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GameFi analytics help blockchain gamers sift through crypto games

Coin Telegraph
GameFi analytics help blockchain gamers sift through crypto games
Coin Telegraph

How and where to get analytics on the emerging projects in the GameFi space.

From the massive fall of Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, 2022 was full of upheaval for the blockchain industry. But the blockchain community has always been resilient, finding new ways to develop in the most challenging times.

A striking example of optimism and growth is the development of the GameFi industry, which combines gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.

In 2021, GameFi became a growth leader in the crypto space, with successful projects like Gala Games, Decentraland, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity.

The GameFi sector has continued to develop, attracting more and more investment. In 2022, the volume of venture investments in Web3 games and the metaverse amounted to $7.6 billion. Some analysts predict a valuation of $2.8 billion for the GameFi sector by 2028.

However, a sudden influx of investors in this growing sector has also resulted in many low-quality games suffering from poor in-game economics, as well as monotonous and underdeveloped gameplay.

How can a gamer looking for a good project find the right one? Cointelegraph has found several GameFi analytics resources to help potential gamers weigh the pros and cons of each platform.

DappRadar 

DappRadar is one of the most popular decentralized application (DApp) analytics services. Founded in 2018, it provides statistics on DeFi, GameFi and NFTs. The platform has data for over 2,000 NFT games.

Pros

One of the most popular features of DappRadar is located in the “rankings” tab, which allows users to rank several DApps related to GameFi, DeFi projects, gambling, exchanges, NFT collections, marketplaces, social networks and different blockchains. DApps are ranked according to criteria such as the number of unique active wallets (UAW), number of transactions, transaction volume and the total balance of funds in the smart contract.

Screenshot of ranking tab

The page of an individual project contains its rating, tags and links to social networks, as well as its description. In the middle of the page, standard indicators (UAW, number of transactions, volume, balance) are displayed in addition to a graph of changes for different periods. 

General statistics on DApps can be obtained in the “Industry Overview” tab after selecting the period, category and protocol. DappRadar also periodically publishes analytical notes, which are located in the “Reports” and “Blog” sections.

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There are two additional options for NFTs. First is the NFT Explorer, in which users can sort not only the general list of collections, but also the NFTs of an individual collection and even a general gallery of NFTs from different collections. The page for an individual NFT shows its name, owner, minimum price, last sale price, blockchain, NFT metadata and trading history. A second option is the NFT Value Estimator, which displays the expected price of an NFT based on current and past price performance.

Screenshot of NFT explorer

For game developers, DappRadar has a “Developers” section where game founders can promote a new product through advertising campaigns and other marketing techniques.

Cons

The wealth of information provided for each project could prove difficult to navigate for newcomers who may only want basic information about a project.

Another disadvantage of the platform is that, for a long time, the selection of NFT games was limited to those on the Ethereum blockchain, while projects on other blockchains were not taken into account.

The situation improved this year when the site increased the number of monitored blockchains from three to 48. Considerable funds have also been allocated for the development of new technical solutions.

Dapp.com

Dapp.com is the world's largest DApp distribution platform. Dapp.com lists over 8,000 DApps built on more than 20 blockchains like Ethereum, EOS, TRON, Steem, TomoChain, IOST, Stacks and others. The platform showcases DApps based on data analytics, community feedback and user comments. 

Pros

The platform has a built-in wallet called DappStoreWallet so that users can easily access and use DApps associated with various blockchains.

The ecosystem of the project is powered by Dapp Token (DAPPT). Token holders are able to participate in voting on the platform, launch projects on the platform through staking, and more.

The platform has a “Market Report” section where users can view quarterly reports in various areas, including games.

The advantages of the platform include a simple interface and navigation, where users can view game ratings according to various criteria — for example, by increasing or decreasing prices for tokens, by user reviews, or by level of risk.

Screenshot of game ratings

Users of the platform can not only see the ratings of NFT projects themselves, but also read general news about NFT projects. 

Cons

For an inexperienced user, it is almost impossible to find the quarterly analytical reports section. The link to the page with reports is at the very bottom of the page and represented by small text.

At the same time, the reports themselves clearly stalled for a couple of years, with the most recent appearing for Q2 of 2020. At the same time, the quality and depth of analytics is almost on par with that of DappRadar.

The project listings are not informative and contain only a brief description of the project in a couple of sentences without the current price of the token or the number of active users. Such information must be viewed in the overall rating of projects, which is inconvenient. The majority of the page for each project is occupied by user comments, which are very important, but it seems that Dapp.com is primarily aimed at creating a community and not at providing analytics.

CryptoSlam

CryptoSlam is an NFT market data aggregator. The platform can be used to analyze trading volumes in the NFT market, identify the most popular collections of digital assets, and track release dates for new tokens.

The CryptoSlam team has included various information about the projects on the pages of the collections and the individual NFTs themselves. The project description has a section on online sales statistics, which the system updates as owners change. The platform can also be used to collect data on NFTs of interest.

Pros

The main feature of the platform is its real-time data showing movement in the NFT industry. Featured data includes the volume of sales of NFT tokens, the number of token holders, on which blockchain an NFT resides, and the number of holders.

It is convenient that users can sort NFT projects in several tables on one web page by various parameters like sales volume within a particular game, or by the price of tokens.

Table of NFT projects by sales

One unique feature of the platform is its live sales section, where one can see which user sold an NFT token and at what price, including from which address and to which address. This parameter is constantly updated automatically.

