Weekly Digest

Farming in games feels like a safe play for both gamers and publishers. Growing assets and continual engagement suit both parties could be a trend going forward. Are you a hunter or a farmer?

Also in our weekly digest:

• Yuga Labs’ Legends of Mara has players asking for more

• Farmers World, top 5 on Dappradar by users, leading a growing trend

• Immutable’s Cross The Ages surpassed 600k community members

• PUBG and NFTs dropped hot this week

• Time to drop the tag? - Web3 games soon to be known as ‘Games’

• Netflix of games is here according to Ed Chang, Ava Labs head of gaming

• Shiba INU metaverse to have talents from the Hollywood

Yoda Labs exclusive research report featuring expert insights into the Immutable Gaming Ecosystem

Stay tuned for the next one very soon!

Co-authored by BGA & DappRadar

Web3 Gaming News 🎮

• Legends of Mara, Yuga Labs’ highly anticipated 2D web-based game, has provided more details featuring Hunting, Farming, and Enchanting types of Vessels

• Farmers World, the third-ranked blockchain game on DappRadar, is well on it way to surpass the popularity of traditional farming games

• Cross The Ages has gained over 600,000 community members combining traditional gaming with immutable’s blockchain tech and is predicted to be a major player in the future of Web3 gaming.

• Forj by Animoca Brand and VIKER launch Web3 mobile game tournament using the PolkaPet World digital collectibles franchise, where holders can win a share of $5K in $PETS tokens.

• Gadget-Bot Productions has announced the launch of Kaidro, a new Web3 RPG game with NFTs for unique playable characters with their own storylines and character-specific items.

• Crypto Unicorns lets players vote on the next game to be developed to ensure the community has a say and meets their needs.

Web3 games do it differently

Traditional games are usually owned by corporations and publishers who design and build games to tight specifications. Granted, traditional game development does involve or invite a selected group of people for behind-closed-doors testing. With their feedback on board and a massive budget behind them, the stakes are very high when it comes to success.

Web3 games have a completely different approach. We have seen publishers and studios request feedback, provide playtests and invite community members openly and quickly to gather opinions and feedback.

Not only is this in line with Web3 ethos of transparency and ownership but it empowers the players to be involved at a deeper level. This then turns into superfans and flag bearers of the brand and the game itself.

Yuga Labs are masters at building this type of hype. The run-up to such test events often has participants counting down the days and the after-effects leave the community yearning for more looking forward to the next event.

Even lesser-known games such as Crypto Unicorns are delivering this aspect of community bonding, effortlessly and flawlessly. Inviting participants to decide on what prototype to build is refreshing - after all its the games and the gaming community that will play the game, so why not ask them what they want and build super fans along the way.

• Qorbi World has announced the alpha testing of its first game, ‘One Tap,’ a free-to-play 1v1 FPS deathmatch game that includes blockchain rewards and cross-game NFT assets

• ZEBEDEE and Guilds wagering platform hosted a Bitcoin Games Day with the intention to invite the next slew of gamers by offering huge BTC/USD rewards.

• Tetro Tiles an easy to play, but tough-to-master puzzler on iOS and Android rewards players with small amounts of Bitcoin

No need for a crypto wallet to be involved in Web3 gaming

Actually, no need for crypto anything to be involved in Web3 gaming.
Tetro Tiles is the latest example of a team that is on a mission to convert traditional gamers. Actually, that may not be their mission at all - but raising awareness of Web3 gaming is being done via their reward mechanism.

Before getting to rewards a number of purposeful decisions have been made. Offering, multiple ways to log in such as Gmail, Twitter, or email accounts there is no onboarding friction. The game is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store is perfectly accessible and the fact it is mobile-ready is perfect for cauls gamers. Add to the fact that the game had a name change from Bitcoin Blocks to Tetro Blocks - the game has a perfect product market fit.

