Category: Gaming

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Blockchain Crypto News Gaming Sports

Football Manager Takes to the Blockchain with Footium

Ever wanted to ‘own’ a football club, build your own squad of players and earn rewards in the process? Now you can do it with Footium, a soccer strategy game where ‘managers’ can mint players from their academy and compete to win prizes.

Gamers Empowered Through Ownership

Co-founded in 2020 by Jordan Lord, a former software engineer at Netcraft, and Oxford economics graduate James O’Leary, Footium claims to improve on existing football games by empowering gamers through ownership.

“By introducing NFTs and a native token, we’ve brought play-to-earn characteristics to the kind of game that millions of users around the world spend hours playing each day,” says Lord, formerly a game developer for Multiverse and in real life a Derby County fan, while O’Leary is a smart contract developer with a passion for gaming.

Millions of people around the world spend hours each day playing football management games purely for fun. What if those hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours spent playing could also generate revenue and improve their player and club value?

Jordan Lord, co-founder, Footium

Stake Tokens to Improve Club Morale and In-Game Performance

As Lord and O’Leary were building Footium, they realised the value-adding potential of token staking to improve club morale and in-game performance. As Lord says, “We decided to build the game we’d always dreamed of.”

Footium Division 1 has 1 league with 12 teams in and every division you go down, all the way to 8 the number of teams/leagues doubles. With Division 8 having 255 leagues in. Each club has a badge, kit and stadium. The badge will be based on a number of traits, the rarity of which determines their starting position in the league, along with the stadium size.

Initial Clubs Sold Out, But Plenty More Available on Secondary Market

Twice a day, your team plays in your league against other clubs. The game moves fast, with seasons of 20 games finishing inside two weeks. While the initial round has sold out, there is a total of 3060 clubs to choose from in the Footium universe, with plenty available on the secondary market. Go to footium.club for details. You can also follow Footium on Twitter and join the Footium Discord.

For information on three more new and exciting play-to-earn games, see September’s Crypto News Australia report regarding the growing Solana ecosystem. With nearly US$24.8 billion generated to date, 2021 was even then close to surpassing 2020’s full-year revenue (US$30 billion) and on track to overtake 2019 (US$43.6 billion) as the highest-grossing year ever for commercial gaming.

Last month saw the launch of MonkeyBall, a next-gen esports metaverse also based on the Solana blockchain. Like Footium, it’s a play-to-earn soccer game that combines high-production values, multiplayer gaming, NFTs and decentralised finance.

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Binance Crypto News DeFi Gaming Metaverse NFTs

MBOX Token Explodes 138% as MOMOverse Becomes First Metaverse to Integrate with Binance

Amid a host of metaverse projects currently on the rise, one gaming altcoin is surpassing all expectations after it rallied 138 percent in a single day following the announcement of its integration with the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Mobox (MBOX), part of the GameFi sector, a combination of decentralised finance (DeFi) and gaming, combines non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and yield farming to create a play-to-earn ecosystem. The project aims to connect metaverses through NFTs, as well as achieve NFT interoperability across various platforms and games.  

Mobox has effectively launched its metaverse, MOMOverse, on the BSC, a cheaper alternative to the Ethereum network that is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). At the time of writing, MBOX was trading at US$10.04, according to data from CoinGecko, which represents a 164 percent increase over the past 30 days.

Million-Dollar Mobox(es)

According to the Mobox announcement, users will be able to create their own avatars to represent themselves in the MOMOverse. Avatars will also be able to mine MBOX, Mobox’s native token.

With the launch of the MOMOverse Phase One, the company is also giving away 5000 Mystery Boxes to the value of over US$1,000,000:

MBOX will allow its users to stake its native coin to earn rewards called Mystery Boxes. The MOMOs revealed from the Mystery Boxes will be mining the MBOX token [and will] increase the node hashpower so you can mine more MBOX tokens.

Mobox announcement

Metaverse Tokens Shoot to the Moon

As NFTs continue to boom, metaverse projects and tokens are also on the rise, with many new and exciting projects preparing to launch. For an in-depth look at four of these projects, check out this Crypto News Australia guide.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming NFTs Solana

MonkeyBall Play-to-Earn NFT Game Set to Launch on Solana Blockchain

MonkeyBall, the next-gen esports metaverse that enables players to create, play, compete and earn, is ready for kickoff. Based on the Solana blockchain, the play-to-earn soccer game combines high-production values, multiplayer gaming, NFTs, and decentralised finance.

Monkeys are the teams’ players, introduced by NFT assets owned by game players. The Monkeys serve as an income generator, allowing a player to earn MonkeyBucks ($MBS) by winning matches.