This platform is a very convenient service for the continuous tracking of the work of an NFT project, within which real transactions can be traced.

Another plus of the platform is that it is developing. In January 2023, the Forkast.News company and CryptoSlam teamed up to create the Forkast Labs project. The product could offer users a new media analytics platform for the digital economy. According to the team, the decision to create Forkast Labs was made due to the lack of a standard methodology for determining the true value of digital assets, which is mainly measured by current prices for cryptocurrencies. The timing of the launch of the project is still unknown.

Cons

One con is that the platform doesn’t have any analytical reports. The service only allows for the monitoring of NFT projects, albeit in real time, but does not evaluate activities for a particular period. Perhaps this defect will be corrected after the launch of the Forkast Labs project.

Another downside is the inability to separate NFT projects by indstury — gaming, gambling or finance, for example. If the user wants to see only NFT gaming projects and allocate them to a separate slot or table, then they will not be able to do this since the service does not have such a function.

Just like Dapp.com, this platform contains a lack of detailed information about projects, such as creators, at what stage of development the project is, news about collaborations, etc.

Conclusion

The main reason for using NFT analytics tools is to help limit the amount of fraud in the major marketplaces. Investing in NFTs can be time consuming, somewhat risky and nearly impossible unless users spend hours on social media platforms and NFT trading platforms looking through the myriad NFTs available.

As can be seen from the description of the most popular analytics platforms, there is no perfect one that contains all relevant information in one place, but such projects are critical for crypto enthusiasts.

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Sebastien Borget, president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, told Cointelegraph that he believes that analytics platforms should pay more attention not only to numbers, but to players and users:

“NFT games analytics platforms should expand beyond just the on-chain transaction data to reflect what's happening in a game or how popular it actually it, and work on broadening to all the activities games have to offer to players — to show that games are first and foremost fun entertainment products where people spend time, and transactions are not the only gameplay in them.”

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Final Fantasy creator reveals ‘aggressive investment’ in blockchain games

Coin Telegraph
Final Fantasy creator reveals ‘aggressive investment’ in blockchain games
Blockchain Game

The company behind the Final Fantasy franchise says blockchain games will be a major focus of its strategy going forward.

Final Fantasy creator Square Enix is set to double down on blockchain game development despite turbulence in the crypto market, according to a Jan. 1 letter from the Japanese company's president, Yosuke Matsuda.

The letter, titled “A New Year’s Letter from the President,” aimed to recap the company’s major accomplishments in 2022 and explain its plans for 2023. Out of 15 paragraphs, seven were about blockchain gaming, showing that blockchain gaming is a major focus of the company’s investing strategy going forward.

Matsuda stated that “blockchain entertainment” is the investment field his team will be most focused on in the medium term, to which they have devoted “aggressive investment and business development efforts.”

After summarizing the ups and downs of the crypto market in 2021 and 2022, Matsuda sought to make sense of its decline. He said that new technologies often cause “confusion” but eventually become accepted as a normal part of everyday life. So if there is turmoil in the crypto market, this shouldn’t necessarily cause investors to doubt its potential, he stated, adding: 

“New technologies and frameworks lead to innovation, but they also create considerable confusion.”

Matsuda added that any technology that is able to ride out “societal tides” will gradually become part of people’s lives and eventually give rise to new businesses and growth.

“Following the excitement and exhilaration that surrounded NFTs and the metaverse in 2021, 2022 was a year of great volatility in the blockchain-related space,” he noted.

“However, if this proves to have been a step in a process that leads to the creation of rules and a more transparent business environment, it will definitely have been for the good of the growth of blockchain entertainment.”

Matsuda finished off the letter by stating that Square Enix has multiple blockchain games under development and will be announcing more over the course of 2023.

Related: 2023 will see the death of play-to-earn gaming

Square Enix made multiple moves in the blockchain gaming space throughout 2022. In July, it announced that it would release Final Fantasy collectibles on the Enjin platform. In September, it joined Oasys blockchain as a node validator. In December, Square Enix invested 7 billion yen ($52.7 million) into mobile game developer Gumi Games, to help develop mobile play-to-earn titles.

This recent letter implies that the company has no plans to slow down its investments in the space in 2023, despite the turbulence of 2022.

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Metaverse graphics aim for community and accessibility — Not realism

Coin Telegraph
Metaverse graphics aim for community and accessibility — Not realism
Art

Metaverse graphics have been questioned in terms of quality, but industry experts explain that images appear certain ways for a reason.

Some may argue that the Metaverse has been around for years, as demonstrated by early gaming platforms, yet virtual ecosystems are now being embraced by almost every industry. A recent report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company believes that the Metaverse has the potential to generate at least $5 billion in value by 2030. McKinsey also found that investments exceeding $120 billion have been put toward Metaverse platforms this year, indicating that major growth is underway.

While notable, there is still the perception that most metaverse platforms are lacking when it comes to graphic quality. For example, Mark Zuckerberg was recently criticized for posting a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower within Meta. Although Meta has already invested over $10 billion into building its metaverse, some have pointed out that Meta’s current graphics are lower quality than images that appeared in Second Life in 2007.

Metaverse graphics are aesthetic choices 

Although the mainstream has been quick to criticize graphics associated with various metaverses, industry experts note that image quality is intentional. A spokesperson for Linden Lab — the firm behind Second Life — told Cointelegraph that the content design and aesthetic choices that other metaverses make are usually stylistic:

“For instance, the blocky appearance of some Metaverses builds upon the modeling techniques first seen in Minecraft. This was a deliberate choice to not appear realistic.”

