The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever, with prominent games released, token airdrops piling up, and a near constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!
Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re debuting This Week in Crypto Games.
Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week and a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.
Biggest news
PIXEL is nearly here: Popular Ronin social and farming game Pixels will launch its awaited PIXEL token on February 19, and has already started allocating tokens to play-to-airdrop campaign winners. Crypto exchange Binance has a Launchpool that rewards token stakers with PIXEL rewards in the lead-up to the listing on the 19th. On top of all of that, the Pixels Foundation has raised $4.8 million from various backers.
Shrapnel opens up: Avalanche first-person extraction shooter Shrapnel launched its early access version late last week, and then launched its first three-day play event on Thursday with $100,000 in SHRAP token rewards. The game faced some technical issues at the time, which is to be expected from early access games, and they were due to outsized demand, which isn’t a bad thing.
We went hands-on with the early access build—read our Shrapnel impressions and watch a few minutes of gameplay footage:
Bits on Bitcoin: DFZ Labs, the studio behind the Deadfellaz NFT collection on Ethereum, announced Friday that it has incubated a Bitcoin Ordinals gaming ecosystem called Bits. The project will debut 10,000 character profile pictures (PFPs) on February 13 via Magic Eden, and holders can help shape and contribute to the game they ultimately develop.
MAVIA drop: Heroes of Mavia, a Clash of Clans-like mobile strategy game with crypto and NFT hooks, was released last week and then proceeded to follow that up with its MAVIA token drop on Tuesday. Some 100,000 players were given a share of tokens, along with NFT land owners who took part in earlier staking campaigns. The MAVIA token has been on the rise since, too, spiking to a new high on Friday.
ICYMI
- An NFT mint for the Otherside game Legends of the Mara went awry this week, with high Ethereum network gas fees getting in the way. Yuga Labs’ jumbled response didn’t help, and it begs the question of whether the Bored Ape maker will ditch ETH.
- Mystery Society, a new Among Us-like social deduction game with optional NFT cosmetics, launched its beta test Friday ahead of an eventual free-to-play rollout. Creator Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow also announced a $3 million fundraise.
- Worldcoin’s blockchain-based World ID, which provides “proof of personhood,” will be tapped by Web3 esports platform Community Gaming to verify players for tournaments. The iris-scanning Orb is not required.
- Mastercard and MoonPay teamed up to launch a UEFA Champions League trivia game, which is gated by an NFT access pass that’s free for cardholders. Players can earn game tickets, including to the Champions League Final.
- Shardbound, an indie PC strategy game from a few years back that’s being revived as an NFT game, is holding its next playtest this month. The Immutable zkEVM game will let in up to 2,000 players on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins announced a team-up with marketplace Magic Eden, part of which will explore ways to put Magic Eden into Pudgy games. Pudgy World is set to launch in alpha on zkSync this quarter.
GG spotlight
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read: