Yoda Labs Monthly Recap

March was a massive month for blockchain gaming, highlighted by developments like creator empowerment, tech integration, investment, and alliances, all of which served to advance Web3 gaming.

Who, in your opinion, will have the greatest influence?

Also in our monthly digest:

• Az16 launches a start-up school to help game builders

• Wemade and Near partner up to take a lead in Web3 gaming in Korea

• Did Immutable and Polygon just form the largest partnership in Web3 gaming?

• Product placement is coming to Web3 games in the form of NFTs

• Can NFT land staking transform the future of real estate?

• Gucci and Yuga Labs unite to create metaverse magic!

• Ex-Riot Games Exec raises $55M but does not want to integrate NFTs into games produced by their game studio

Reporting on Polygon gaming industry trends, investments, growth, and more… 👽

Co-authored by BGA & DappRadar

Web3 Gaming News 🎮

• Yesports is hosting Convergence 2023, featuring 30 web3 gaming projects where attendees can learn how to make the next generation of Web3 games from industry disruptors.

• A16z Games launches SPEEDRUN, a gaming startup school to provide knowledge and guidance to game builders and studios.

• Tearing Spaces is offering Genesis Celestial PFP NFTs to fans with early game access, future airdrops, better earnings, and free access to tournaments and events.

• Overlord and Revolving Games backed by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houserare developing an NFT game based on the Creepz NFT collection.

• Konig and Grease Monkey Games are collaborating to create interoperable wheel NFTs for Torque Drift 2 and other Torque Motorsport franchise games.

• Red Door Digital and Oasys have partnered to create RDD Verse, a blockchain-based ecosystem featuring the Reign of Terror to unite their gaming communities and push the industry forward.

• Magic Eden has just launched its brand new gaming hub called Magic Eden Games with a mission to assist gamers in uncovering the finest web3 gaming experiences.

• Pooky gamified betting platform is first to market having launched a play-to-earn game with NFTs as bonuses, offering prize pools of 500 MATIC tokens per day.

• Baobab Studios, nine times Emmy-winning studio backed by Disney, to launch an RPG game for its recently unveiled NFT collection, Momoguro.

• Square Enix CEO, Yosuke Matsuda, a huge advocate for NFT games, is to be replaced, pending shareholder approval in June.

• Unity Gaming Engine releases Blockchain and Web3 integration options for developers so that they can focus on building experiences.

• Blitz, TSM’s competitive gaming platform, will be leveraging Avalanche to revolutionize the gaming industry by bringing Web3 features to 30M gamers.

Game Developer Conference 2023 🎮

• GDC 2023 held at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center between March 20-24 bought the gaming world together to showcase and discuss pressing issues. Access the State of the Game Industry survey for trends and insights.

• Wemade shows how to make blockchain games at GDC 2023. Being one of the earliest mainstream gaming companies that embraced Web3 technology the company put forward its Four Module System.

• Wemade and Near protocol announced a strategic partnership to accelerate web3 adoption in South Korea to lead the Korean web3 gaming race.

• Magic Eden formed Web3 Games Collective with several leading publishers and communities so Web3 games can reduce investor and developer risk.

Polygon Highlights 🎮

• ZkMeta is creating a gaming rollup on the Polygon network to tap into Chinese gaming studios and game developers with a target completion date of Q3 2023.

• Aavegotchi is to use Polygon Technology to build a custom blockchain called Gotchichain which is being designed to give gamers lower fees and faster transaction times.

• Rumble Racing Star will run on the Polygon blockchain and support third-party NFT collections such as Goblintown, y00ts, and Killabears to offer more personalization to its players.

• Portal Fantasy announces a new roadmap, closed beta, and a partnership with Polygon to expand its reach.

• MapleStory Universe by game publisher Nexon, one of the largest game publishers across Asia, is launching a private Supernet on Polygon for the new game.

• AQUA, a Web3 marketplace for gamers, is teaming up with Polygon Labs to enhance Web3 opportunities for gaming projects and players and plans to add 15 titles by the end of the year.

• Hunters On-Chain the Web3 browser version of mobile game Hunt Royale goes live on Polygon and it’s maker BoomLand says it’s aiming to push mass adoption of Web3 gaming 

Immutable Highlights 🎮

• Immutable and Polygon collaborate to provide an Ethereum-focused gaming network for Web3 game developers and their players.