Echoing this, Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, told Cointelegraph that graphical representations depend on the brand and the imagery of the Metaverse in question. “If you look at the visuals of Phantom Galaxies or Life Beyond you can see that the quality is both high, and that fashion can be experienced in a manner that is visually closer to what one might expect in reality.”

With this in mind, Linden Lab’s spokesperson mentioned that one key difference between Second Life and other metaverse platforms is its community’s focus on realism. “While there are 20 years of archived Second Life images scattered across the internet, you will see incredible quality our creators are delivering today — way beyond that of even newer virtual worlds or metaverses.”

Image of Le Jardin Des Tuileries in Second Life, uploaded in Sept. 2022. Source: Linden Lab

But, while realistic images may appeal to certain metaverse communities, other platforms are taking different approaches. For example, The Sandbox — dubbed as one of the most popular blockchain-based Metaverses — intentionally has boxy graphics.

Sebastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, told Cointelegraph that the platform chose voxels as the building blocks for its metaverse due to ease of use:

“Voxels are like ‘digital legos’ that require no user manual. Hundreds of millions of people already know how to work with voxel graphics (thanks to Minecraft) and this opens The Sandbox to a massive community worldwide.” 

To Borget’s point, Siu noted that the boxy, voxelized images in The Sandbox are not a visual limitation, as it is a style that allows for communal design. “People don't consider Lego as ‘lo-fi.’ 8-bit style or retro pixel art is another example of something that is trendy and fashionable because of what it represents,” he remarked.

Borget added that the graphics enable accessibility for creators of all ages and backgrounds, which is critical since he believes the Metaverse will largely consist of user-generated content moving forward.

To put this in perspective, Loretta Chen, co-founder of Smobler Studios — a Singapore-based multimedia design agency — told Cointelegraph that she recently partnered with The Sandbox to create a wedding reception in its Metaverse.

According to Chen, Smobler Studios used VoxEdit and Game Maker to build the wedding venue, which are two free software applications that can be downloaded from The Sandbox website. In addition to being accessible, Chen noted that she was pleased with the imaginary aspects provided by The Sandbox’s graphics. “We took creative liberty in some aspects. We would be remiss if we aimed to recreate an identical replica of assets with no imagination or element of fun.”

Image from the wedding reception recently hosted in The Sandbox. Source: Smobler Studios

However, some industry experts believe that high-quality images are crucial for ensuring engaging metaverse experiences. Jacob Loewenstein, head of growth at Spatial — a metaverse platform focused on augmented and virtual reality — told Cointelegraph that Spatial prioritizes high-quality graphics for a number of reasons:

“First, they help the user feel more immersed. Secondly, they help the user express themselves more fully. Finally, users that participate in the Metaverse’s economy expect virtual goods with premium graphical fidelity.”

Given Spatial’s focus on quality, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the firm is partnering with major fashion outlets, like Vogue Singapore, to bring metaverses to the mainstream. Graphic quality is also becoming crucial as the McKinsey report notes that 79% of consumers active on the Metaverse have already made purchases. 

At the same time, it’s important to recognize that user-generated content becomes more difficult to achieve on Metaverses focused on realism. For example, Ready Player Me is also working with Vogue Singapore to ensure that users can interact with realistic avatars.

Unlike voxelized images that may be easy to create with, Rainer Selvet, co-founder and chief technology officer at Ready Player Me, told Cointelegraph that Ready Player Me renders graphics in its avatar editor through the ThreeJS JavaScript 3D library.

Additionally, various cosmetics associated with the avatars are authored by 3D artists that include physically based rendering materials, which define how different assets should physically look in a game engine. Although this process is complex, Selvet shared that Ready Player Me will be open-sourcing its graphics library visage in the coming months to make creating easier for developers.

Avatars created by Ready Player Me. Source: Ready Player Me

Metaverse images will improve, but community remains key

Even though the quality of graphics is based on choices by metaverse platforms, improvements are being made as Web3 advances. For instance, Borget noted that The Sandbox is spending a majority of its resources on research and development to ensure the next phases of user experience. He said:

“Avatar expressions and emotions will make The Sandbox even more immersive and fun for users. And if you look at how The Sandbox looked two years ago, users will already be excited to see how it is different today, and how it may evolve in the next two years.”

Image of how The Sandbox appeared in 2018. Source: The Sandbox

While innovation is clear, technical limitations will likely slow development. For example, Selvet pointed out that software and hardware challenges remain, stating, “Many of today’s metaverse applications are predominantly browser-based, yet users want access to be frictionless.” 

As such, Selvet noted that the need for metaverse accessibility on devices other than gaming PCs is increasing. Loewenstein added that Spatial is particularly focused on bringing the Metaverse to both web and mobile, yet he noted that compute constraints have been problematic.

Fortunately, developments are underway. Loewenstein said, “Firstly, new processors are increasingly powerful, while being light and power efficient. Secondly, new APIs like WebGPU will, in the next 24 months, enable users to access the true power of their GPUs in web metaverse experiences. Thirdly, cloud rendering is becoming more available at a lower cost, while high bandwidth internet (such as 5G) similarly proliferates.”

