Weekly Digest

Partnerships and prizes are the hot topic in Web3 gaming this week as we see various tournaments and tie-ups making headlines. Did you get a chance to participate in any of the popular tournaments?

Also in our weekly digest:

• Youtubers accuse Immutable X of inflating trading volumes

• Epic Games Store, home to 230 Million gamers, set to release 20 Web3 Games

• Following Binance NFT's AI powered Bicasso, Sandbox continues the trend by bringing generative AI tools into Metaverse

Yoda Labs exclusive research report featuring expert insights into Polygon gaming industry trends, investments and growth 👽

Co-authored by BGA & DappRadar

Web3 Gaming News 🎮

• Raiders Rumble by Bloxmith launched on the Flow blockchain, will host three Flow-sponsored bonus tournaments between March 23-31 offering a prize pool of $120,000 in FLOW tokens.

• Player One Tournament Season 2 hosted by Game Space, showcasing Web3 AAA games, and sponsorship from Tencent Cloud International

• Youtubers Grand Angle Meta accuses Immutable X of inflating trading volumes for games like Gods Unchained and Blocklords.

• Yield Guild Games welcomes SPAM, an AxieInfinity champion with over $183k in esports earnings, to their YggEsports ELITE.

• 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.

• Block Born gaming launchpad partners with Nefta, a Web3 tech platform, to provide NFT minting and white-label marketplace on Tezos Blockchain.

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

• GAMEE Arc8 app latest takeover event gives players rewards of Planet IX Arcades, Starter Packs and IXT tokens in two tournaments between 16-24rd March,

• Crabada Avalanche-based autobattler announces the third installment of its Weekly Arena Tournament, running from March 13th to 19th,

• 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.

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

• Project Matthew by BinaryX, a futuristic space-building simulation game backed by Binance, opens its beta test registration grab your spot before March 20.

Web3 Gaming Trends 🚀

• 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?

• 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.

• Ethereum's ERC-4337 update could be massive for onboarding billions of gamers into web3 by bringing smoother onboarding capabilities to the industry.

• 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.

Web3 Funding News 💸

• 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.

• 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

Exploring the Metaverse 🛸

• The Sandbox is hosting its March festival from March 8 to April 14 and also continues to expand its offerings through three additional partnerships.

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

• Nissan, plans Metaverse advertising and files four new Web3-related trademarks in the United States covering its Infiniti, Nismo, and Nissan brands.

• Fiat and Kia unveiled a ChatGPT-supported metaverse showroom. The two manufacturers say these showrooms will let customers peruse vehicles in an immersive setting.

• 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. These 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.

• Karta, the metaverse studio announced ex-Virgin EMI Records music industry veteran Tony Barnes as its co-founder, joining to help the company connect and build communities.

• The Shiba Inu Metaverse, featuring 11 hubs had its official beta launch on March 11, demonstrating an immersive extended reality experience at the SXSW festival.

• Yuga Labs' Otherside Metaverse platform will launch its 'Second Trip' on March 25, Holders of its Otherdeed NFTs will be able to participate in the gamified test.

• Gala Games and AMC are ready to give players a second dive into the survival game as they announce the next playtest for The Walking Dead: Empires.

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

“If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are,
a different game you should play.”
-Yoda

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

Yoda Labs team