• Bazooka Tango, Bit Fry Game Studios, Studio 369 partner up with IMX to build zkEVM offering EVM compatibility, massive scale, low cost, and Ethereum security for games.

• ImmutableX strengthens collaboration with Warner Bros. with the release of Blocklete Golf for mobile Web3.

• Shardbound revived as Web3 game as ImmutableX and Bazooka believe fresh funding and NFT elements can bring players back.

The draw of reviving an old IP and repurposing it for Web3

When titans like ImmutableX and Bazooka team up, we have to pay attention. Reviving an old Web2 game that barely has any active users seems like a miscalculated move. However, when looking closer as to why they believe in this resurrection it is clear that they could be onto something.

Originally offered as an indie game on the Steam store, the turn-based tactical collectible card game amassed a massive 76% positive review score. In addition, the game had ‘hundreds of thousands’ accounts created signifying genuine interest in the strategic battle card game genre, offering gameplay similar to Blizzard’s Hearthstone with elements of Riot Games’ Teamfight Tactics.

Buying a ‘dead game’ is akin to buying a distressed business. Shardbound once was building itself up to be an established brand. ImmutableX and Bazooka probably picked it up at a bargain price, greatly reducing their risk. They certainly saw, the huge opportunity for a turnaround using blockchain infrastructure. And the original user statistics backed up their thinking.

Beautifully polished, yet unfinished (due to lack of funding) it is also perfect for a streaming audience with a Web3 twist. The game is poised to be released on the newly announced zkEVM and will sure to give it a certain level of gravitas and exposure.

• The NFT Gaming Company Inc. integrates speech recognition into their upcoming games to improve the gaming experience for their players.

• Electronic Arts Founder Trip Hawkins' Web3 Gaming Studio, Games For A Living, partnered with Seedify for its IGO

• Epic's store has five crypto games and close to 20 in the pipeline, but is staying a safe distance from them stating next year will show if blockchain games are popular.

Mainstream Adoption of Web3 Games on Epic Games Store

We can understand the cautious stance of Epic Games. Predominantly, the Epic Games Store caters to the traditional PC gaming market. Founder Tim Sweeny avoids giving exact numbers but does suggest that Web3 games are doing "pretty well".

Although no Web3 games are made or published by Epic, it is evident that mainstream adoption is underway as many more Web3 games are expected to launch on the marketplace. With Steam currently blocking Web3 games, Epic Games is already taking the lead by offering blockchain-based games exposure and accessibility to conventional gamers.

Epic is perhaps doing enough, as it is already ahead of its competitors. However, with Web3 native ecosystems such as Polygon Studios, IMX, Wax, and the metaverse movement that is underway, this will bring in a new wave of gamers. With Amazon also looking to enter the Web3 gaming space, Epic may need to shift gears if the company intends to dominate the space.

For now, they are flying the flag for Web3 games, easing those traditional gamers into our world, and for that they should be commended.

• Raiders Rumble by Bloxmith bridges the gap between Web2 and Web3 gamers in the continued pursuit of onboarding new players to Web3 gaming.

• TreasureDAO unveils Darkbright Studios, a new ecosystem-native game development studio for Smolverse's inaugural title, Smolville.

• Pixion Games, the company behind Fableborne, announces the launch of their Creator Program to empower the Gaming Community.

• Game7 and MetaMask partners to develop HyperPlay's Web3 gameplay launcher, now available in the early access phase for all major platforms.

• Planet Mojo and Mojo Melee creator, Mystic Moose is to enable people to convert their NFTs to real-time 3D models for use in games.

Extending utility within games to connect with gamers at a more personal level

Game studio Mystic Moose has created a way for people to convert their NFTs into real-time 3D models. This is significant as it adds a new layer of connecting with gamers.

By allowing gamers to modify and transform their owned digital collections on the blockchain with endless look and creativity, Mystic Moose's 3D 'Mod-able' Mojo NFTs will usher in a new era of user-generated content. This could lead to increased interest and engagement in NFTs and Web3 gaming, and help overcome some of the major objections that game developers and gamers have had about NFT ownership in the past.

