games in the market, indicating a solid player base and engagement.

Specifically, the average monthly UAW of Gods Unchained is over 2000, while that of Cross The Ages, Book Games, and Guild of Guardians are below 500.

This discrepancy in UAWs and trading volumes indicates that Gods Unchained has a significantly larger user base and more active participation from its players compared to other games.

The Immutable platform has seen a dynamic performance in its NFT volumes and Unique Active Wallets (UAW) owing to the ever-changing market conditions. While the UAWs have demonstrated a relatively stable trend, the NFT volumes have fluctuated significantly.

Interestingly, the UAW followed the market trend by surging as it entered 2022, peaking and declining alongside the rest of the NFT market.

On the other hand, the NFT volume grew from 2021 to 2022, peaking with the market but experiencing more pronounced fluctuations than the UAW graph.

Although both the NFT volume and UAWs hit their lowest point in July 2022, the NFT volume now shows a strong recovery, while the UAWs have yet to demonstrate a strong recovery.

One possible explanation is the fierce competition in the Ethereum layer-2 space, where Immutable competes with other platforms like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Despite this competition, the NFT volume has continued to perform well, indicating that users who have on-boarded the Immutable platform are actively trading, further implying high user retention rates.

The relationship between Unique Active Wallets (UAW) and NFT transactions on Immutable appears to be a fascinating puzzle. At first glance, the performance of these two metrics may appear to be moving in similar patterns. But, upon closer inspection, the relationship between the transaction count and NFT volume is peculiar.

While the transaction count may have decreased, the platform's NFT volume has continued to rise, indicating that the value of NFTs on Immutable is on an upward trajectory. Many of the NFTs launched on the platform are performing exceptionally well, and the trend continues to grow.

Although the NFT transaction count peaked in January 2022 and has been decreasing since then, this does not align with the upsurge in NFT volume.

This perplexing trend is bucking expectations, as a drop in transaction counts and UAWs typically signals a decrease in NFT volume. However, Immutable's NFT growth is causing a surge in NFT volume, even with low transaction counts and UAWs.

The performance of Immutable's NFT volumes and UAWs reflect broader market trends, and the platform's competitive position in the Ethereum layer-2 space plays a role in its growth. Despite these challenges, the gaming NFT volume is performing well, and games can leverage the cyclical nature of the NFT market for future growth.

Exploring Immutable's Best Games: A Quick Overview

Gods Unchained

Gods Unchained, the brainchild of brothers James and Robbie Ferguson, is an online trading card strategy game similar to other fan favorites such as Hearthstone and Magic The Gathering Arena.

Led by ex-game director of Magic: The Gathering Arena, Chris Clay, it is a top blockchain game franchise with industry veterans from EA Games, Riot Games, and Wizards of the Coast on its team.

Gods Unchained is a free-to-play, play-to-earn PC game where players outwit their rivals by creating card decks to counter various strategies. Rich lore, fantasy, and stunning artwork serve as the game's foundation, giving it more depth and flavor.

The game is trying to tap the mobile gaming scene. The first public pre-alpha test for Gods Unchained's new mobile app kicked off on February 24th, 2023.

To discover more about Gods Unchained, visit its website, follow it on Twitter, and join its Discord server.

Chainmonsters

Chainmonsters is a multiplayer online RPG inspired by old-school titles like The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon. Players can capture and collect over 161 distinct Chainmons, each with unique traits and skills.

As they progress through the levels and receive rewards, players can trade and mix various monster kinds to battle against challengers across platforms like the Epic Games Store, iOS, Android, and consoles.

Chainmonsters began as a web-based, 2D pixel-style art prototype on Ethereum in 2017 and recently shifted to Immutable. The game, led by Maximilian Weber and Lysander Haup, secured ~$1.55 million from Kickstarter and its community over the past few years.

It became one of the first blockchain games on the Epic Games Store when it revealed its Early Access debut on March 9, 2023. This release also adds new game features, including a new crafting system and the option to capture Chainmons in-game and mint them as NFTs on Immutable.

To discover more about Chainmonsters, visit its website, follow it on Twitter, and join its Discord server.

Undead Blocks

Touted as Mario Kart meets Call of Duty Zombies, "Undead Blocks" is a cross-platform shoot 'em up with weapons as NFTs.