Image of how The Sandbox currently appears. Source: The Sandbox

All things considered, metaverse development currently seems to be focused more on community building rather than imagery. “I believe we need to move past the expectation of a photorealistic meta-human Metaverse and look at what drives human interaction,” remarked Borget. In order to do so, Borget explained that metaverses should focus on ease of use:

“If we build a world that requires high end technology and skills to build and run, we’ll be leaving out most of the world’s population. However, if we instead focus on making creation and play highly accessible and engaging, we can make the metaverse a new, more level playing field.”

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Animoca Brands continues shopping spree with MotoGP mobile dev acquisition

Coin Telegraph
Animoca Brands continues shopping spree with MotoGP mobile dev acquisition
Coin Telegraph

The company announced its acquisition of WePlay Media after it recently closed multiple multi-million dollar fund rounds with investors such as Temasek.

One of Web3’s leading digital property rights developers, Animoca Brands, announced yet another major acquisition to its increasing portfolio of gaming subsidiaries.

The company announced the purchase of WePlay Media, which developed the popular blockchain-game MotoGP Championship Quest, on Sept. 16. According to the agreement, the acquisition is in an effort to bolster user engagement in motorsport mobile gaming. 

Graeme Warring, the co-founder and COO of WePlay Media and co-creator of MotoGP, called the acquisition an exciting development for both parties as they expand their reach to motorcycle fans across the globe.

“Animoca Brands has the ability to reach hundreds of millions of users in core growth demographics to expand the sport’s fan base and create engagement opportunities for the riders, teams and sponsors."

Similarly, Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, highlighted the potential engagement boost of the acquisition of MotoGP and other motorsport-related games under Animoca.

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

According to MotoGP’s latest Global Fan Survey, their community has high levels of engagement and interest in regular participation in competitive mobile gaming. It reported that 79% of all respondents from 16-24 years of age engaged in competitive gaming on a weekly basis, with 54% of fans based in the Asia-Pacific region.

Animoca has shown to be highly invested in developing the motorsport gaming sector as it introduced a motorsport-based REVV token rewards ecosystem and NFT programs within the MotoGP game.

Earlier in April of this year, Animoca also acquired Eden Games, which developed the Gear.Club, the Test Drive series and other popular racing games.

In August, Animoca subsidiary Grease Monkey Games received funding to develop the blockchain-based motorsports game Torque Drift 2.

This latest acquisition development comes after Animoca’s successful $110 million funding round led by Temasek on Sept. 8, from which it said it planned to make subsequent strategic acquisitions. Animoca has investments across the Web3 space in operations such as The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, SkyMavis and DapperLabs, among others. 

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How GameFi contributes to the growth of crypto and NFTs

Coin Telegraph
How GameFi contributes to the growth of crypto and NFTs
Blockchain Game

The GameFi sector has achieved unprecedented growth over the past couple of years and is attracting investors.

The crypto industry has grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and one of its biggest drivers is the GameFi industry. 

GameFi — a portmanteau of gaming and finance — enables gamers to earn rewards while playing.

The market has been growing steadily and presently has a token market cap of approximately $9.2 billion. Notably, GameFi networks have continued to thrive despite the crypto winter. Indeed, the industry is forecasted to reach a $74.2 billion valuation by 2031.

How GameFi networks work

GameFi ecosystems are based on blockchain technology and use different in-game economic setups to reward players. The rewards are usually in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that are tradable on major marketplaces. The items are typically in the form of virtual lands, costumes and weapons and are instrumental in diversifying user experiences.

The difference in gaming strategies and economic setups is what makes each game unique.

One of the most popular GameFi economic setups is the play-to-earn (P2E) model. The model is designed to keep users engaged while enabling them to earn rewards.

It allows players to indulge in the games without spending any money. However, progress can be curtailed due to the lack of assets needed to compete successfully. As such, gamers are sometimes compelled to purchase in-game items in order to advance to top levels where they can obtain bigger rewards.

Popular blockchain gaming networks utilizing the P2E GameFi model include Decentraland, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity and Gala.

Why GameFi is popular

The GameFi world has attracted millions of users over the past couple of years. This is impressive considering that the industry was practically non-existent before 2015.

Today, the industry attracts over 800,000 daily players. Many of them are drawn to GameFi due to the medley of benefits it provides.

One of them is the ease of trading digital assets. A recent market report published by CoinMarketCap found that about 75% of gamers are willing to trade in their in-game assets for some form of currency. This advantage is one of the main reasons why GameFi is so attractive to players.

Some virtual assets, such as land, can also be rented out to other gamers. Users who wish to generate passive income without playing games can also indulge in liquidity mining by staking assets. This is a huge incentive for retail investors and people who wish to monetize their gaming time.

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Another merit that many GameFi players appreciate is the low transaction costs. GameFi environments usually utilize cryptocurrencies, and this makes fund transfers relatively easy to execute and cheap.

This is a major bonus when compared to conventional money transfer modes, which are expensive, especially when it comes to making cross-border payments. This aspect was highlighted in the 2021 Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) survey report, in which 17% of participants named lower transaction costs as a major GameFi benefit.

Another innovative element that captivates GameFi players is the support for user-generated content. This capability not only allows GameFi platforms to engage users with different tastes but also encourages creativity among players while propagating an autonomous environment in which assets can be created, listed and traded publicly. In the 2021 BGA survey, 47% of respondents ranked creativity and gameplay among the top reasons why they liked GameFi.

These distinctive advantages, as well as other auxiliary factors, contribute to the consistent growth of GameFi.

How GameFi boosts growth

GameFi projects rely on cryptocurrencies to settle transactions, and this has contributed greatly to the increased adoption of digital currencies in recent years.