Blockchain tech is always evolving and companies continue to push forward the art of what is possible. We feel many project teams will be looking into how this was achieved with a view to bringing it into their own ecosystems and games.

Web3 Gaming Trends 🚀

• PlayMining GameFi platform launches product placement NFTs as a new advertising solution and utility offering that can be sold and distributed to its 2.7 million gamers.

• Web3 gaming is blooming in Asia, with the market favoring RPG and Casual games, will this trend propel the global gaming industry forward for the coming decades?

• Virtual Land Staking could transform how land is bought, sold, and managed in the future.

Is Virtual Land Staking the best play in gaming?

Digital land is real estate niche that's making passive-income owners rich. Smart investors are buying cash-flowing property in NFT ventures like Axie Infinity, Wolf Game, NFT Worlds, and Aavegotchi and making better returns than with traditional real estate.

Daniel Maegaard aka Seedphrase has posted a screenshot of his daily income from investing in land from the Axie Infinity ecosystem, a play-to-earn game backed by Paradigm, AK16, and Mark Cuban. His 91 plots of land generate 149.24 AXS ($1,364) tokens daily and $597,860 in passive money. In a crypto bear market, this is remarkable.

Wolf Game, launched December 2022, has made owners huge profits. Wolf Game has 2,577 buildings on 20,000 Genesis Plots. These buildings can be upgraded to barns or bathhouses and rented out for Wolf Game's local token, WOOL. Bathhouses are in high demand, and the cheapest ones in less popular areas hire for 15,000 WOOL per month. Today, bathhouses cost 2.5 eth (around $4,125) and WOOL 1.5 cents.

15,000 x $0.015 = $225 every 30 days, good for $2,700 per year and a net ROI of 65% in the first year alone.

NFT Worlds and Aavegotchi offer players the same opportunity. These games can be played for years to come and are one-time investments. With Web3 gaming to be the next meta, and the projects staying afloat, these investments could pay insane dividends over multi-year timeframes.

Assuming these projects can stay afloat, and if (when) gaming becomes the next meta in Web3, their tokens could regain any of their price levels from the previous bull cycle.

• Game entrepreneurs are surging as many leave reputable companies like Riot Games to start their own companies.

• Does Reboot have the answer to the current-broken video game production and distribution model? Their protocol aims to create decentralized matchmaking marketplaces

• Ethereum's ERC-4337 update could be massive for onboarding billions of gamers into Web3 by bringing smoother onboarding capabilities to the industry

Is a new trend about to start with the adoption of ERC-4337 and interoperability between virtual worlds?

This new standard for NFT creation on multiple metaverses, Web3 games and platforms will enable interoperability between virtual worlds. The development of the new NFT standard by Metalinq, a project backed by Coinsilium, is a significant contribution towards creating interoperable Web3 infrastructure on the Ethereum blockchain.

This news could potentially have a significant impact on the world of blockchain-based metaverses and Web3 gaming platforms, as the standardization of NFTs could lead to increased adoption and further development of these technologies.

The fact that Metalinq is the author of the ERC-5606 standard could also position the company as a leading tech partner for metaverse and Web3 game developers.

• Javelin Cloud technology integrates with Polygon to address the #1 issue for gaming platforms — latency.

• By using Polygon, game designers can rapidly integrate Ethereum assets and smart contracts into their games opening up fresh possibilities for asset transfer & cross-platform play.

• Age of Empires Producer proposes insights for improving blockchain games so they can compete with those from established developers.

• The Sandbox wants to put AI into the hands of everyone so creators can visualize new possibilities and concepts to bring life to their virtual lands.

The Rise of AI in Game Development

The Sandbox pushing AI into the hands of its creators is a shrewd move but no real surprise. The company is building out a metaverse and what better way to do so than by empowering creators to generate content faster by giving them tools to do so.

In previous editions of the Yoda Labs newsletter, we highlighted the rise of AI tools for builders and creators to speed up game development. The Sandbox is taking this a step further by offering the toolset to land owners so to enrich plots of land that would otherwise be barren.

This fast track to innovation is a trend that we believe we will continue to see in all aspects of life but more so in the realms of Web3 games and game development.

• Does Reboot have the answer to the current-broken video game production and distribution model? Their protocol aims to create decentralized matchmaking marketplaces

• Is Polygon now a gaming blockchain? When comparing it to other categories, gaming saw the biggest growth in unique active wallets, leaving sectors such as DeFi, NFTs, and social dApps far behind.