MonkeyBall.com

The Three Modes of MonkeyBall

  • Player vs Environment: This is a training mode to increase your Monkey’s overall abilities and allow you to practise and develop your in-game Monkey’s soccer skills.
  • Player vs Player: This mode is the classic game where each player controls the entire team of soccer monkeys.
  • Team vs Team: In this mode, each team is being played and controlled by multiple players at a time.

MonkeyBall will do an NFT drop (of the game’s Monkeys) in December, with the in-game launch set for release in the first quarter of 2022. The IDO is currently open. Check the MonkeyBall website for more information.

MonkeyBucks ($MBS) is the in-game currency powering the game economy. Players can earn MBS by interacting in the game: completing missions, winning matches, watching games as spectators, or hosting games in their stadiums. You can also spend MBS to breed new Monkeys and buy consumable game items (NFTs) in the game’s store.

There is major hype surrounding the pre-release of this game, as you can see by the sharp increase in the price of the StarLaunch token, $STARS. Starlaunch is the launchpad for MonkeyBall.

STARS Price Chart. Source: Coingecko

Watch the video below to learn how to get into the MonkeyBall IDO, launching on StarLaunch next week.

As the NFT space continues to grow, and excessively high fees continue to plague the Ethereum network, we are increasingly seeing Solana challenge Ethereum for NFT project launches.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gaming Hackers NFTs Scams

Blockchain Gaming Company ‘Animoca’ to Repay Users 265 ETH After Fake NFT Discord Hack

Hong Kong-based gaming software and venture capital firm Animoca Brands has reassured victims of the recent hack of its upcoming “Phantom Galaxies” game’s Discord Server that the company intends to cover their losses.

Losses incurred totalled 265 Ether (ETH), worth about US$1.1 million. The details of the reimbursement have yet to be announced, according to the company’s website.

Fraudulent Minting Leaves Users Out of Pocket

The “Phantom Galaxies” game, which is being developed by Animoca Brands’ Australian-based subsidiary, Blowfish Studios, was hacked at around 3am on November 19. The hack involved stolen money in a fraudulent non-fungible token (NFT) sale on Discord.

The hack involved 1,571 fake minting transactions over the course of three hours. According to Animoca, there was no evidence that smart contracts were compromised, and no money was stolen from the game, its developer, or its publisher. Hackers directed users to a website charging users a 0.1 ETH fee, which then sent the funds to the hackers’ Ethereum address.

The Phantom Galaxies Discord server has about 94,000 members to date. Animoca Brands has said the method of compensation for their lost ETH will be determined following discussions within the Phantom Galaxies community. Both Animoca and Blowfish took to Twitter to apologise to their users:

Hacks and Scams on the Rise

Hacks on Discord are becoming increasingly common. Similar to this hack, earlier in the year MetaMask wallet was hacked for US$10,000 by a deceptive Discord member. One user lost about US$10,000 from their MetaMask Wallet at the hands of a scammer in Discord using a fake WalletConnect app.

Last month, Crypto News Australia reported on a 17-year-old who sold fake NFTs in a US$500,000 scam. Iconic Sol, an NFT project built on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, had apparently rugged investors after failing to deliver the promised NFTs and disappeared with US$500,000.

The teenager had promised to deliver 8,000 NFT artworks on the project’s Discord channel, and some of the tokens were supposed to be available in a presale on October 1. A total of 2,000 NFTs were up for grabs for a price of 0.5 SOL each, and many of them sold out quickly.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Gaming Metaverse

Pokémon Go Developer Releases Augmented Reality Game Where You Can Earn BTC

US software company Niantic, best known for creating augmented reality (AR) mobile games such as Pokémon Go, has revealed it has partnered with bitcoin (BTC) rewards company Fold. In announcing their partnership in a November blog post, the companies jointly revealed a new AR game that will allow users to earn BTC in the metaverse.

Earn BTC By Exploring the Metaverse

Fold, in partnership with Niantic, will forge and develop a new game called Fold AR, which will be available for users leveraging the Fold mobile app. The game will allow users to earn BTC and in-app benefits by exploring the metaverse.

According to Fold chief executive officer Will Reeves, “This is the easiest, most fun way to get your first piece of bitcoin … Anyone can use our app to earn bitcoin and other rewards by exploring the world around them. For us, it’s always been important to make participating in the bitcoin economy easy for anyone, regardless of education or technical expertise.”

What is a Metaverse?

