Category: Gaming

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Crypto News Ethereum Gaming Illuvium Immutable X

ETH-Based NFT Game ‘Illuvium’ Raises Over $72M in Digital Land Sales

ETH-based NFT game Illuvium has raised over US$72 million following the sale of close to 20,000 digital land plots:

Importantly, the land NFTs operate on Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling solution for ETH that enables cheaper and faster transactions. This intentional design was no doubt aimed to prevent exorbitant gas fees which have plagued other projects, most recently Yuga Labs’ ‘Otherside’, where US$157 million in ETH was burned.

The Land Sale Explained

According to Illuvium, the digital land parcels will confer various benefits in the upcoming PC and Mac game due for release later this year. In total, over a period of four days, close to 20,000 plots were sold to both speculators and gaming enthusiasts. Ultimately, the game will feature 100,000 land plots in total.

Among the initially offered 20,000 plots, 29 were retained by the developers for future giveaways, while two additional Tier 5 plots (the most valuable in the game) will be auctioned off later using a standard auction format. By contrast, the 19,969 plots were sold using a Dutch auction format whereby the price of plots were reduced until a buyer was found.

Image
Land sale results. Source: Illuvium

Prices kicked off at 2 ETH (US$3,700) for Tier 1 plots, 6 ETH (US$11,100) for Tier 2, 20 ETH (US$37,000) for Tier 3, and 80 ETH (US$148,000) for Tier 4. While some plots attracted lofty valuations, they remain well shy of the highest price achieved to date, which was US$2.4 million for an Axie Infinity plot.

For more information on the land sale that concluded June 5, the video below offers a useful explanation:

Illuvium Gameplay

Players start off having landed on a foreign planet, Illuvium. They then encounter strange creatures known as Illuvials, which can be captured and used by the players in battle. Along the way, players earn rewards and experience points, allowing them to progress to more dangerous terrains of Illuvium. 

Seven regions of Illuvium. Source: Illuvium

Throughout the game, players can purchase weapons and armour as NFTs that assist them in their quest and can also be resold within the in-game marketplace, which has not yet been launched.

According to the development team, the game is set for launch in Q3 of this year.

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Australia Crypto News Gaming Immutable X

Aussie Tech Unicorn ‘Immutable X’ Launches $40 Million Fund for Blockchain Games

Australia-based Immutable X has joined forces with gaming company Kongregate to establish a US$40 million fund giving grants to developers who make blockchain games.

Chipping in Towards Blockchain Gaming Development

Immutable X is well-known in the blockchain gaming space and has also developed an ETH-based scaling solution to enable faster in-game transactions. This week, the company announced a US$40 million fund comprising an IMX token pool that will be awarded as grants to blockchain game integrations on Kongregate’s web-based gaming platform.

Developers are said to benefit from Kongregate’s end-to-end integration solution, which is designed to ensure that each game is a “fun and engaging experience for players”. Markus Lipp, Kongregate’s CEO, added:

We want our players to be owners in their personal gaming journeys. Blockchain technology allows us to give them a deeper experience in ways not possible with traditional games, from enabling players to help to shape what comes next in the storylines they love to being able to maintain their unique character across titles.

Markus Lipp, CEO, Kongregate

According to Lipp, the partnership with Immutable X would ensure that “our players have the best NFT experience possible with technology that brings true innovation to gameplay, while also ensuring it’s green and scalable”.

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of Immutable X, saw the partnership as an opportunity “to help power the next generation of blockchain games”, adding:

With today’s launch of our blockchain developer fund, we’re excited to deepen our relationship with Kongregate as we work together to attract the best and brightest developers to build new titles on Kongregate’s relaunched Web3 platform.

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president, Immutable X

One Success After the Next

Immutable X is regularly making headlines these days, seemingly enjoying one success after another. After raising US$200 million earlier this year, strategic partnerships appear to be one of the key elements driving the company’s growth.

Last year, the company partnered with an e-sports platform to enable “gasless” NFTs. More recently, in February Immutable X teamed up with GameStop in a US$100 NFT platform deal.

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Axie Infinity Crypto News DeFi Gaming

Axie Infinity Suffers Another Hack, Discord Compromised

Popular NFT video game Axie Infinity has suffered another hack, this time on the game’s official Discord channel.

