Weekly Digest

This week was dominated by gaming exhibit announcements, from Axie Infinity to Wildcard. Are you in line for alpha access?

Also in our weekly digest:

• My Neighbour Alice shifts from competition to collaboration

• Champion Aseccension gets rid of web3 wallets for players

• Ubisoft reaffirms its web3 stance as it launches avatars for the metaverse

• Mastercard to deliver in-game currency gifting as it partners with Xsolla

• VSPO a Chinese Esports company receives $256M from Saudi-Government backed game Savvy Games Group

Web3 Gaming News 🎮

• Melee on the Meteor, the first public showing of Wildcard, will happen on February 23. This long-awaited game, which took 5 years to make, is finally here.

• Parallel, a sci-fi-themed TCG, opens early access for the planned alpha launch date on February 28th.

• Axie to start Axie Homeland Alpha Season 1 on February 22nd, for players who own an Axie land plot.

• The testnet of Nekoverse, a cat-themed, turn-based strategy game, is still open with a prize pool of 5 million ASG tokens for the participants.

• Planet IX, a leading P2E Polygon game, sees impressive growth after its expansion to BitKeep NFT Market.

• Immutable X announced Immutable Passport, a new upcoming addition to their ecosystem that works as a part wallet, part login authenticator.

• Champions Ascension announces players will no longer need a web3 wallet to play the game.

• Crypto Unicorns hires Andrew Campbell, a former Axie Infinity Esports Head, to expand its "multiverse" as Product and Market Growth Lead.

• Loco, a leading game streaming platform, enters the Avalanche Multiverse incentive program to develop a line of Web3 products offering cutting-edge fan experiences using a custom Avalanche Subnet.

• Ryan Wyatt the gaming and esports icon who now leads Polygon labs, believes the next Bezos will be from Web3.

Web3 Gaming Trends 🚀

• Game Space releases the Galaxy Plan, Casual GameFi could soon dominate the Web3 Gaming market.

• My Neighbour Alice shifts to immersive storytelling and moves away from P2E competition to collaboration, encouraging in-game interaction and teamwork.

• Generative AI could drive the future of Web3 game development, a tech that has seen tremendous hype, allowing creatives to bring new ideas to life at incredible speed.

• More web2 gaming studios adopt web3 technology and intrude on conventional gaming, and this could result in a permanent shift in the gaming industry.

• NFT renting coming to the PlayStation ecosystem and can become the norm in gaming if other big brands follow in Sony’s footsteps.

• Gamers continue to dominate blockchain activity; they accounted for nearly half of all activity in January: DappRadar.

• Ubisoft reaffirms its Web3 stance by adding Rabbids NFT avatars as major Web2 gaming studios are still bullish on Web3.

• Mastercard and Xsolla partner up to deliver enhanced checkout experiences and easy-to-pay solutions thanks to the direct integration of Credit Card loyalty points and in-game currency gifting.  

• Mobile gaming currently accounts for 60% of the gaming market share generating more revenue than console & PC gaming combined. In 2023, Web3 gaming is expected to follow the same trend with more mobile developers joining the fray.

Exploring the Metaverse 🛸

• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade metaverse experience to feature five NFT galleries.

• Tencent denies lay-off rumors and announces 'Personnel Reshuffle' at its Metaverse unit. The company also pulls the plug on Metaverse hardware following Microsoft’s cuts in its VR unit

• The Undeads metaverse introduces a player-driven economy and a seamless onboarding process that doesn’t require players to immediately acquire an NFT to play

• Neal Mohan the new YouTube CEO is bullish about Web3 technologies like NFTs and the Metaverse betting on creators building deeper relationships with their fans.

• AXA France enters the metaverse, with ‘Axadia’ enabling the wider audience to explore the company’s vision, principles, hiring procedures, and social responsibilities.

• Dragon Ball creator Toei Animation partners with The Sandbox for a brand-new metaverse game that brings the Japanese animation brand’s most popular characters to life.

Funding News 💸

• Born To Die, a fast-paced 3D shooter game secures Pre-Seed Funding for $1.5M and launches Genesis NFTs.

• Hashed and Coin98 lead a $4M Pre-Series A financing round for Aura Network to expand ecosystem ahead of mainnet launch.

• Nefta, a Web3 engines platform, raises $5M in a seed round led by Play Ventures' Future Fund to accelerate hiring and capitalize on huge market interest.

• Million on Mars raises $3.5M led by Great Southgate and Widus Partners for its blockchain-based space sim.

• Hiro Capital and Skybound Entertainment led the funding round for Telltale to bring its first new games to market, such as the highly-anticipated The Expanse: A Telltale Series.

• ESports Chinese gaming company VSPO receives $265M from Saudi government-owned Savvy Games Groups.

• A16z Crypto and DWF Labs Lead Round for $13.8M Token Sale of YGG, a play-to-earn gaming guild.

• Game studio Unagi, raised $5M in a round led by Sisu Game Ventures to expand Ultimate Champions to push beyond sports.

• Azra Games raises $10M in a round led by A16z for Legions and Legends NFT game, bringing the total amount raised for the seed round to $25 million.

• Animoca Brands invests in EthSign to develop a token management platform for automating token allocation.

• Curio raised $2.9M from various backers, including Bain Capital, to fund the creation of blockchain gaming built on user-generated content.

• Strider receives $5.5M from its backers, including Makers Fund and Fabric Ventures to build a gamified platform driven by storytelling.

• IndiGG riases $20M as it is acquired by Kratos Studios to build the world's largest gamers' nation - A new network state governed by gamers.

• Paradise Tycoon raises $1M for the social building and crafting multiplayer game, and the creative commons license ensures complete digital ownership beyond the game.

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“You must unlearn what you have learned.”
-Yoda

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

Yoda Labs team