Web3 Company Animoca Brands Lowers Fundraising Goal to $1 Billion in Q1 2023

January 7, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Animoca Brands Plans $2 Billion Metaverse Fund to Support Established Projects

December 2, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Report: Singapore’s State Investor Temasek Is Engaging With Embattled Crypto Exchange FTX

November 10, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Open Metaverse Alliance OMA3 Launches to Develop Standards for an Interoperable Digital World

November 3, 2022 Bitcoin.com

NFT games are ‘only scratching the surface’ of what’s possible — Animoca’s Yat Siu

October 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

Yat Siu thinks it's only a matter of time until more advanced models of NFT gaming are created, designed around the ideas of digital ownership, interoperability and economic utility.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu believes nonfungible token (NFT) games are only scratching the surface of what's possible and predicts completely new models of gaming will be developed as a result of digital ownership.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Siu likened the potential growth of NFT gaming to mobile phone gaming, which started out relatively niche and clunky in its formative stages before rocketing to become the most popular method of gaming across the globe.

“Mobile gaming brought a form factor of a type of game that we've never seen before, you know, one-hand play and that kind of stuff, and innovations around how you play with AI [artificial intelligence]. Because of the fact that you have this limited form factor, it became the most popular form factor in gaming,” he said.

Siu commented that while many blockchain games themselves also have a clunky experience at this stage, the whole sector is still quite new. As such, it is only a matter of time until more advanced models are created that are designed around the ideas of digital ownership, interoperability and economic utility for the user.

“With NFT games, we’ve only really scratched the surface. Everyone's very focused on ownership. [...] I think it's going to mushroom into everything and we're going to see new kinds of game formats emerge because of the ownership that we weren't able to do before.”

In the interim period, Siu pointed to metaverse gaming platforms and massively multiplayer online games as models that fit well with NFTs, as you “can trade items and you have deep levels of economic design” that make sense.

The Animoca co-founder also argued that many current users are willing to accept that the blockchain gaming experience is not necessarily smooth at this stage.

He suggested that this was because they are aware of the significance of being able to own a stake in the games, as opposed to the traditional model in which people sink capital into games that they can never retrieve.

“I mean, when you think of this [blockchain games], you could say it's a UX [user experience] nightmare. But because of ownership, people put up with it not just because it's valuable, but because it's meaningful because this is my land, this is my car.”

Asked when NFT technology will get to a point of seamlessness that even a grandmother can use it without being aware of it, Siu emphasized this would likely be through the widespread tokenization of physical things, NFT integration with commonly used services and how people interact with each other.

He outlined that as the world continues to become more digitally focused, children will of course want digital things.

“Grandma is probably going to buy a digital item for their grandchildren as a way to not just as a gift that's relevant to them, but also as a way to interact,” he said, adding that vice versa, a grandchild could even gift their grandmother a digital illustration that they drew.

“We're going to have a digital world. These digital artifacts and art and creativity and games and utility that's going to be mushrooming in the thousands and thousands and thousands of small medium enterprises that are going to be doing this.”

Nifty News: Yuga Labs launches BAYC council, Animoca backs Cool Cats and more…

October 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

Solana NFT volume surged to $130 million in September and Gary Vaynerchuck’s VeeFriends are set to be released as collectibles at Macy’s and Toys “R” Us.

Yuga Labs has announced a new Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community council to help the project “grow and thrive.”

The team revealed seven council members in an Oct. 5 blog post, noting that they are all OGs who have been around since the early days of the BAYC.

Yuga Labs said it assembled a new community council made up of “Apes with a proven track record of proactively and positively contributing to the club since the start.”

The members include, @beijingdou, @SeraStargirl, @TheMiamiApe, @OxEthanDG, @OxWave, @negithenagi, @peterjfang.

“This council was formed with the intention of representing the club at large and providing an avenue for new perspectives,” Yuga Labs wrote.

Yuga Labs stated that they will engage with the community and gather feedback for the firm, work with Yuga on community-driven initiatives such as commercial projects, meetups and charity work.

“Every Ape in our community has directly impacted our decisions-making from day one. This council, and future councils to come, puts a more formal, efficient and consistent process in place for Yuga leadership to get community feedback and advice on an ongoing basis," it wrote.

Yuga Labs also teased that it could soon launch community councils for its other NFT projects including CryptoPunks, Meebits and the Otherside moving forward.