Players in "Undead Blocks" shoot zombies and gather different items that appear randomly throughout the battleground. The game is already cross-platform, enabling players to play it on a PC or a Mac, with browser support already in place and mobile cloud gameplay shortly to follow.

Developed by Wagyu Games Studio, the game has received $1.7 million in venture funding and employs the Unity engine to deliver immersive gameplay.

Undead Blocks was the first full-fledged blockchain game launched on the Immutable this year and is the network's first survival shooter.

To discover more about Undead Blocks, visit its website, follow it on Twitter, and join its Discord server.

Game-Changers: Top Upcoming Games to Keep an Eye On

Illuvium

Illuvium (ILV), an open-world RPG adventure game, mixes play-to-earn elements with conventional gameplay to deliver a AAA product. The game, blending action gameplay with classic RPG titles, unfolds in a fantastical universe where the Illuvials play a crucial role.

Leading venture capital firms like Blocksync Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Stake Capital, Bitcoin.com, and many others have invested in the game.

Moreover, Illuvium is the first Metaverse blockchain game to receive an AAA rating. With over 200 veteran designers and game developers working on the project, the game has been in development since 2020.

It is a universe of three games, Illuvium Overworld (currently in private beta), Illuvium Arena (currently in private beta), and Illuvium Zero (currently in alpha).

Moreover, it has been one of the most highly anticipated games in the Web3 gaming space, with its gameplay trailer amassing over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

This substantial reach speaks volumes of the game's popularity and potential for success in the web3 gaming scene. With the support of its growing community and robust backers, Illuvium is one of the most highly anticipated games that could potentially shape Immutable’s market share.

To discover more about Illuvium, visit its website, follow it on Twitter, and join its Discord server.

Evermoon

Evermoon is a 5v5 3-lane multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that masterfully combines the excitement of eSports combat with the PvP battlefield gameplay experience. Evermoon promotes absolute player control in every game aspect and boasts a sustainable, specially created free-to-play and gain economy and NFT characters.

After launching its Alpha Testing Phase I in December 2022 for the Southeast Asia area, the game got over 58,000 downloads within two weeks on TestFlightTest (iOS) & Google Play Store. Even more remarkable were its retention rates, which saw over 8,000 daily active customers over the same period.

Even though Evermoon is still in the early stages of development, it has already aroused considerable interest from investors and gameplay partners. With financiers like KOI Capital, Unreal Capital, and CryptoCup, as well as gaming ecosystem partners like UpOnly, Elixir, and MetaOasis already on board, the game is being incubated by Seedify, the top blockchain gaming incubator and launchpad in the world.

To discover more about Illuvium, visit its website, follow it on Twitter, and join its Discord server.

TreeVerse

Treeverse is a Web 3 mobile Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game featuring MOBA-style warfare. With its distinctive isometric top-down viewing perspective and anime-style, simple graphics influenced by "Journey" and "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," Treeverse allows players to discover an immersive open world.

The MMORPG includes social elements, crafting, collecting, exploring, and third-person fantasy combat with mythical beings. Moreover, the game has begun developing PVE and has plans to add PVP in the future.

Besides, Treeverse will be available for free to attract more traditional players and won't require a crypto wallet, NFTs, or any prior Web3 expertise. Instead, players can convert their in-game items into NFTs to enjoy the complete gaming experience.

Players can go on quests for NPCs within Arboros' open world, construct their ideal homes on their plots of land, collect materials, craft one-of-a-kind weaponry, and engage in team battles against powerful creatures.

Since 2021, Treeverse has experienced a remarkable period of development. They managed to issue a playable pre-alpha version of the game after growing the team from 17 to about 55. The general response to the Twitter videos and images of the pre-alpha indicates that the community is pleased and optimistic about the project's future.

There has been speculation about a possible launch on Immutable. While there is no official confirmation of its launch on Immutable, both the official Twitter accounts of TreeVerse and Immutable have hinted at the possibility in ambiguous terms.

If TreeVerse does launch on Immutable, it could significantly impact the growth of the blockchain gaming platform. However, it's worth noting that TreeVerse has also expressed interest in Polygon, as indicated by a TreeVerse retweeting Polygon Labs' President Rayan Wyatt's tweet, which stated TreeVerse on Polygon is his next dream.

Despite the ambiguity of these statements and rumors, the recent impressive performance and growth of Immutable in the gaming space could tip the scales in its favor. Only time will tell where TreeVerse will ultimately choose to launch.

