Blockchain Game
South Korean government becomes an early investor in metaverse
South Korea, a nation known for its strict crypto regulatory stance, is betting big on the metaverse. The government will invest over 223.7 billion won ($177.1 million) directly in various metaverse projects. The decision to invest in the nascent metaverse tech makes South Korea one of the first national governments to do so. The investment came under the ‘Digital New Deal’ program set up to invest in emerging technologies. The program is headed by the country’s science and information and communication technologies ministry led by Lim Hyesook. Hyesook called the metaverse “an uncharted digital continent with indefinite potential,” indicating the government’s interest in taking lead in the metaverse tech. The national fund would be first utilized to build a metropolitan level metaverse pla...
VC Roundup: The rise of blockchain gaming, DAO management and asset tokenization
Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market have provided very little comfort in recent weeks, as macroeconomic headwinds and the implosion of the Terra ecosystem continue to reverberate. But, if we look beyond the immediate price action, we observe an industry that continues to grow and evolve, as well as attract sizable capital investments from major funders. The latest edition of venture capital (VC) Roundup highlights the continued growth of Web3 gaming, metaverse applications and even decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Related: Crypto Biz: Smart Money is betting big on Web3, layer 2, May 19-25 Andreessen Horowitz backs Irreverent Labs Blockchain video game developer Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to f...
Twitch co-founder raises $24M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory
Web3 gaming and entertainment company Metatheory founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round on Monday. The round was led by crypto capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Pantera Capital, the venture arm of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, FTX Ventures, and other venture firms, according to the announcement. Metatheory was launched in November 2021 around one year after Lin left Twitch, where he wrote in a Medium article at the time that he was creating the gaming company and also a blockchain game called DuskBreakers. Lin was quoted in this week’s announcement as saying: “Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in...
Animoca acquires Eden Games following last month’s F1 game disappointment
The digital entertainment and blockchain gaming firm acquired a 96% stake in Eden Games for $15.3 million. Animoca Brands could not renew a license for its Formula 1 game last month Animoca Brands is consistently building its REVV Motorsport ecosystem, and its latest play in this direction is the addition of French gaming production studio Eden Games. The deal was completed for a reported $15.3 million at the end of last week by giving the Hong-Kong based game software company 96% ownership in the company. As part of the terms of the acquisition, the gaming and venture capital firm will gain control over popular racing games, including the Test Drive collection, Gear.Club Unlimited. Animoca intends to use the Eden Games to create new and work on existing blockchain-based rac...
Blue Chip and Metaverse NFTs propel growth of NFT Market, says Nansen report
On Tuesday, blockchain data analytics platform Nansen released its quarterly report on the state of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The report highlighted the rapid growth of the NFT market over that of the cryptocurrency market year-to-date, and it predicts of an $80 million market cap by 2025. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Nansen recently released six NFT indexes weighted by market capitalization denominated in Ether (ETH): Nansen NFT-500, Nansen Blue Chip-10, Nansen Social-100, Nansen Gaming-50, Nansen Art-20 and Nansen Metaverse-20. According to the Nansen 2022 Quarterly NFT Report, The NFT market continues outperforming the cryptocurrency market year-to-date, putting in a 103.7% return when denominated in ETH and 82.1% when denominated in USD. Despite a downturn i...
Fortnite creators Epic Games raise $2B from Sony and LEGO to fund metaverse plans
Epic Games, the video game publisher behind the popular PC and console game Fortnite, announced a $2 billion funding round with plans to accelerate the company’s vision to make its mark in the Metaverse. The deal, which is still subject to customary regulatory approvals, would bring Epic’s equity valuation to $31.5 billion. This round includes a respective $1 billion investment from existing investor Sony Group Corporation and from KIRKBI, the holding company behind the LEGO Group. Sony, the company behind PlayStation consoles, also invested $200 million into Epic in April 2021. According to a statement, the three partners plan to combine expertise and technologies to influence the future of entertainment and digital play by developing new virtual production initiatives and digi...