According to a recent report published by DappRadar — a platform that tracks activities on decentralized applications (DApps) — the number of unique active wallets (UAW) wallets tied to the blockchain gaming sector rose sharply in the third quarter of 2021, accounting for approximately 49% of the 1.54 million daily UAWs registered during that period. The data confirms the disruptive potential of GameFi and the increased use of cryptocurrencies in the sector, subsequently promoting their use and adoption.

Another related survey report released by Chainplay — an NFT game aggregation platform — recently revealed that 75% of GameFi investors got into the crypto market through their involvement in GameFi, showcasing GameFi’s growing impact on crypto adoption.

Besides advancing the use of cryptocurrencies, GameFi has also contributed immensely to the rise of the NFT industry. GameFi relies heavily on NFTs for in-game assets, and this increases their use on the blockchain. Not surprisingly, the rise of the GameFi market in 2021 coincided strongly with the NFT boom.

GameFi NFT sales rose to $5.17 billion in 2021, up from the $82 million recorded in 2020. The sales numbers helped to solidify the growth of the NFT market.

GameFi attracts more investors and gaming companies

Droves of investors are injecting money into promising GameFi projects. The development is bound to help the blockchain industry gain greater credence in mainstream markets as a viable investment space.

According to data derived from Footprint Analytics — a blockchain data analytics firm — over $13 billion has been raised so far by blockchain gaming companies. Over $3.5 billion of this was raised during the first half of 2022.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ilman Shazhaev, the founder and CEO of GameFi project Farcana, said that the industry is rapidly evolving, hence the rising interest among investors:

“Investors are particularly interested in GameFi because it represents a sector of the broader blockchain ecosystem that has earned a genuine interest worldwide. They are betting on the future, as only a few industries have a chance of attracting more users in the long run than GameFi.” 

He added that the sector was still at a very nascent stage with significant room for improvement, especially when it comes to innovation.

As things stand, major enterprises, including mainstream gaming companies, are jumping on the GameFi bandwagon as the industry continues to advance.

Eminent gaming powerhouses such as Ubisoft are already making moves to conquer the GameFi frontier. Earlier this year, the gaming firm announced a partnership with Hedera and the HBAR Foundation to come up with Web3 GameFi games for the brand. The gaming behemoth is behind the popular Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises.

Zynga, another renowned game developer, also announced plans at the beginning of the year to unveil its own NFT-based games. The mobile gaming giant said that it was working toward building a blockchain team and making alliances with accomplished blockchain partners in order to bring to life its own collection of NFT games.

Mainstream tech conglomerates such as Tencent, the Chinese multinational technology company, have also started investing in the GameFi sector. The company was recently named among the top contributors in Immutable’s $200 million fundraising event. Immutable is the developer behind NFT games such as the Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians.

The entry of such players indicates increased competitiveness for a share of the space. This is likely to increase GameFi investments and drive innovation over the long term.

Cointelegraph had the chance to catch up with Anton Link, the co-founder and CEO of NFT rental protocol UNITBOX, to discuss this phenomenon.

Link said that the industry’s highly positive growth indicators were among the main reasons why investors are flocking to the sector.

“Unlike other application areas, it [GameFi] allows for implementing of tech here and now, and the sector’s growth forecasts and indicators speak for themselves.”

He also noted that some game developers were looking to dabble in GameFi in order to obtain a more engaged demographic.

Some challenges that the GameFi industry is experiencing

While the GameFi sector attracts hordes of players, investors and gaming companies, there are still some significant issues to overcome before it captures a sizable pie of the overall gaming industry.

Security issues

The GameFi market has faced some serious hacks in the recent past that are likely to negatively impact user sentiment in the sector.

One of them is the Ronin bridge hack attack that happened earlier this year. It caused Axie Infinity players to lose over $600 million in crypto. Most recently, a newly launched Web3 game dubbed Dragoma suffered a rug pull that caused users to lose $3.5 million.

These are just a few of the reported losses from GameFi intrusions and scams. Such incidences continue to erode trust in the industry.

Poor gaming experience

Furthermore, blockchain-based games suffer from playability issues. While they allow players to control and transfer their in-game assets, graphics, immersion and gameplay often lag far behind their mainstream competitors. 

Many blockchain games lack game mechanics beyond “grinding,” i.e., completing repetitive tasks to be rewarded with assets.

Complaints from gamers show that the appeal of blockchain-based tokens isn’t everything and that players still value the vivid experiences offered by popular mainstream games over the benefits provided by GameFi.

Uncertain regulations

Additionally, many GameFi platforms are operating in a regulatory gray area and are likely to face major headwinds in the next couple of years. Right now, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering whether to classify blockchain gaming tokens as securities due to the “expectation of profit.”

Classifying them as such would bring them under the purview of the regulatory authority. This would oblige many GameFi platforms to make extensive disclosures about their clients and revenue models. Networks that fail to meet SEC requirements are usually forced to bar U.S. investors and players from joining their platforms to avoid fines and sanctions. This is likely to undercut the growth of the sector.

Technical complexities

Novel blockchain concepts usually experience myriad teething problems. The decentralized finance sector, for example, experienced many of these problems because many users found the platforms hard to understand and use.

GameFi is experiencing some of these issues as well. Buying and selling of NFTs, for example, is a complex affair and remains a major hurdle for newcomers.

The sector is still bound to the wider crypto market

GameFi is a subset of the crypto industry and is therefore affected by the booms and busts of the digital currency market. Consequently, the GameFi sector experiences a rise in activity during uptrends, but the opposite happens when there is a downtrend.