The partnership has said that it intends to “forge an alternative version for the metaverse – one that promotes human freedom and happiness through bitcoin and fun”. The term “metaverse” was coined by American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson to describe a “dystopian future where technology dominates the human experience”.  

Fold, which is focused on BTC and the metaverse as a vision for the internet, intends to build a place where technology can unleash human freedom and happiness.

Rewards vs Risks

The team has started rolling out a limited beta of the experience in the Fold App. In order to get started, users open the “Play” tab in the Fold App to discover BTC and other hidden rewards around them. Every 10 minutes, a new block appears somewhere around the user and if opened triggers an explosion of rewards.

Rewards include satoshis, extra spins to get more rewards, time extensions to remain in the game longer, and an orange pill that protects players against harmful surprises. Users should beware as “shitcoins and poison pills” are lurking, threatening to take away hard-earned BTC. Fold AR is joining a host of methods of earning free BTC.

Fold AR metaverse. Source: Fold App

Have Fun While Getting Rich

While the term “metaverse” is gaining a lot of traction, metaverse tokens are soaring amid the buzz as they allow users in the virtual world to add real-world value.

AR has paved the way for gamers and users alike to engage in a virtual world while earning real-world money at the same time. The future is sure to be in the metaverse.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gaming Metaverse

Metaverse Tokens Are Soaring – Let’s Take a Closer Look at Them

With Facebook rebranding to Meta amid news of celebrity partnerships including Snoop Dogg entering The Sandbox, tokens of metaverse virtual realities and blockchain-based games are on fire and have been outperforming the market as a whole.

Move over meme coins, the metaverse is now dominating the buzz across the crypto market. Here are three of the top performers:

Axie Infinity (AXS)

The most impressive performer of all has been Axie Infinity, a P2E (Play-to-Earn) NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis. Axie Infinity is “a digital nation” where players can “battle, collect, and earn”.

Analytics firm CoinGecko reported that ASX was the second-best performing asset of the market in Q3 2021. The game’s native token AXS has soared accordingly, printing an all-time high of US$164.90 from only $4 at the end of June. AXS is up about 113,003 percent in a single year, and with a market cap just shy of $10 billion ($9,213,638,614), it’s currently ranked #23 in the market.

$AXS price chart. Source: CoinGecko

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality world where players can use the game’s native token, MANA, to buy in-game items such as virtual land and costumes for their avatars. Users also have governance rights and can vote on future developments in Decentraland.

The price of $MANA has increased 572.4 percent in the past 30 days and has printed its all-time high of US$5.46. It is currently ranked #34 and has a market cap of almost US$7 billion.

$MANA price chart. Source: CoinGecko

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a P2P (play-to-earn) blockchain-based virtual world developed by Pixowl. Players in The Sandbox can explore digital universes within the metaverse. It is a world where users can interact with each other, build their own spaces and even attend Snoop Dogg concerts and visit the rapper’s own virtual mansion. Players can also monetise their in-game assets by trading NFTs created within the game and earn SAND tokens just by spending time in the metaverse.

In the past 30 days, the $SAND token has shot up 847.2 percent and is at its all-time high, printing US$8.01. It is currently ranked just after Decentraland at #35 and has a market cap of around US$6.5 billion.

$SAND price chart. Source: CoinGecko
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Blockchain Gaming NFTs Tokens

Blockchain Gaming Token GALA Up 360% in a Week Following NFT Drop Announcement

Gala Games (GALA) has gone ga-ga, with the gaming token’s price skyrocketing by over 360 percent in seven days. The surge comes as investors welcome exploding interest in decentralised games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse sector.

The main driver of Gala’s price hike is its impending Miranda VOX drop, due December 6. The NFT series contains “magical creatures from the realm of Mirandus”: elves, rogue halflings, fierce orcs, stalwart dwarves, plus “surprise” creatures from the Mirandus bestiary will emerge from Gala’s mysterious VOX boxes on the due date.

Creatures from the Mirandus bestiary. Source: Gala Games

Instead of being sold through the CollectVOX website, these VOX boxes will be purchasable directly from the Gala Games store, thus avoiding the usual Ethereum gas wars.

If you’re new to Gala Games, you’ll need to create an account, and then purchase some GALA tokens and some ETH (for network fees).

‘Blockchain Games You’ll Actually Want to Play’: Gala

With its stated mission being to to make “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play”, Gala Games claims to give players control over their virtual domain. GALA is used as a means of exchange between gamers and the coins can be used to pay for items within the platform.