Exploring the Metaverse 🛸

• Gucci and Yuga Labs are collaborating to explore fashion and entertainment in the Metaverse.

• Polygon zkEVM has released Mainnet Beta and is now completely open-source under an AGPL v3 license.

• Sandbox and Ledger Enterprise have partnered to offer scalable security, treasury management, and seamless brand partner interaction for businesses in the Metaverse.

• CapitaLand and Bandwagon Labs are launching CapitaVerse 2.0, Singapore's largest 24-hour experiential party in Decentraland to showcase future-ready lifestyle experiences.

• Oncyber the metaverse platform adds OpenAI’s GPT tool and lets users change 3D spaces by typing out ideas

• Neal Stephenson, who coined the word Metaverse, believes goggles won't be necessary for the future Metaverse.

• Rec Room is piloting Rec Room Studio, a plug-in for Unity that gives users access to more sophisticated tools for building digital spaces inside the metaverse.

• SmartRetail partners up with Amimoca Japan as it looks to venture into virtual space, whilst Animoca expands its Web3 portfolio.

• Human-centric functional metaverses are growing as people seek out spaces that allow them to achieve their objectives, connect with others, and explore new opportunities

• Ready Player Me and Faraway partner up allowing avatars from Mini Royale: Nations to be played in games from 6,000 developers.

• Decentraland launches its SDK in beta form, encompassing a new UI, improved performance, external library compatibility, and access to the latest version of TypeScript.

Why is Interoperability Key to the Success of Metaverse Gaming Partnerships?

Partnerships Like Mini Royale: Nations and Ready Player are aligned in both vision and on the shared belief that the future of Web3 and the metaverse will be defined by interoperability.

This is the very ethos of blockchain gaming and is what sets it apart from the fractured eco-systems that non Web3 games offer. This partnership is an example of breaking down barriers and giving developers more power.

This leads to a thriving creator economy, greater creativity, improved end-user experience, and increased accessibility, regardless of platform, operating system, or geographical location. It’s definitely something other builders and eco-systems should be considering to thrive on todays competitive gaming Landscape.

• AMC's "Immortal Universe" unveils Mayfair Witches, a new community onboarding endeavor to augment the metaverse.

• Aftermath Islands is taking the Game-Fi industry by storm, the metaverse game with AI integrations clocks 2M user-generated Resource Pack NFTs.

Funding News 💸

• Ex-Riot Games Execs Raises $55M for The Believer Company, series A round was led by Lightspeed Ventures and supported by Andreessen Horowitz

• Few and Far raises $10.5M to expand platform capabilities, enhance user experience, and increase the number of Web3 developers, in a round led by Pantera Capital.

• Aavegotchi, creators Pixelcraft Studios, have completed their token sale, raising a total of $30M with no VC or Angel Investors Involved.

• CCP Games from Iceland raises $40M led by A16z to expand its R&D team so that the new triple-A blockchain game set in the Eve universe is truly more meaningful than real life.

• Helika, a Web3 gaming analytics platform, raises $4M in a seed round led by Diagram Ventures to expand Analytics Product Offering for Web3.

• Rec Room is piloting Rec Room Studio, a plug-in for Unity that gives users access to more sophisticated tools for building digital spaces inside the metaverse.

• Human-centric functional metaverses are growing as people seek out spaces that allow them to achieve their objectives, connect with others, and explore new opportunities

• Redemption Games from AppLovin raises $7M led by Play Ventures to focus on creating mass-market games with AI and Web3.

• Jungle, a Web3 game publisher, secures $6M in a round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Framework Ventures to expand staff and bring its first game to market later this year.

• South Korean government invests $18.4M into the Metaverse Fund to support mergers and acquisitions, promote doemstic iniatives and to compete globally.

• Tangle secures $4M from Qualcomm and others as they unleash the metaverse into the workspace.

• Degen Zoo, raises a record $700 million in pledges as the NFT game inspired by Logan Paul's abandoned Crypto Zoo, quickly becomes one of the most-talked-about crypto games

Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news and announcements!

“Fear is the path to the dark side.”
-Yoda

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

Yoda Labs team