To maintain interest in GameFi platforms, developers face the uphill task of developing enthralling games to help ecosystems weather market slides.

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Currently, GameFi investors are focused on improving gaming experiences to build on sustainability, but the task is easier said than done.

Developers face myriad challenges, but if they are successful in attracting players with top-tier gameplay, the future of blockchain-based gaming looks bright.

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Game dev explains why blockchain should be ‘invisible’ in P2E gaming: KBW 2022

Coin Telegraph
<div>Game dev explains why blockchain should be 'invisible' in P2E gaming: KBW 2022</div>
Asia

Mobile game developer Com2uS is stepping up its Web3 game with the launch of its own blockchain to emphasize the needs of next-generation gamers.

According to the company’s president Kyu Lee, who spoke at Korea Blockchain Week 2022 in Seoul, revealing the plan to launch a new blockchainCom2uS, the mobile game developer wants to create its own version of Web3, “where it is free to play and own.” Th

XPLA, which roughly represents the words explore and play, will be a blockchain network focused on the needs of the company’s gaming community, along with Metaverse experiences.

For Lee, blockchain was the obvious next step for the company’s presence in the gaming industry:

“It was almost a no-brainer, [wouldn’t] you like to play a game that gives digital world ownership? I think everything is going to flow to games. And we had to put everything that we have to solidify our position in this market.”

The team behind Com2uS was able to transition into Web3 relatively quickly and create a blockchain SDK.

Lee explained one of the downfalls of entering the Web3 gaming space is current gatekeeping. New users must purchase nonfungible tokens (NFTs), set up a wallet and involve themselves with a centralized exchange in most cases — all before even playing the game.

In the vision of Com2uS, users can just start playing without the hassle of initial integration.

“After you hit a certain level, you will earn virtual currency that can be converted into tokens. Then you actually download your wallet, and then it converts your assets. The purchasing approach is really different from most of the Web3 games out there in the market.”

According to Lee, the team observed a positive reaction to this method during the development process: "We also noticed that the retention [rates] increased significantly too, just because we omitted the ownership paths paid to the assets. It really made a difference.”

Blockchain gaming, particularly play-to-earn (P2E), is a major component of the easy adoption of Web3 technologies by non-crypto people. Moreover, GameFi was hardly affected by the crypto winter.

“We learned that a significant amount of new users came in to play because it had a play and earn aspect to it. I think the free-to-play game market is already a revolution.”

However, the Com2uS president highlighted some unsustainable trends in the current GameFi industry.

“We noticed that a lot of companies were issuing tokens only attached to one game. We thought that approach was simply wrong.”

The company created C2X, a Web3 gaming platform, which has “the main governance token, and you would have inflatable tokens underneath for every single game.”

Related: GameFi and Metaverse least affected by Terra debacle: Report

Since April, Com2uS launched a total of five games on the Sequel X platform, with a trajectory of 10 launched by the end of the year and 10 more by the end of next year.

As blockchain technology integrates with major global industries, the underlying foundations “should be invisible,” says Lee. Instead, the focus should shift towards content creation, it is in this area that protocols can set themselves apart.

That's the role that we want to play. We want to fill the exact needs that have pushed Web2 developers to migrate into the Web3 space.”

The testnet for XPLA launches Tuesday, with the mainnet coming at the end of the month, according to Lee. EVM support is already in the testing phase.

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Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Zebedee Inks Deal With Mobile Game Studio Viker to Add BTC Rewards to Solitaire, Sudoku, Missing Letters

Bitcoin.com
Zebedee Inks Deal With Mobile Game Studio Viker to Add BTC Rewards to Solitaire, Sudoku, Missing Letters
Bitcoin (BTC)
Zebedee Inks Deal With Mobile Game Studio Viker to Add BTC Rewards to Solitaire, Sudoku, Missing LettersSeven days after the financial technology and bitcoin payments firm Zebedee announced it secured a $35 million capital raise, the company has revealed a new partnership deal with the mobile game studio Viker. The two companies have enhanced three classic video games with Zebedee’s bitcoin reward mechanics which include “Solitaire,” “Sudoku,” and the game “Missing […]
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Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

P2E gaming is in a rut, but Axie Infinity (AXS) could rebound for 3 key reasons

Coin Telegraph
P2E gaming is in a rut, but Axie Infinity (AXS) could rebound for 3 key reasons
Altcoin Watch

AXS could recapture its former glory if market participants view the launch of land staking, increasing activity on the Ronin bridge and upcoming roadmap targets as bullish catalysts.

Play-to-earn gaming was one of the breakout sectors of the cryptocurrency market in 2021 and the trend was led by Axie Infinity (AXS), a mobile, blockchain-based game where users collect, breed, raise and battle nonfungible tokens (NFTs) called Axies for monetary rewards. 

As the market topped and then entered what has become a deep bear market, AXS price retraced from an all-time high near $170 to its current price at $15.20 following several setbacks, including a $600 million hack of the Ronin sidechain that hosts the game. 

AXS/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Currently, the future of P2E gaming remains in question and advocates are watching closely to see if this former unicorn had turned the ship around. Let's take a look at some of the developments taking place within Axie Infinity and determine whether any of them are bullish for the short and long term.  

The launch of land staking

The most recent development to arise out of the Axie Infinity ecosystem is land stake parcels as a method for earning AXS tokens.