Review: Gala Games blockchain platform combines gaming and commerce
Crypto games that combine play-to-earn (P2E) and nonfungible token (NFT) mechanics found a huge boost in 2021, thanks to the success of Axie Infinity and metaverse hype. However, playability still remains a major problem, as most crypto games focus on tokenomics rather than providing a fun and enjoyable gaming experience. Apart from the earning aspect, they often offer nothing special compared to traditional PC or console video games, where players can find interesting plots, nice visual effects and addictive gameplay. Axie Infinity has become known for its repetitive gameplay, known among gamers as “grinding,” while The Sandbox and Decentraland don’t really provide attractive graphics. There is one worth the attention out of the many games out there, which actually isn’t reall...
Is Illuvium the first fun crypto RPG video game?
Blockchain games have been quite popular among crypto enthusiasts for a long time because they use cryptocurrency as an in-game tool. In these kinds of games, blockchain technology is used to secure the absolute ownership of game items, represented by tokens. For example, by purchasing an in-game nonfungible token (NFT), a player can be sure that he possesses a truly rare item that can be stored and controlled outside the game. This ownership provides a completely new player-driven economy where players can create their own unique content. However, crypto games are still far from the legacy PC or console games in terms of quality and gameplay, perhaps because the world is still cautious about the blockchain technology itself and is not ready to integrate it into the multi-billion dollar in...
Report: Axie Infinity accounted for nearly two-thirds of blockchain-game NFT transactions in 2021
According to a recent report curated by NonFungible, players of the monster-battle nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, game Axie Infinity transacted nearly $3.5 billion worth of NFTs in 2021. This accounts for almost two-thirds of all NFTs transacted in the entire blockchain gaming industry in 2021. In second and third place were sports highlights marketplace NBA Top Shot with $827 million and community gaming platform Loot with $242 million, respectively. Created by Vietnamese video game developer Sky Mavis in 2018, the game contains creatures called “Axies” that players collect and use to complete daily quests, duel other players, etc. Every Axie is an NFT minted on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Completing tasks with Axies rewards players with Smooth Love Potions (SLPs), which can ...
VOXEL, SLP and ALICE rally after protocol updates and a major exchange listing
Crypto markets are taking a beating but there are still a few standout performers even during this week’s volatility. One sector that has managed to rise above the noise are NFT-related altcoins and GameFi tokens. Top gainers in the collectible and NFT sector. Source: CoinMarketCap Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and CoinMarket Cap shows that three notable gainers over the past 48-hours were Voxies (VOXEL), Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and MyNeighborAlice (ALICE). Voxie Tactics launches its marketplace VOXEL is the native utility currency of Voxie Tactics, a free-to-play, 3-dimensional, role-playing game that combines the classic look of the popular tactical games of the 1990s and 2000s with modern game mechanics. Data from TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.90 on Feb. ...
FTX.US job posting reveals blockchain gaming unit in the works
FTX.US, the American arm of the global crypto derivative and spot exchange FTX, seems to be launching a new blockchain gaming unit. As per a job posting by the crypto exchange, the firm is looking for software developers for its upcoming blockchain and gaming unit. The new gaming unit will be focused on bringing more gaming developers to the blockchain-based gaming ecosystem that incentivizes players via crypto tokens and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The job posting revealed that the exchange is looking for software engineers with a robust knowledge of the C# programming language and the Unity gaming engine. FTX didn’t respond to Cointelegraph’s requests for comments at the time of publishing. Reportedly, the new platform would be catered as “crypto-as-a-service” that would...
More playing and less earning will make better Metaverse games
If you’re not keen on joining Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, I have bad news for you: You’re already there. You don’t need a virtual reality headset to enter a virtual world. Humans have been representing reality since our distant ancestors first painted on cave walls. If TV, radio, books or newspapers have ever given you access to events that you did not physically attend, you have experienced a kind of metaverse already. Sport and games are another reality that we often partake in virtually — in the stands or behind a screen — when not on the field. So, it’s no coincidence then that, thus far, games dominate what most people understand as the Metaverse, or more widely, Web3. Our innate love of play, our understanding that fulfilling games depend on rules and structures and our w...
