Category: Gaming

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Morgan Stanley: the Metaverse is the Next Big Investment Theme

In a fairly short space of time, the metaverse has shifted from relative obscurity into mainstream consciousness. As the entire metaverse ecosystem has exploded in recent months, it remains somewhat surprising that global investment bank giant Morgan Stanley is bullish on the sector.

It can fundamentally change the medium through which we socialise with others.

Edward Stanley, Morgan Stanley equity strategist 

In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley noted that this alternative concept of reality was gaining a lot of attention from Meta (ex-Facebook) and Microsoft, both of whom are actively positioning themselves for growth in the sector.

‘Metaverse’ Next Big Investment Theme

According to Morgan Stanley, the metaverse is a concept that includes “construction of an alternative universe where individuals can model their image to whatever they want to be, and perform real-life tasks such as buying things, gaming with friends, and other activities”.

Edward Stanley, an equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, noted that there was a growing cohort of companies shifting their focus towards the metaverse. He considered tech and gaming companies as being well-positioned to profit from their first mover advantage.

Source: Morgan Stanley

Newsflow around the metaverse concept has been high and companies are embracing it in growing numbers. Of any major theme, companies and analysts have greater interest in the metaverse than any other theme at present.

Edward Stanley, Morgan Stanley equity analyst

He was, however, quick to acknowledge how early we were in the process and that a fully integrated, interoperable and collaborative metaverse would still be years away. When that time comes, users would be able to move seamlessly from one platform to another, moving their experiences and avatars with them in the process.

Metaverse and Gaming

Gaming and its relationship to the metaverse was one area that Morgan Stanley appeared most optimistic about. Noting that 50 million Americans took up gaming in 2020, the report saw three main bullish developments in the space:

  1. Social-gaming convergence – gaming has increasingly become a means for making, building and maintaining social relationships.
  2. In-game monetisation – gamers conduct in-game micropurchases to express their personalities and connect with others in the virtual world.
  3. Emergence of new games on new platforms – higher visual resolution, faster storage and enhanced gameplay are leading to groundbreaking new titles.

While older generations struggle to understand the appeal of socialising, interacting or living in a virtual world, one thing is patently clear – the younger generation not only love and embrace alternate digital realities, but in many cases they actually prefer it.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Gaming NFTs

Warner Bros Releases Matrix NFTs with ‘Red or Blue Pill’ Options

Ahead of the first Matrix reboot in 18 years, Warner Brothers is set to release a range of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for just US$50 each from November 30.

In conjunction with social NFT platform Nifty’s, Warners will launch 100,000 avatars themed around The Matrix Resurrections, the fifth instalment of the blockbuster film franchise and the first since 2003’s twin release of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Resolutions, set to open in Australian cinemas on January 1.

The series centres on a cyberpunk story of humanity’s technological fall, with the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) heralding a race of self-aware machines that imprison mankind in a virtual reality system – the Matrix – to be farmed as a power source. Some of the prisoners break free from the system and, considered a threat, are pursued by the AI both inside and outside of it.

Your Choice: Red Pill or Blue Pill?

A central theme of The Matrix is the dilemma of choice versus control, symbolised by the red pill and the blue pill: you can learn a life-changing truth by taking the former or remain in a state of blissful ignorance by taking the latter.

Similarly, buyers of the Matrix NFTs have a choice: choose the blue pill, and their avatar’s character remains in the Matrix; choose the red pill, and their avatar transforms into a resistance fighter.

If you think about all the ways fans of content can interact with their favourite characters and stories in 2021 – via retail stores, theme parks, social media, collectibles, or online shops – digital art and collectibles are certainly on that list now. NFTs are another touchpoint for fans to engage.

Pam Lifford, president, Warner Bros consumer products
Scene from The Matrix Resurrections, opening in Australia on January 1. Source: techbriefly.com

Warner Bros are far from the only filmmakers exploring the potential of NFTs for creative and commercial purposes. New 2021 feature films Lockdown and Zero Contact were both released as NFTs, while 2015 martial arts movie Kung Fury director David Sandberg has launched a line of NFT characters that may feature in his upcoming movies. And just last week, Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino announced the release of a line of NFTs based on his celebrated 1994 film.