So simple it doesn’t need a tutorial the game is fun and engaging. Satoshis, the smallest denominations of Bitcoin are offered as rewards. Players don’t need to cash them out and can continue racking up these in-game rewards. By why let that go to waste? Players that do want to cash out, can. For that, the Lightening network is used and a wallet is needed. Who said Web3 gaming needs to be called Web3 gaming? Soon it’ll just be called gaming and players won’t even know.

• Beam, a new gaming-focused blockchain on Avalanche, has been launched by Merit Circle DAO, aimed directly at gamers and game developers to deploy on-chain games with ease

• Tezos India and GoLive Games launched a new NFT cricket strategy game, ‘Cricket Stars’, featuring player vs player modes, knockout tournaments, and esports tournaments

• Gala Games is holding a token airdrop event for their new v2 tokens with improved security features and a token burn mechanism which could make them more valuable

• Ed Chang Head of Gaming at Ava Labs thinks its too early to tell which genre is best for Web3, instead the company is positioning itself as the Netflix of Web3 games

• Runiverse to announce its first tournament, allowing users to join communities and compete in Run-to-Earn competitions that incentivize social interaction and bridge the crypto and gaming communities.

• Bitkraft Ventures hires Riot Games and Temasek former employees to expand in Asia and invest in promising gaming and interactive entertainment startups

• Dr. Disrespect’s dynamic NFT shooter 'Deadrop' is still early and needs refinement, but there's already a lot to like

• NFL Rivals is a fantasy football game that holds an official NFL license whilst utilizing NFTs within its mobile game is looking to move to Polkadot

Web3 Gaming Trends 🚀

• XSET signs Bryan "Brycent" Johnson as its first Web3 gaming content creator, marking its foray into Web3 gaming

• Web3 gaming is changing from Pay-to-Earn to Play-and-Earn because players now want to earn real-world value for their time and effort, not just tokens for in-game achievements

• INTA releases white papers on NFTs and the Metaverse to assist brand practitioners in adapting to new digital ecosystems

• NFTs are now being used in the iGaming industry for deposits, rewards, granting access to casinos and loyalty programs where players could own a slot machine and benefit as business owners

• Gaming is expected to drive mainstream adoption of web3, as NFT projects aim to integrate with gaming projects due to the high usage of digital assets and skins by gamers.

Web3 Funding News 💸

• XRSPACE raises $25M led by Foxconn Technology Group and Taiwan's National Development Fund to develop new 3D live and social experiences in the metaverse platform

Exploring the Metaverse 🛸

• PUBG Creator to launch Migaloo a metaverse game platform where the team is partnering with Naver Z to launch an NFT metaverse building game similar to Roblox where players can create, buy, and sell in-game assets in a "create-to-earn" system

• The "Dream Space: New Wave in the Metaverse" NFT exhibition in Macau features Hanjin Tan's NFT artworks, including the first Chinese-language music NFT in the world.

• The Metaverse industry in France is set to reach $22.1B by 2030, up from $5.1B, according to the France Metaverse Market Intelligence report

• OneLAND the metaverse market analysis platform for virtual lands saw a month-high increase in sales by 52.8%, thus indicating positive growth in the Metaverse market

• Mattel turns virtual collectibles platform into a P2P marketplace for collectors. allowing owners to trade and sell their virtual collectibles on the platform

• Shiba Inu Metaverse project is attracting Hollywood attention for immersive entertainment experiences with Unreal Engine 5.1 and tools like Plot Builder and Avatar Builder

• CyberBrokers has launched the Mech Assembly, a platform to create personalized Mechs with billions of configurations, paving the way for NFTs in the open Metaverse.

• Meta World: My City, a new Metaverse board game by Netmarble is a component of the MBX gaming blockchain featuring a virtual real estate and building collection, available on mobile to onboard gamers

• MetaWorks' MusicFX is now the official ticketing wallet of the FreakNik Festival documentary, providing fans with a secure and seamless way to access the documentary

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“A challenge lifelong it is, not to bend fear into anger.”
-Yoda

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

Yoda Labs team