Created in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer, one of the co-founders of mobile games company Zynga, which developed the likes of Mafia Wars and Farmville, Gala has 1.3 million active users. According to the company manifesto:

We are truly building the largest decentralised gaming platform in the world. Decentralisation means putting the power, the responsibility and the rewards into the players’ hands.

Gala Games

Gala players are able to own NFTs that allow them to vote on new games and thus influence how they are run. The GALA token can be used to purchase these NFTs, as well as in-game items.

What’s Behind GALA’s Surge in Price

Gala’s year-on-year performance. Source: capital.com

According to the Global Gaming Market 2021-2025 report published by ReportLinker, the gaming sector is expected to grow by US$125.6 billion from 2021 to 2025, which will favour the likes of Gala.

Many have attributed Gala’s breakout performance to its being listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Mandala, OKEx, Huobi Global and Bitget.

Last week, Crypto News Australia reported how another NFT and gaming token, WAX, had soared 215 percent in a month on the back of unprecedented user growth.

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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Solana Tokens

NFT and Gaming Token WAX Soars 215% in a Month Amid Unprecedented User Growth

Performance of the WAX token has certainly waxed lately following massive NFT (non-fungible token) trading volumes on its Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) platform.

WAX Outranks Solana in NFT Sales

This week, WAX surged 44 percent following massive demand for the currency, with over 8 million WAX accounts interacting with the token on the WAX network. The token is up a massive 215 percent in the past month.

Ethereum remains the number one platform in terms of NFT trading volume. But as NFT content creators look for alternative choices, the WAX platform has witnessed massive NFT sales lately. The protocol has become the second Layer-1 blockchain in daily and 30-day NFT sales volume, outpacing high-profile ecosystems in the industry such as Solana and Flow.

There is no big news about partnerships or network upgrades, so the recent price surge is driven only by demand, but we have to note that WAX CEO William E. Quigley has recently talked up NFTs, the metaverse, and the launch of vIRLs, a new form of NFTs issued by the WAX protocol that represent real-world items users can collect without physically shipping them.

What is WAX?

The WAX platform is considered the most eco-friendly platform for NFTs, collectibles and video games. There, users can play several decentralised games, build their DApps, and buy and sell NFTs using WAX in a fast, cost-efficient manner.

With its high proven real-world operation transaction volume capacity, unique fee structure of no minting and gifting transaction fees, and energy efficient and low carbon footprint, [WAX] is the ideal blockchain for games that are looking to incorporate elements such as play-and-earn monetisation at scale.

William E. Quigley, WAX CEO

WAX currently has a US$1.5 billion market cap, with each token priced at US$0.85. The price surge comes after a massive wave of traffic, making it the number 1 platform with daily active users.

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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Play to Earn Real Estate Tokens

Metaverse Token SAND Hits All-Time Highs as Play-to-Earn Game Nears Alpha Launch

The Sandbox (SAND), Animoca Brands’ virtual property and gaming project, has announced its highly anticipated Metaverse Alpha event starting later this month. Following the announcement, SAND prices have surged to new all-time highs.

Play-to-Earn Metaverse Event

After four years of development, the Sandbox (SAND) team’s play-to-earn (P2E) Sandbox Alpha event will allow players the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse for the first time. The virtual gaming world enables users to monetise their time spent in the metaverse via a P2E model. Players can purchase land and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the game and earn Sandbox tokens (SAND) by completing various quests.

The Sandbox Alpha Hub launches on November 29 and closes on December 20. Players who want to take part in the event will need to get their hands on an Alpha Pass, the NFT ticket that will grant full access to the multi-week event to 5000 people. Golden tickets will be on sale on OpenSea’s secondary market between November 29 and December 19.

Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations, quests, and the opportunity to connect with other players from the community. However, they will not be eligible to earn P2E rewards.

Prizes to be Won in the Alpha

Owners of the Alpha Pass will have the opportunity to earn 1,000 SAND for completing all objectives of the Alpha. Additionally, pass owners have special access to three exclusive The Sandbox Alpha NFTs, which will only be available during the Alpha event.

NFT prizes for owners of the Alpha Pass: The Sandbox

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu cautioned future investors that they should take the time to carefully experience The Sandbox before buying tokenised land:

Just go to the places, experience them, join the community on Discord, have a chat with them. See what it’s all about before you make the plunge to buy land because, you know, it’s like buying real estate anywhere in the world.

 Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman, Animoca Brands

Metaverse Token Explodes

According to data from CoinGecko, the price of SAND hit a new all-time high of US$3.97 on November 18. SAND has been on a meteoric surge in 2021, gaining 10,545 percent over the past 12 months. Earlier this month ,the SAND token pumped 158 per cent following the Facebook metaverse announcement.