Today, Yuga Labs welcomes the first BAYC community council that will assist us in shaping the future of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. For more details on the council head over to our official blog at https://t.co/MSD3M1QkfE
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) October 5, 2022

Animoca Brands partners with Cool Cats

NFT venture fund giant Animoca Brands has made a strategic investment into blue chip NFT project Cool Cats to help the project expand into new avenues such as gaming.

The Oct. 5 announcement from the duo states that the “partnership will drive Cool Cats' mission to become the largest global NFT brand and a robust media and content company, including through expansion of its gaming offerings.”

Cool Cats was launched in July 2021 and consists of 9,999 cartoon cat avatars. The project has generated $369.2 million worth of NFT sales volume to date as per CryptoSlam data. The latest announcement has also coincided with Cool Cats sales volume pumping 220% over the past 24 hours.

The move also follows a partnership with Animoca Subsidiary GAMEE from Sept. 1, a virtual platform focused on connecting creators, brands and players in the GameFi space.

1/ .@animocabrands is excited to announce our partnership with @coolcatsnft one of the earliest, important and cutest #NFT metaverse first collections out there, to celebrate I picked up a few #CoolCats including this rare beauty #CoolCatsNFT #7807 a little pic.twitter.com/oYzRYHU4XC
— Yat Siu (@ysiu) October 5, 2022

Solana NFT sales volume surges past $100M in September

NFT sales volume on the Solana blockchain tagged $130.1 million in September, with that figure marking an 82.2% increase compared to the $71.4 million posted in August.

While the figure still places Solana well behind Ethereum, which hosted $354.3 million worth of NFT sales volume last month, the difference between the two’s number of unique buyers is much smaller.

According to CryptoSlam data, Solana NFTs saw 143,997 unique buyers in September (up from 95,516 in August) compared to Ethereum’s 166,168 that month (down from 202,467).

While the figures may indicate that Solana is making up some notable ground on Ethereum, the latter still hosts the majority of blue chip NFT projects.

Looking at data over the past 30 days, only one Solana NFT project makes the top 10 in terms of sales volume with tenth ranked y00ts mint t00b’s $13.3 million worth of sale volume. In comparison, eight Ethereum-based projects make the top 10 during that time frame.

Mommy, I want that NFT!

Gary Vaynerchuck’s NFT project VeeFriends has penned an exclusive deal with Macy’s and Toys “R” Us to sell physical plush and figure collectibles featuring VeeFriends NFT characters.

The collectibles will be available in stores from Oct. 17th, and will be priced from $9.99 to $29.99. The characters include Common Sense Cow, Willful Wizard, Practical Peacock, Gratitude Gorilla, Genuine Giraffe and Be The Bigger Person.

Hodlers who own the NFT version of the characters will receive the associated physical collectibles, with the more expensive plush and six inch figures going to season one NFT holders.

Notably, the hodler’s won’t get a kick-back from the sales of the physical toys however.

Other Nifty News:

Horizon Blockchain Games, the developers of popular NFT card game Skyweaver have raised $40 million in Series A funding, the company disclosed on Oct. 4. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, with additional participation from Polygon, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft to name a few.

NFT marketplace OpenSea announced in a series of tweets on Oct. 5 that the platform will officially allow its users to bulk list and bulk purchase up to 30 digital collectible items in a single flow.

Yat Siu: Asia GameFi opportunity huge as gamers don’t hate NFTs

September 27, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

The Animoca Brands co-founder suggested that Asian gaming companies don’t have to deal with the same amount of pushback against NFTs that U.S companies have faced.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu thinks that GameFi has the biggest opportunity for growth in Asia, as gamers there don’t hold the same vitriol towards nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as they do in the West.

Sitting down with Cointelegraph during Asia Crypto Week, Siu argued that Asia generally has more of a welcoming culture towards gaming and advancements in tech such as NFTs, digital property and Play-to-Earn (P2E).

“I think that Asia has the potential to really lead in blockchain gaming, at least in the short term. And there's a couple of reasons why I think that's the case. Not just because, you know, there's the most gamers in this region of the world. [...] but it's also because gamers in Asia are welcoming NFTs.”

“Gaming companies in the West have to deal with consumer resistance that gaming companies in Asia do not have to,” he added.

The Animoca co-founder attributed this acceptance of NFTs to a broader Asian viewpoint on capitalism, which he suggested is viewed more favorably in the region — barring China — than in the U.S., as people see it as a path out of poverty.

He pointed to examples such as South Korea, which “only four decades ago” had the same size economy as North Korea but has swiftly climbed the global rankings through innovation, “creativity, legal frameworks, and property rights” despite lacking natural resources.