6. Immutable’s Pulling Power
Immutable: The Go-To Choice for Game Studios Migrating to a Better Blockchain

‍Immutable is attracting a growing number of game studios that are choosing to migrate to its blockchain network from other platforms.

For instance, Tiny Colony, a blockchain-based construction and management simulator, recently made the switch from the Solana blockchain to Immutable. Similarly, XP Foundry, a Web3 game development studio, has also decided to migrate the assets of its debut Web3 game from Solana to Immutable, allowing gamers to enjoy gas-free minting and trading for their characters and items.

Ember Sword, an MMORPG from Bright Star Studios, moved from Polygon to Immutable, noting that the land sales could have gone more smoothly than they expected, and they feel that Immutable better fits their needs. Another example would be Cross The Ages, a fantasy and science fiction-themed digital card game that also moved from Polygon to Immutable. The game is a hit with players having an engagement of 1,000 active wallets per month. Similarly, Delysium, a free-to-own AI-infused multiverse, also moved from Polygon to Immutable.

Deviants' Factions, a play & earn trading card game, migrated from Terra to Immutable, and it is just one of many Web3 games that moved to Immutable after the Terra collapse.

These recent moves underscore the appeal of Immutable's user-friendly and cost-effective blockchain network, quickly becoming the go-to choice for game studios seeking a reliable and efficient platform for their gaming projects.

Immutable's Impressive Roster of Partnerships

Immutable's innovative technology has caught the attention of numerous titans across various industries.

Some notable companies that have harnessed the power of Immutable include:

1. GameStop, a prominent video game retailer, uses the network to run its NFT ecosystem.

2. Unity, which powers almost half the existing games, also supports Immutable.

3. Warner Bros division, Turner Sports, partnered with Immutable, making it Turner’s preferred platform partner as the media company further develops Ethereum-connected games and collectibles.

4. Playco, the global leader in instant gaming, partnered with Immutable to frictionlessly integrate gas-free and carbon-neutral NFTs into its instant-play games with over 500 million players globally.

5. ESL, the oldest and one of the most prominent esports companies, partnered with Immutable to launch a digital NFT platform for CS: GO fans

6. Kinguin, a leading global video games marketplace with over 10 million registered users, collaborated with Immutable to bring innovative NFT offerings to gamers and eSports enthusiasts worldwide.

7. TikTok, a social media giant, partnered with Immutable to launch the first creator-led NFT collection.

8. Mantisco, a leading South Korea-based studio behind AAA-rated Hunter’s Arena: Legends, partnered with Immutable to power its Web3 infrastructure stack.

9. Microsoft-Backed StarHeroes leverages Immutable to power its top-quality, skill-based space shooter game into the Immutable ecosystem and to further accelerate the adoption of Web3 games.

10. Mastercard, a global payment titan, partnered with Immutable to enable the purchase of NFTs using fiat.

11. Turner Sports, who operates NBA TV on behalf of the National Basketball Association, collaborated with Immutable to build blockchain games for premier sports.

12. Baobab, a leading animation and storytelling studio, leverages Immutable to build its first Web 3 game.

13. Kongregate, a prominent first-party game developer and creator of the widely popular web gaming platform Kongregate.com, joined hands with Immutable.

14. Nike-owned RTFKT Studios embraced Immutable for offering gasless NFTs for consumers without compromising security.

15. OKX, a major CEX, partnered with Immutable to accelerate OKX's strategy to make MetaX the DeFi portal of choice for retail and professional investors

16. Fr0ntierX, a white-label NFT solution provider, collaborated with Immutable to empower the world's biggest brands to run high-quality, curated NFT launches that are 100% gas-free and carbon-neutral.

17. NFT.NYC, a leading NFT industry event organizer, has a multi-year partnership with Immutable

Mintable and Moonpay, which processed more than $3 billion in transactions in over 160 countries, formed a strategic partnership with Immutable to advance the mass adoption of NFTs by offering unique onboarding solutions.

Immutable's partnerships with various companies and industries demonstrate its versatility and potential to shape the future of Web 3 gaming. It also verifies Immutable's recognition from mainstream and Web3 industries. Moreover, these collaborations highlight the platform's ability to provide a solid and seamless infrastructure for Web3 gaming, which is being enhanced further by more partnerships.