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Crypto News Gaming Tokens

Axie Infinity’s SLP Token Surges 74% Amid Launch of Ronin DEX

Katana, the decentralised exchange (DEX) for Ronin – Axie Infinity’s sidechain for Ethereum that allows users to easily swap various assets within the Axie Infinity ecosystem – is now live and $SLP has enjoyed a price pump as a result.

Ronin Facilitates Token Exchanges on the Sidechain

The launch of the Ronin DEX will make it easier for Axie Infinity players to swap tokens directly on the sidechain itself, without players having to bridge tokens to Ethereum, thus reducing transaction fees.

Axie gamers can now quickly and easily swap between AXS, SLP, USDC and WETH on Ronin’s DEX Katana.

The Axie Infinity SLP token has pumped 74 percent since Katana’s launch, reaching almost US$0.13 per token, according to CoinGecko.

Axie Infinity has been leading the P2E (Play-to-Earn) blockchain gaming sector. As Crypto News Australia reported last month, ASX, Axie’s native token, surged over 80 percent in just 30 days.

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Metaverse Tokens Soar Amid Facebook Announcement, SAND Up 158% in a Week

It’s no secret that the gaming sector is the hot focus of crypto right now, with social media giant Facebook announcing its re-branding to “Meta”. The ripple effect has seen The Sandbox token SAND surge 158 percent since the announcement. And it’s not the only one.

I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet. And it’s the next chapter for our company too.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook/Meta CEO

Zuckerberg added: “We’re a company that focuses on connecting people.” He says that “while most other tech companies focus on how people interact with technology, we focus on building technology so people can interact with each other”.

The Facebook name only represents one product, Zuckerberg says. Facebook is rebranding to Meta in order to “encompass everything that we do. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company.”

As an example of Meta’s ambitions, a partnership with sunglasses manufacturer RayBan aims to produce augmented reality glasses to interact with the real world for immersive experiences that include: displays, audio, input, haptics, hand tracking, eye tracking, mixed reality, sensors, graphics, computer vision, avatars, perceptual science, AI and more.

Metaverse Tokens Soar Upon News

Although Facebook is building its own metaverse, the news has been bullish for other blockchain-based metaverse projects besides The Sandbox (SAND). Decentraland (MANA) and Axie Infinity (AXS) are among others to have seen big spikes in price since the Facebook/Meta announcement.

SAND token performance. Source: coinmarketcap.com

Celebrities are also starting to enter the metaverse, with rapper Snoop Dogg announcing in September that he will build his own house – or a virtual reconstruction of his mansion, at least – in the Sandbox Metaverse and offer his exclusive NFT collection to fans, perform live concerts and interact with players.

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Crypto News DeFi Gaming Scams Tokens

SQUID Game Token Surged 110,000%, But Buyers Couldn’t Sell It Before Rug Pull?

The popular Korean Netflix TV series-inspired “play-to-earn” cryptocurrency Squid Game (SQUID) tanked almost 99 percent on November 1 in what is suspected to have been a rug pull. This happened after people who bought the cryptocurrency rained their complaints on the project as a scam, as they were not able to sell on PancakeSwap.

SQUID token price cliff collapse.

The SQUID token rose more than 110,000 percent since launching last week. Just like the original Squid Game drama, the whitepaper for the cryptocurrency project reads that players can participate in six online games, after which the winners will be rewarded with prizemoney. 

The more people join, the larger the reward pool will be […] 10 percent of the entry fee will be sent to the developer’s wallet, and the [remaining] 90 percent will be added to the reward pool for the last winner of the game.

Squid Game whitepaper

This project was not in any way related to Netflix or the producers behind the eponymous Korean TV series, which raised red flags against the SQUID crypto: 

Did SQUID Pull the Rug?

As many had warned, the SQUID crypto game was rug-pulled. The price of the token dropped nearly 100 percent from US$2,864 to US$0.005. The website for the crypto game was also taken down at the time of writing. Sadly, a lot of people who invested in the SQUID token are left head-scratching in regret as their funds vanished in a matter of minutes.