Based on the stats provided by the Ronin Chain explorer, land staking has been popular among holders and at least 87% of each of the different levels of plots have already been staked.

Axie Infinity land statistics. Source: Axie Infinity

In addition to the success of land staking, several land plots recently sold for over 130 Ether (ETH) each, which suggests that the level of interest in the game is still high.

While land owners have been excited about the new income opportunity, some community members have concerns about what effect the daily rewards of 11,194.62 AXS will have on the price of the token as the supply inflates.

The platform also offers AXS staking with a current yield of 72%, but only 38.47% of the current circulating supply is being staked, which indicates that a majority of the supply is available in the open market and could potentially be sold off.

The Ronin bridge reopens

The recent reopening of the Ronin bridge could also be another positive sign for Axie, especially considering that it had been disabled following a $600 million hack in March of this year.

According to Axie Infinity, the assets on the bridge are "fully backed 1:1," and the project added 11 new validators, circuit breakers and the two external audits were completed. All user funds that were lost have been reimbursed, making members of the community whole.

The reopening of the Ronin bridge and the launch of land staking has had a noticeable effect on the volume transacted, according to data from DappRadar.

Axie Infinity statistics. Source: DappRadar

These developments have also prompted a slight uptick in the number of daily users and transactions on the network, but these figures remain well below the 2021 highs of 744,000 users and 6.7 million transactions.

Related: Battle-hardened Ronin bridge reopens following $600M hack: Finance Redefined

The community responds positively to the current changes

Community reactions to the recent developments have been mostly positive, with many eager to re-engage with the game now that it has finally moved past a few major bumps.

According to early Axie Infinity investor and Cointelegraph contributor Alyssa Exposito, “land staking has brought about a surge of energy that the community needed after we lost a huge amount in the treasury fund.”

Exposito also mentioned the Axie creator program that enables community members to build out games on the software development kit (SDK) as something that is exciting users of the platform, “Especially with the integration of RON as a means to engage and transact on the network."

Exposito highlighted the ecosystem's effort to get community members more involved with governance and building on the protocol as the developments that the community is most excited about.

Exposito said,

“I think once people begin to see and take notice of how the project enables and helps fund other creators to build on top of it, it’ll gain more traction on the possibilities of blockchain gaming.”

The main concerns discussed by members of the Axie community revolve around the circulating supply of AXS, how staking rewards affect the circulating supply and price, and the various token lockups and vesting schedules that could lead to large sales and price dumps in the future.

Generally, the protocol has taken the necessary steps to recover from the Ronin hack and it seems to be keeping up to date with the major milestones outlined on its roadmap. Aside from what the project can do internally, its fate is largely tied to the fate of the P2E sector as a whole.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

GameFi News: Tilting Point partners with Polygon Studios, and LootRush raises $12M

Coin Telegraph
GameFi News: Tilting Point partners with Polygon Studios, and LootRush raises M
Axie Infinity

Catch up on the latest funding and partnership news about GameFi and Web3 gaming. This week Cointelegraph covers LootRush, Axie Infinity and Polygon Studios.

SpongeBob and Warhammer mobile game scores Polygon partnership

Free-to-play mobile games publisher Tilting Point has entered a multiyear partnership with Polygon Studios to launch 10 Web3 games over the next two years. Polygon Studios and Tilting Point plan to help both native Web3 game developers scale their games alongside free-to-play developer partners, and studios who want to bridge from Web2 to Web3 gaming.

The first three titles in the works are interstellar strategy game "Astrokings" from Korean developer AN games, which Tilting Point acquired earlier this year; virtual slot game "The Walking Dead: Casino Slots," based on the AMC series; and "Chess Universe," by Tilting Point’s partner developer Kings of Games.

Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt shared in a statement the company's excitement about  "championing user ownership and immersive gameplay.” Founded in 2012, Tilting Point's most popular free-to-play games include "Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest," "Narcos: Cartel Wars," and "SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off."

T.E.A.M DAO raises $5 million Series A round

The Tokenized Esports Asset Management decentralized autonomous organization, or T.E.A.M. DAO, describes itself as the metaverse’s first Guild 3.0. The fantasy esports nonfungible token (NFT) league recently announced a $5 million Series A round of funding co-led by Krust Universe and Animoca Brands. Other investors included Great South Gate, Shima Capital, Anti Fund, Algorand, GSR, NGC Ventures, Libra Ventures, Nexo Capital, EX Capital, CoinHako and Octava.

Krust Universe is an investment arm of South Korean tech giant Kakao. Animoca Brands also recently acquired two major video games publishers: Eden Games and Darewise Entertainment. 

According to T.E.A.M, the new funding will be used to further develop its technology infrastructure, expand the team, and rapidly grow its player base. Its designated Supreme Leader stated that the company is leading a gaming-culture defining ecosystem for "noobs, amateurs and midtier gamers." He added that the upcoming TEAM token public sale will "[catapult] crypto adoption into everyone’s daily life."

Axie Infinity remains game with the highest market cap

According to the latest report by Crypto Head that assessed the top 50 play-to-earn (P2E) games on ChainPlay, Axie Infinity has a fully diluted market cap of $15.81 million. Cross Link came in a close second at $13 million and a third-placed Decentraland at $4.63 million. The average market cap value of all the crypto games studied is $1.25 million.

As for most Google-searched game in the past six months, Axie Infinity also takes the crown with over 29 million searches around the world. The second and third highest searched games, Bomb Crypto and Splinterlands, respectively, both had fewer than five million global searches.