According to an official statement, Axie’s MEE6, a popular Discord bot used for automating roles and messaging within channels, was compromised. The attackers used the bot to add “a fake Jiho account, which then posted a fake announcement about a mint”:

Admins’ Accounts Compromised

The MEE6 bot wasn’t hacked as such – the admins’ accounts were. This allowed the attackers to use the bot to feature messages on the channel. While Axie said the messages had been deleted, it advised users to restart their Discord.

This isn’t the first time Axie Infinity’s Discord has been hacked. A few months ago, users on Reddit reported that their MetaMask wallets were compromised after falling for a fake minting announcement. Users had to delete all connections with Axie Infinity within the MetaMask app:

Not the Best Year for Axie

This hasn’t been the best year for Sky Mavis’ Axie Infinity. A month ago, the studio behind the video game revealed that Ronin – an Ethereum sidechain for Axie Infinity – suffered what is to date the biggest DeFi hack, losing US$625 million.

Discord hacks are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency space. A month ago, Crypto News Australia reported how the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord servers suffered a phishing scam, causing ApeCoin to drop more than 20 percent.

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Blockchain Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Blockchain Gaming Has Soared 2000% in a Year According to Latest Report

Among the findings of a joint report by DappRadar and the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) is that blockchain gaming has boomed by a massive 2000 percent in a year. This figure directly relates to 52 percent of all blockchain activity.

DappRadar x BGA Games Report – February 2022 - Animefreaktv https://animefreaktv.org/dappradar-x-bga-games-report-february-2022/
DappRadar x BGA report.

This Could Be a $10 Billion Year

The first quarter of this year has seen significant statistics out of the crypto gaming industry. With US$2.5 billion in investments poured into the industry already, 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for the advancement of blockchain gaming. Developers are anticipating this number could grow to US$10 billion by the end of the year.

The popularity of play-to-earn (P2E) NFT games on the Ethereum sidechain has played a large role in this growth. According to the report:

The ownership entitled by NFTs, and the underlying financial ecosystem enabled by cryptocurrencies and play-to-earn games, will shift the paradigm from the traditional metaverse that is limited to a virtual, augmented reality.

DappRadar x BGA games report

Animoca Brands and Yuga Labs hold some of the largest deals for the year so far, as blockchain games drew in 1.22 million unique active wallets.

Success Stories in Crypto Gaming Industry

In 2021, blockchain crypto gaming coins soared, with just one week in August witnessing nearly 700 percent growth. This seemed to mark the start of the acceleration in the blockchain gaming industry. Mobile gaming benefits immensely from NFTs, as the notion of adding real-world value to in-game assets became wildly popular.

Later in 2021, Galaxy Interactive – a venture capital firm specialising in gaming start-ups – raised US$325 million with the intention of investing in blue-chip NFTs. At the time it was reported that US$150 million had been allocated to a range of new companies.

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Crypto News Facebook Gaming Metaverse Virtual Reality

Meta Launches Digital Economy Allowing Users to Sell Virtual Goods for its VR Game

The metaverse may yet be years away in terms of functionality, but that hasn’t stopped Meta (nee Facebook) rolling out the first stages of a new digital economy to underpin its role in that brave new world.

The social media behemoth is already testing features that will enable creators to make money trading virtual items and effects in the company’s virtual reality (VR) game, Horizon Worlds.

According to Meaghan Fitzgerald, Horizon’s product marketing director, creators will be able to trade anything from virtual accessories to VIP access to their own private zone in the metaverse. American participants in the pilot will also be able to earn bonuses from a US$10 million fund set up by Meta to incentivise creators.

Meta May Pocket up to 50% of Bonus Payouts to Creators

Meta says it will reward creators whose virtual worlds prove especially popular among users with monthly bonus payouts. While that program will not be subject to fees, the virtual items marketplace could see Meta take a cut of up to 50 percent.

As it stands, Meta will take a 25 percent cut of the percentage left after the platform fee; with Meta’s Quest Store charging a 30 percent commission, that leaves creators with slightly over half the sale price for each item. Meta evidently thinks that’s a fair thing:

We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market. We believe in the other platforms being able to have their share.

Vivek Sharma, VP of Horizon Worlds, Meta

That said, Meta considers Apple’s 30 percent take rate as “too aggressive” for the iPhone ecosystem and has intentionally lowered its mobile rate for certain in-app purchases.

For more on how Horizon Worlds will work, Meta has helpfully supplied a video (see below) featuring VR versions of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his Horizon team of creators. Try not to be disconcerted by the fact that each avatar only exists from the waist up, yet they require virtual stools to “sit” on:

Amid all this talk of virtual worlds, Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that Meta is exploring the creation of non-blockchain-based virtual currencies, which employees have internally dubbed “Zuck Bucks“. We can now perhaps see where he’s going with this idea.