Gamestop Saga

The biggest video game store in the world, GameStop, started integrating crypto tech in February 2022 by revealing a collaboration with Immutable after failing to maintain sales as a brick-and-mortar retailer. Additionally, the partnership created a grant for NFT developers of up to $100 million in IMX tokens from Immutable.

Thanks to this collaboration, millions of GameStop clients globally will benefit from more rapid, inexpensive, and carbon-neutral NFT transactions, significantly supplementing liquidity and volume to the ecosystem of existing and upcoming Immutable titles.

The retailer sold nearly 15 million IMX coins worth about $42 million on several cryptocurrency exchanges almost immediately after the alliance announcement. Moreover, the agreement lacked a vesting period clause that could have prevented a token dump as the gaming behemoth decided to cash out. The move has been met with mixed reactions, with some questioning the ethics behind the decision.

Despite GameStop's blatant move, the partnership was ultimately a success. GameStop's NFT platform went live in public beta on July 11, 2022.

The original debut was successful, and within the first week, trading volume reached over 5,000 ETH (roughly $7.2M at the time), more than double Coinbase's all-time volume.

The platform went officially live with Immutable on October 31, 2022. Immutable's games, such as Cyber Galz, Deviants' Factions, Guild of Guardians, etc., are available on the GameStop marketplace.

While the partnership between Immutable and GameStop is still in its early stages, it has the potential to impact the adoption of Web3 gaming significantly. After all, the retail giant has a massive loyal following of traditional gamers. Immutable could introduce these gamers to Web3 once they make the transition seamless. Besides, GameStop also enjoys a devoted following due to the short squeeze in January 2021.

Immutable has made significant progress in expanding its ecosystem through business alliances. Following in the path of other prosperous blockchain ecosystems like Polygon, Immutable has ambitious plans to further develop its ecosystem in the upcoming years.

Immutable Partnership with Polygon: The End Game?

Immutable has joined Polygon Labs in a game-changing partnership to launch a new network tailored to revolutionize blockchain gaming. Powered by Polygon's innovative zkEVM technology, this new network aims to accelerate the growth of Web3 gaming by providing unparalleled digital ownership opportunities for gamers across the globe.

Set to launch in beta on March 27, Polygon's own zkEVM mainnet network will run alongside the existing Immutable scaling network based on the StarkEx zk-Rollup tech. The new network will use Immutable's IMX token for gas fees and transaction sequencing.

We can expect the networks to build bridges to facilitate the seamless transfer of assets between Immutable zkEVM and Polygon's own zkEVM network.

Immutable zkEVM will be the first EVM-compatible solution for games with blockchain-enforceable royalty fees, allowing game developers to protect and grow their revenue while empowering their communities with asset ownership, all on one of the largest Web3 gaming ecosystems.

This partnership streamlines decision-making for game studios and developers. It provides an innovative, secure choice for business leaders, accelerating time-to-market and offering access to an ecosystem that will be one of the largest and most liquid for end users.

Ultimately, the Immutable zkEVM network presents an enticing proposition for developers looking to take root as the Web3 gaming market expands. It combines Polygon's cutting-edge scaling tech with Immutable's robust gaming infrastructure.

With the unstoppable momentum of Web3 gaming, this partnership could not have come at a better time. Immutable and Polygon Labs are poised to unleash the power of Web3 gaming, allowing gamers to truly own their gaming experience.

Conclusion

The rise of Immutable in the Web3 gaming space has been nothing short of meteoric. With a staggering 250% increase in trading volume from $24M in 2021 to over $87M in 2022, Immutable emerged as the fastest-growing gaming blockchain in the Web3 gaming space with highly promising trends for 2023 as the data from Dappradar indicates that the NFTs on Immutable are becoming more valuable compared to before.

With a talented team, a growing user base, and a robust toolkit for developers and studios, Immutable is positioned to become a key player in the space, potentially shaping the gaming industry's future.

Moreover, ImmutableX's Passport offers a solution for the significant hurdle to drive the mainstream adoption of blockchain gaming by offering seamless authentication and a streamlined user experience.

More importantly, the partnership between Polygon Labs and Immutable has set the stage for the mass adoption of Web3 gaming, revolutionizing the gaming industry as we know it.

As Web2 gaming companies pivot towards Web3, Immutable, with its upcoming zkEVM network, is well-positioned to drive the industry's evolution and pave the way for a more decentralized gaming ecosystem.

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