Weekly Digest

This week was marked by giveaways, from Reddit to Super Bowl. Did you grab any of the free NFTs offered?

Also in our weekly digest:

• Square Enix and Polygon partner up for a Web3 title

• Limit Break's Super Bowl ad considered a fiasco by some

• LeBron's NBA Top Shot NFTs skyrocket after record-breaking NBA performance

• Are E-sports tournaments dipping their toes into blockchain?

• Amazon invests in Web3 Friendly studio in a $20M round

Web3 Gaming News 🎮

• Square Enix, creator of Final Fantasy, partners with Polygon for NFTs to offer a unique experience tied to a storyline players will unfold in a virtual (turn-based) adventure.

• Cross the Ages is now officially live on the ImmutableX marketplace and their collection blasted off to top 3 with a $750,000 trading volume in just 24 hours

• Limit Break paid $6M for an ad during Super Bowl with a QR code directing to CEO’s twitter. Despite complaints, the 10k NFTs were distributed and then traded on secondary markets

• Dookey Dash race has ended! Fortnite pro player @Mongraal wins the competition promoting this exciting Yuga Labs Ethereum NFT racing game

• Merit Circle DAO started a grant program focused on Web3 gaming, offering $10k for researchers and $25k for developers that participate.

• Lebron broke the NBA all-time scoring record and his NBA Top Shot NFTs are flying with nearly $234k in secondary sales within 4 days.

• Avatar, a mysterious Chinese project with GameFi label, has amassed over 25M $MATIC becoming the 5th biggest whale and it’s legitimacy concerns some holders.

• Animoca Brands invests in Virtual Arts, the creator of DanceFight, in which users compete in 1v1 battles recording signature dance moves starting in May 2023.

• Ev.io launches monthly survival tournaments with each event having a reward budget of $5,000 shared between all the participants

• Gaming chain Oasys onboards Japanese group Softbank as validator to verify transactions on-chain which makes it 25 validators in total with Bandai Namco, SEGA, Square Enix as the biggest ones

• Is play-to-earn 2.0 coming? Check out YGG's guild advancement plans today on live-stream

Web3 Gaming Trends 🚀

• Reddit has minted about 1.3M Super Bowl NFTs on Polygon onboarding millions to Web3 by leveraging mainstream events and positioning the industry for wider adoption in 2023.

• Esports organizations have begun using blockchain to host tournaments and distribute prize pools, according to Dave Harris, managing director of esports investment firm Guinevere Capital.

• Blockchain gaming active users dropped 30% in three months but John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games with $1B valuation, is hopeful for the future as multiple Web3 games started surpassing a million users already.

• Footprint Analytics 2022 GameFi report displays a rising trend in new game developments. In 2022, BNB attracted highest number of new protocols - 296. Polygon doubled its gaming protocols from 153 to 306, Wax from 53 to 137. The trend is expected to rise even more vigorously in 2023.

Exploring the Metaverse 🛸

• Designer Vivienne Tam partnered with Animoca Brands and Hepha to create a metaverse environment at her New York Fashion Week show demonstrating the potential of Web3 in art and entertainment.

• Metacoms partnered with Polygon. The users can navigate through Metaverse to create and sell their own apps with the help of AI.

• Leading Web3 Game Incubator Seedify officially launched it’s Metaverse, Seedworld. The mint of their first NFT collection is scheduled for February 20

• Sandbox partners with ZeptoLab, creator of Cut The Rope with more than a billion downloads, to offer a unique Web3 experience 

Funding News 💸

• Finnish game developer Tower Pop has raised $2.1m in funding for its new game, Omega Royale. After this round, Tower Pop has raised $2.8M in total.

• Mino Games raised $15M to create a Dimensionals Web3 game. The company has so far raised $25M for their various Web3 gaming projects.

• Amazon Funds Web3-Friendly Studio Superplastic in $20M round get first dibs TV shows, films and gamified experiences

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

“We Have Hope. Hope That Things Will Get Better. And They Will.”
-Hera Syndulla

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

Yoda Labs team