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Blockchain Fantasy Sports Gaming NFTs Sports

Blockchain Soccer Game GOALS Nets $15 Million Seed Funding for Multiplayer Venture

Young Swedish start-up GOALS has announced that its seed funding round netted a profit of US$15 million. The round was led by venture capital firm Northzone alongside the CEO of Sorare and its strategic adviser, a very well-known football player.

The e-sports game features a play-to-own mechanism with players, clubs and skins available in the form of digital assets. This means that once you own one of these NFTs, it’s yours for as long as you wish to keep it – unlike soccer game giant FIFA, which only lets a player hold a skin for a limited time.

Barcelona Defender Gerard Pique Among the Donors

Despite being barely a year old – GOALS was founded in May 2021 – the venture is receiving a lot of support. Northzone, Cherry and Moonfire venture capital firms were just some of the notable names contributing to the seed funding round.

Nicolas Julia, CEO of Sorare (another prominent blockchain football game), and strategic adviser Gerard Pique, the famous Barcelona FC defender, were also among the donors.

Barcelona FC star defender Gerard Pique, who is also Sorare’s strategic adviser. Source: everythingbarca.com

GOALS is free to play, with the game taking a small cut of each marketplace transaction. You can check out the GOALS project trailer below:

Football Follows in Sorare’s Bootsteps

Sorare Crypto Fantasy Football paved the way for GOALS in the field of blockchain-based football games. The game enables fans to collect and trade player cards to compete for prizes. Since Sorare’s development in 2018, the game has gone from strength to strength, notably raising US$680 million in its September 2021 fundraising round.

If you’re interested in learning more about Sorare and how it works, Crypto News Australia has put together an independent review of the game. You can find it here.

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Blockchain Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gaming Metaverse Opera

Opera Browser Adds BTC, SOL and MATIC Wallets for its 350 Million Users

Popular web browser Opera has this week announced support for at least eight more base networks and various layer-2 protocols in what seems to be a push for a major Web3 browsing experience.

As per a blog post from the Oslo-based company, Opera plans to onboard millions of users to enjoy a “seamless Web3 experience” through built-in wallet support for leading blockchain ecosystems and layer-2s including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos-based IXO, Ronin, Celo, and StarkEx:

Seamless Access to Web3

Opera users will be able to access dApps (decentralised applications) from popular ecosystems such as Polygon or Solana and benefit from lower gas fees and faster transactions.

By connecting several layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, Opera will remain “chain agnostic” – allowing its 300+ million users to seamlessly access Web3. Users from the popular P2E (Play-to-Earn) title Axie Infinity will also be able to interact with the recently hacked Ronin ecosystem.

The integration of multiple blockchains and notably Layer 2s is a key strategy in Opera’s mission to remain chain agnostic and seamlessly onboard millions of users to Web3 and do so in an environmentally-conscious way.

Opera blog post

Opera Sings Praises of its Browser

Opera has been working on crypto-related products since 2018 when it launched its first web browser with an integrated Ethereum wallet and Web3 support, even before most browsers started integrating different levels of support for blockchains.

It wasn’t until January of this year that Opera unveiled the beta version of its Crypto Browser Project, a fully dedicated Web3 browser with built-in integrations and support for seamless access to dApps, games, and metaverse platforms.

Ever since we started in the Web3 space in 2018, we’ve been sealing partnerships with the most popular and cutting-edge blockchains and Web3 domain name providers in order to accelerate crypto’s evolution from proof-of-concept towards mass adoption.

Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile and Web3, Opera

On February 25, Opera integrated DeversiFi, a decentralised exchange powered by StarkWare, a scaling solution for Ethereum that uses ZK rollup technology.

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Blockchain BNB Crypto News GameFi Gaming Metaverse

BNB Chain to Launch Application-Specific Sidechains to Reduce Network Strain 

BNB Chain is on the move to add application-specific sidechains to the blockchain to help with scalability and streamline data-heavy applications like gaming and the metaverse.

BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the Layer 1 solution developed by Binance, will start including sidechains to improve its scalability. Similar to Polkadot’s (DOT) parachains, these BNB Chain Application Sidechains (BAS) aim to cut costs and increase the speed of transactions for resource-intense applications such as gaming, SocialFi, and the metaverse.