Crypto Head also looked at crypto Twitter popularity and games with the most expensive tokens. Axie Infinity also garnered a place on those lists. 

LootRush wants to take NFT gaming mainstream

LootRush, an NFT marketplace for crypto gamers, closed on Thursday a seed round of $12 million led by crypto firm Paradigm, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. Other backers included Y Combinator, Brex founders, the founders of Axie Infinity, Plaid, Wildlife Studios, Dapper Labs and The Chainsmokers. 

According to the company, LootRush aims to become like Steam, as a distributor of PC games, but for blockchain and NFT-based video games. It wants to eliminate barriers to entry for gamers to play Web3 games and is known for offering cost-effective NFTs. A blog post stated that "We will enable gamers to own NFTs and we help NFT owners find great players."

Other GameFi News

STEPN is a Solana (SOL)-based NFT mobile application that leverages GameFi elements, such as move-to-earn, to enable NFT sneaker holders to earn tokens as they walk. Made for fitness enthusiasts and those who want to get their daily steps in, this project is leading the move-to-earn movement and challenging users to cash in Green Satoshi Token (GST). 

Related: How blockchain games create entire economies on top of their gameplay: Report

Japanese video game publisher Square Enix intends to divest its popular Tomb Raider franchise for $300 million and invest the proceeds into blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing technologies. Cointelegraph previously revealed Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda's plans to integrate NFTs into play-to-earn blockchain games.

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Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Nifty News: Louis Vuitton and Johnnie Walker dabble in Web3

Coin Telegraph
Nifty News: Louis Vuitton and Johnnie Walker dabble in Web3
Art

Other notable NFT news this week includes Larva Labs deleting all of its Tweets and Elon Musk briefly changing his Twitter PFP to Bored Ape Yacht Club collage.

This week's Nifty News sees the arrival of Louis Vuitton to the nonfungible token (NFT) gaming scene, Johnnie Walker's entry into Web3 and Elon Musk's apparent embrace of Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Louis Vuitton makes its mark in the NFT gaming scene

To commemorate Louis Vuitton’s bicentennial birthday in late 2021, the French luxury brand launched a NFT game called "Louis: The Game." At the time of publication, the game has been dowloaded more than 2 million times on both Android and iOS devices. "Louis: The Game" follows its protagonist, Vivienne, as she overcomes challenges, collects candles and other collectibles. NFT artist Beeple designed 30 NFTs embedded within the game, which are up for winning. At the end of April, new levels were released and with it new opportunities to win NFTs that will be distributed via a raffle through August 4, 2022.

Screenshot of the iOS mobile app of Louis: The Game.

Larva Labs deletes all of their tweets

In a curious and quiet move, the Twitter account handled by the founders of Larva Labs (LL) reset its Tweet count to zero on May 2. Since Yuga Labs acquired Larva Labs collections CryptoPunks and Meebits in March, most Tweets concerning these collections have been moved to @cryptopunksnfts and @MeebitsNFTs accounts.

However, LL founders, Matt and John, stated that they would continue posting on @LarvaLabs. The company continues to run various other Web3 projects under its belt, including Autoglyphs, as well as some mobile apps.

For fans nostalgic about the OG NFT collection, one user known as "@swissdegen" has backed up all of Larva Labs’ Tweets since 2017. Why? "For the culture," he tweeted.

Is Elon Musk embracing NFTs?

Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, changed his Twitter profile picture (PFP) to a collage of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for less than one day and caused quite a stir on Crypto Twitter. Musk’s profile photo also sent soaring the value of ApeCoin, Yuga Labs' cryptocurrency. The image has since been deleted because Michael Bouhanna, a Sotheby's executive, had originally created it for the Sotheby’s sale of the NFT and requested credit for it.

Users who traced some of the NFTs in the profile pic confirmed that Elon indeed has an impressive collection of Bored Apes, including three gold apes. The wallet also holds Doodles, Azuki and Moonbirds, all transferred from MoonPay's vault. However, some of the Bored Apes in the PFP collage are not owned by Elon Musk, as user "@franklinisbored" pointed out, raising concerns of copyright breaches.

VeeFriends partners with Johnnie Walker

Scotch Whiskey Johnnie Walker and parent company DIAGEO partnered with Gary Vaynerchuk's NFT project VeeFriends to provide holders of the Gift Goat VeeFriends NFTs with spirits-related offerings. Gift Goat is one of the 268 characters in the original VeeFriends collection. There are 555 Gift Goat tokens in total.

All Gift Goat tokens will unlock 18 luxury gifting experiences curated by Gary Vaynerchuk over the course of three years. Each experience combines a bespoke physical gift with a unique NFT from a notable artist in the space. The Johnnie Walker collaboration will also set up an activation at the upcoming VeeCon NFT-ticketed conference.

Source: VaynerNFT

Other Nifty News

Two weeks after Coinbase launched the beta version of its NFT marketplace, the crypto exchange opened it up for everyone on Wednesday. Coinbase clarified on Twitter that having an open beta means that more features will continuously be added, but with the help of the public.

The last week of April saw a sudden surge in the demand for 3- and 4-digit Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, domain names, marking a trend of NFT investors who prefer a shorter NFT token ID. Coinciding with new registrations was a sharp price increase for ENS token. Additionally, secondary sales for ENS names on OpenSea reached a peak 446 Ether (ETH) worth of volume in the last week. 

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Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

Indian Official Expresses Doubts About Crypto: ‘I Am Very Skeptical’

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