SAND/USD price chart. Source: CoinGecko

At the start of this month, The Sandbox closed a US$93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The project has been in development for four years and will launch its metaverse in “phased stages” moving forward.

With the idea of the metaverse inching its way into the public sphere, more people are taking part. Barbados recently established the first-ever metaverse embassy as part of its aggressive expansion to build infrastructure and purchase digital land.

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Five New NFT Meme Avatar Projects Launching Soon

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to boom in the crypto industry, many new projects are coming to fruition on a daily basis. One of the main emergent uses for NFTs is as digital avatars for people in the crypto space, with some of those doubling up for use in NFT games.

With memecoins pervading the air, communities ranging from doge lovers to meme lords have invested and created offerings for people interested in what they offer.

The rise of NFTs means those interested in an NFT avatar have many to choose from. Populated by such characters as Mutants, Punks, Apes and Mutant Punk Apes, the space has exploded with custom-designed avatars. People in the space want to differentiate themselves and show off their digital selves to hang as a banner labelling them as part of the crypto space. Last week, The Simpsons NFTs sold out in minutes as crypto savvy collectors rushed to buy up the digital memorabilia.

Here are five new NFT avatar projects launching soon:

Strange Turtles In District 99

Strange Turtles In District 99 is a collection of 10,000 unique turtles from a turtle planet 99 light-years away. The NFTs are randomly assembled pieces from a selection of 250 hand-drawn traits, costing 0.0799 ETH + gas fee. The owner of a Strange Turtle is given the right to fully explore the commercial possibilities of the NFT, and will also be guaranteed access and voting rights in the 99district NFT.DAO.

According to a roadmap “based on the decision of our community, a 99district play-to-earn game will be developed”, which may see release in the future. Additionally, 100 random Strange Turtles will be given to pop stars, footballers, artists and entrepreneurs around the world for them to hold or show off.

The project will also use 3.5 per cent of total sales and 50 per cent of royalties from OpenSea for ‘sweeping the floor’. Sweeping the floor is similar to a stock buyback, the term ‘sweep’ referring to buying all the NFTs listed at the current floor price to increase their value.

Lazy Bunny

The lore of the Lazy Bunnies is that they were living peacefully in their homes until a group of teenagers accidentally started a fire that burned 90 percent of their forest habitat. Now the Lazy Bunnies have moved towards cities in hope of finding loving owners and new homes.

Each trait of a Lazy Bunny is hand-drawn and the team has created only 5555 bunnies, so each and every bunny is unique. Lazy Space Bunnies cost 0.055 ETH per bunny and are avatar-style NFTs.

The project has many scheduled airdrops and community prizes lined up for NFT holders in its roadmap. Once 50 per cent of bunnies are sold, the project will set up a community wallet where 50 per cent of secondary sales will go towards a cause decided by the community.

Mutant Ether Babies

Mutant Ether Babies NFTs, otherwise known as Mebs, are a collection of 7777 unique species created from the mutation of cat and ape DNA, living on the Ethereum blockchain.

Owning a Meb will serve as a pass to play the Mebs Subway Game, and by playing Meb gamers will be rewarded in NFTs. The project also plans to buy land in the metaverse to build a Mebs island where Mebs holders can meet up. Each Mebs holder will be airdropped a 3D version of their Mebs, which will be used in the Metaverse – or Mebverse.

There are four levels in the minting process, and when each one is reached the project enacts a giveaway and a buyback to raise the floor level. Once 100 percent of the supply is minted, 30 ETH will be allocated toward three charities (10 ETH each) plus 20 ETH buyback to raise floor level.

United Toads

United Toads is an NFT project that makes toad-themed original artworks in the form of an avatar or profile picture. The avatar will also be available for use in a game that’s currently in the works. Any community member who holds on to their NFTs while the project moves through its roadmap is eligible for airdrops and future events.

According to the roadmap, when 50 percent of the 4,999 supply is bought up, a donation will be made to a #savethetoads foundation to stop deforestation in the Amazon, and on reaching 100 percent the team will bring on game development in phase 2.0.

Sovereign Degens

Sovereign Degens is an on-chain adventure that starts after getting your Sovereign Degens and affirming your membership. Over ensuing weeks, players uncover plots, community-driven story arcs, and airdrop challenges. The story arc will play out in a quest format and take players around the world, where they will advance as they solve quests while navigating multiple realms.

Sovereign Degens

In January, the project unveil the opening act to the Sovereign Degens universe, and reveal the Genesis NFT (aka Season 1 NFT). Season 2 and 3 are currently in development.