Crypto Gaming Round-up #3
GameStop partners with Immutable X
So this was pretty big news in the land of crypto gaming, with GameStop and Immutable X partnering to launch an NFT marketplace.
However, most of the articles on this announcement are somewhat unclear about what GameStop is actually building. As far as we understand, GameStop will be working with game developers and helping them build games using NFTs and blockchain. These games will then be able to use the GameStop marketplace on Immutable X for distribution. We recommend this Bankless podcast with Robbie Ferguson from Immutable if you want to get more insight.
GameStop and Immutable set up a $100 million purse for grants, funded with IMX tokens as part of this deal. On top of this, GameStop will receive another approximately 19 million IMX tokens upon hitting a set of different milestones (it already received 37 million IMX). After the deal was announced, IMX token price went up from $2.50 to just over $4 before falling 30% back to $2.80. It appears that GameStop sold around 15 million IMX tokens it received as part of the grant funding through centralised exchanges. According to The Block, there was no cliff or vesting conditions for those tokens.
Somewhat unrelated, but Guild Of Guardians, which uses Immutable X, announced that it traded $15m of assets to date.
OVR announces the launch of its Map2Earn
OVR is an AR platform that enables users to own and utilise a digital layer of the world. To create a detailed 3D map of the world, OVR introduced its Map2Earn initiative. Users can take pictures of specific real-world locations and get rewarded with OVR tokens for doing so. The OVR team then uses its AI system to convert photos into 3D assets, which allows them to increase the spatial precision of their AR features.
As part of the treasure hunts the team has been running for a while now, OVR’s users have already scanned about 1.4 million locations.
Gods Unchained makes economic adjustments
A popular crypto trading card game, Gods Unchained, which coincidentally also uses Immutable X, recently made some changes to its rewards programs. The team tweaked the card pack rewards, announced an interim solution to extend $GODS incentives while they work on a better system for daily rewards, and changed its matchmaking rules.
DappRadar releases January report
This report has plenty of interesting nuggets of information. According to DappRadar and based on on-chain activity, which is different from off-chain DAU numbers, Alien Worlds and Splinterlands were the top 2 most played games in January. Farmers World, Axie Infinity and Upland rounded up the top 5.
DappRadar also noted the increased gaming activity on Polygon, up 78%, as games like Sunflower Farmers and Crazy Defense Heroes attract and retain the attention of their audiences.
Axie Infinity Season 20 updates
Sky Mavis announced a few economic changes last week as we head into Season 20. First, both adventure and the daily quest will no longer yield any SLP. This should reduce SLP emissions by at least 50%. Next, the arena rewards have been decreased drastically across the board. For example, rewards for the top tier, above 2000mmr, have been cut by 33%. At the same time, the team expanded the number of players eligible for AXS rewards during Season 20. While a welcoming sign given the size of the Treasury, it doesn’t look like these rewards will compensate players for the loss of income from the previous changes.
The team also highlighted the continued work on mechanisms to increase the SLP burn (also known as sinks) and hinted at the upcoming re-work of the energy system.
Other news
Big Time is teasing with 4 classes to be available when the game is out
Loopify on the Future of Blockchain games
Summoning by TreasureDao is now live. Here’s how you can start for only $50
Skyweaver partners with OpenSea for an exclusive drop
Blackpool announces Sandbox partnership, including land purchase and $250k token swap
Even Carrefour recently bought land in Sandbox
Podcast of the week
Tim Sweeney on the future of game engines, the metaverse, and crypto (2020)