Binance Labs – the core development team of BNB Chain – has yet to reveal all the technical details. However, the possibility has been ruled out that these sidechains become equal layer 1 blockchains, which is the case with parachains.

A BNB Chain spokesperson told The Block:

The BAS is an infrastructure introduced to help developers and node operators build and run their own blockchain as their internal value system for a massive number of users while still maintaining a close connection with BNB Chain.

BNB spokesperson

It’s All About the Use Case

The point of application-specific sidechains is to allow each chain to focus on a specific use case. According to the BNB spokesperson, the sidechains will host BNB-compatible dApps and will be able to operate independently of the mainnet – allowing teams to customise for their own security needs, instead of relying on the mainnet.

Sidechains to Open Doors for Large-Scale Applications

A valid comparison to BAS is Ronin, a sidechain on Ethereum dedicated solely to Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn game. Similarly, the very first BAS testnet will focus on GameFi, according to the BNB spokesperson.

BNB Chain ecosystem coordinator Samy Karim has mentioned previously that “BNB Chain will embrace large-scale applications, including GameFi, SocialFi and the Metaverse. In particular, scaling from one chain to multi-chain, improving scaling solutions and expanding the validator set of BSC from 21 to 41 (with 20 validators functioning as candidate block producers).”

Binance has been making various moves as of late, from acquiring traditional businesses and bringing them into the crypto space to now adding sidechains to facilitate specific use cases. The centralised giant may still have a big role to play in the crypto space.

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Ethereum Gaming Loopring NFTs

Loopring (LRC) Surges 55% Amid Release of GameStop NFT Marketplace

The Ethereum Layer-2 protocol Loopring (LRC) surged 55 percent following the launch of the beta version of GameStop’s Loopring-powered NFT marketplace on March 23.

According to CoinGecko, the price of LRC leapt from US$0.80 to just over US$1.20 in under 12 hours. At the time of writing the price is sitting at US$1.08, up around 35 percent from its pre-launch price but still down more than 70 percent from its all-time high.

Loopring Aims For Cheap, Secure, Fast NFTs

The launch was announced by Loopring’s head of growth Adam Browman, who said the new marketplace would make NFTs accessible to all in the gaming community by reducing costs and ensuring security:

The new marketplace built atop Loopring L2 ensures that users receive the strongest digital property rights anchored by a secure, decentralised, and credibly neutral environment like Ethereum. Loopring zkRollup inherits Ethereum’s self-custodial security while abstracting away costly gas fees, leaving no one priced out.

Adam Browman, Loopring head of growth

Browman also noted that Loopring provides the performance and scalability required to run this kind of marketplace, which he says was, until recently, “unimaginable”.

Launch Sparks New Interest

Interest in Loopring exploded in November last year when rumours first emerged of its involvement in a GameStop NFT marketplace, causing the price to surge to well over US$3 and the number of Loopring Smart wallet app users to boom:

After the initial wave of interest, though, investors started to question the degree of Loopring’s involvement as other layer 2s, such as ImmutableX, were linked with the project. The announcement of this beta marketplace confirms the rumours and may signal further growth for Loopring in coming months.

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Gaming Investing NFTs

Favoured Meme Stock ‘GameStop’ Confirms It Will Launch a Premium NFT Platform by July

Video game retailer GameStop, widely known as the company whose stock kickstarted the meme stock investment craze, has announced it intends to launch a premium NFT platform by the end of Q2 2022.

The planned launch date was announced in GameStop’s Q4 2021 earnings call, released on March 17. 

GameStop Eyes Crypto Opportunities

In a further sign of its increased interest in crypto, GameStop also mentioned the significant growth potential it sees in the sector in its 10-K filing, explaining:

As we scale and expand our core offerings we will simultaneously invest in additional growth, including blockchain, digital assets (including non-fungible tokens), Web 3.0 technology, and new destination formats for our stores.

GameStop K-10 Filing

Given its existing status as a well-known video game retailer, GameStop plans to focus its NFT efforts on in-game assets and other game-centric virtual assets, including character skins and in-game real estate.

NFTs Will Launch On Immutable X

Having flagged its intention to enter the NFT space in May 2021, in January 2022 GameStop announced it had chosen to partner with Immutable X its platform. GameSpot has cited Immutable X’s zero gas fees for minting NFTs and its carbon-neutral status as crucial strengths. 

Immutable X is an Ethereum-based layer-2 system built specifically for NFT trading. It uses zero-knowledge rollup technology developed by StarkWare to complete over 9000 NFT transactions per second.