“The consumer in Asia looks at capitalism as a net-good fight. In other words, okay, there is inequity. There's a guy who made a lot of money, but [people] think ‘I can get there too, or I have an opportunity,’” he said.

Drawing a contrast to the United States, Siu highlighted that capitalism draws a more demonized view by some people there, and rightly so as many people haven’t seen capitalism “work for them.”

He argued that this type of thinking ultimately bleeds into gamers pushing back on NFTs, as people worry about being priced out of the market with expensive NFTs that are seen as a “rich man’s tool.”

“When the headline news isn't a $5 or $10 in-game NFT item, but a $300,000 Bored Ape well, then, you know it's a little bit like saying the entire car industry is just Lamborghinis. That's not true either. But that's what we see. And so the rejection in the West comes from that lens.”

Expanding on the Asian context, Siu also emphasized that blockchain gaming is opening up access to venture capital from Silicon valley that hasn’t really been tapped before, especially in the context of countries like the Philippines where P2E gaming guilds have become quite popular.

He again highlighted that this is due to a vibrant ecosystem that is growing in Asia as many gamers are adopting the tech while many projects are actively innovating in the space.

“Now you have companies like a16z, not just ourselves investing but also Silicon Valley money moving into Vietnam and Philippines. I think that's unheard of. So that's kind of exciting as well. I do think Asia is pointing towards a web three blockchain gaming future. Broadly speaking,” he said.

Gamers want fun, not a grind fest for tokens — Animoca subsidiary

September 16, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

Once blockchain games can offer a similar experience to League of Legends or Fortnite they will become more popular, argues Blowfish Studios' Luke Sillay.

Blockchain-based games need to spend more time actually being “fun to play” rather than developing flashy tokenomics, an Animoca Brand-owned blockchain game developer told Cointelegraph.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on the first day of the 2022 Tokyo Games Show, Luke Sillay, the lead community manager at Australia-based game developer Blowfish Studios said that far too many blockchain games have put the focus on in-game rewards and tokenomics rather than gameplay.

“You can see from a lot of other blockchain games that they're not actually fun to play. Like, yes, you have potential to earn quite a significant amount of token and you get a good return on investment most of the time. But generally speaking, they're not that fun, right?”

Sillay said that generally, many of these games have simplistic game modes that are built around earning, rather than pure enjoyment, and have therefore failed to grasp the attention of traditional gamers thus far.

According to data from DappRadar, the most popular blockchain games in terms of active users over the past 30 days are Gameta, Alien Worlds, and Solitaire Blitz with one million, 814,000, and 652,760 users, respectively. The figures show significant interest in the games but pale in comparison to popular traditional games.

Sillay said games should primarily be “fun to play” and attractive to look at, stating:

“Our kind of thought is that if it's fun to play and it's attractive to look at, people want to play it."

Blowfish Studios is an Australian video game developer that was acquired by Animoca Brands for around $6.6 million in July 2021. As part of the acquisition, Animoca has guided Blowfish from Web2 to Web3 gaming, with NFT game Phantom Galaxies (currently in Beta) being the company’s main focus.

Questioned on the type of games that would work best with NFTs and P2E integration, Sillay highlighted free-to-play giants such as Riot’s League of Legends and Epic Games’ Fortnite which already have internal markets built into them.

He noted that these types of games generally attract die-hard fans because they are fun to play, and continually update and improve the experience over time. This leads to people who play for multiple years and happily spend money to purchase products such as new character skins.

“Say like League of Legends and Fortnite with your skins and stuff like that [...] If you can play and enjoy something for a really long time, you know, and then you drop it, in a year or two in, you don't really have much to show for it. But if you do that with blockchain, you can potentially sell all the assets you've earned,” he said.

Sillay went on to note that there are some barriers to entry in blockchain games that may be putting some people off, and that if the onboarding process can be ironed out this could attract new users.

“It's a very daunting thing trying to learn about this whole new technology, creating a wallet etc, and there are so many words in blockchains that mean completely different things,” he said.

Phantom Galaxies is an open-world mecha-robot shooter game expected to have an official early access launch in Q4 2022. Its in-game NFTs have already seen a high level of demand, with more than 517,000 owners of its Origin Collection according to OpenSea. The project also concluded a private NFT sale in May that fetched an estimated $19.3 million.

At this stage, Phantom Galaxies requires just one NFT to get started, making it a relatively straightforward process to get involved.

“Then the rest is actually at the moment just like a traditional game basically,” Sillay said.