Before the crash, CoinMarketCap had warned that investors weren’t able to sell their tokens on PancakeSwap:

We have received multiple reports that the website and socials are no longer functional and the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap […] This project, while clearly inspired by the Netflix show of the same name, is not affiliated with the official IP.

CoinMarketCap

Investors were trapped and some lost everything. The takeaway is to think twice before investing into new meme projects with no utility.

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Australia Blockchain Ethereum Gaming NFTs

Australia’s ‘Immutable X’ Inks Esports Deal to Enable Gasless NFTs

Immutable X, the Australian Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has partnered with a leading esports company, ESL Gaming, to provide gas-free trading of ESL Pro Tour NFTs on its platform.

ESL Gaming has been a giant in the gaming industry since 2000, raising more than A$10.76 million in prizemoney for gamers and helping to push the industry forward to where it is today.

ESL Gaming NFT Platform

The partnership will result in ESL getting its own NFT platform running on Immutable X technology, giving Counter-Strike enthusiasts around the world the opportunity to buy, sell and exchange NFT assets within the CS:GO ESL Pro Tour.

The platform has 11 million members and in 2020 alone, content from the ecosystem’s tournaments was broadcast for a cumulative total of 265 million hours across the world, generating over 675 million social media impressions and 52 million social media views through ESL Pro Tour CS:GO events. With fans in more than 190 countries, all tournaments from ESL Pro Tour CS:GO combined generated over 905 million video plays in 17 languages, not including China.

The Immutable team has gaming in their DNA and we share the same vision for the future of NFTs. In combination with a deep passion for the community, this is the only way to forge meaningful innovation in the space.

Bernhard Mogk, SVP, global business development, ESL Gaming

Carbon-Neutral, Gasless NFTs

The partnership with Immutable X will ensure ESL is provided with the required scaling infrastructure, granting access to esports fans to carbon-neutral and gas-free minting and trading of NFTs. Users will also be able to trade on the platform with their minds at ease, since Immutable X’s secure protocol directly inherits the Layer 1 security of Ethereum. The solution is powered by StarkWare‘s innovative technology, offering instant trade confirmation and massive scalability of up to 9,000 transactions per second.

Immutable X has committed to offset any carbon footprint with its certified climate-conscious partners, Trace and Cool Effect, making every NFT on its Layer 2 100 percent carbon-neutral.

The future is full of NFTs and drops that unlock exclusive perks for their owners. Players and enthusiasts can look at ESL Gaming’s previous NFT drops here. With the increasing amount of NFTs being produced across the globe, Adobe Photoshop has added a new feature to help verify the authenticity of digital art pieces.

Immutable’s solution to carbon-neutral and gas-free trading of NFTs fits our needs perfectly, and we can’t wait to show fans what we’re building …

David Hiltscher, VP, fan value management and analytics, ESL Gaming
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Crypto News Gaming Play to Earn Scams Solana

NFT Metaverse Game Star Atlas Releases Roadmap, but No Sign of the Actual Game

Star Atlas is one of the most anticipated play-to-earn games in the crypto gaming space, with users already owning thousands of dollars’ worth of in-game assets. However, while the project boasts a beautiful website and fully functioning marketplace, there’s no game or even Alpha build to be seen.

Hosted on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, Star Atlas has attracted considerable hype based on the concepts and possibilities of what’s quite literally a game-changer. The game incorporates some of the latest graphical innovations, such as Unreal Engine 5 and Nanite technology that allows for the creation of worlds at unprecedented scale and detail. Players can own in-game assets (planets, ships, parts/items, in-game resources) with real-world value, either to be used in the game or sold on the marketplace.

The fact that there is no actual game build to be seen leads some to believe the game might end up the same way Earth 2 did. In that case, developers made claims of creating an exact virtual replica of Earth, comparable to a metaverse like “Ready player one or the Matrix”, allowing people to buy virtual land that might attract future value. Yet years later, the game is still in development and has been called a scam and Ponzi scheme by many.

Technology May Be Still Some Way Off

BigFry, a prominent YouTuber best-known for talking about “shady” developers and publishers in the gaming space, has taken a crack at Star Atlas, pointing out some of the aspects that could be an indication of a scam. As he says, it’s much easier to start a marketing campaign than to build a metaverse. Many times in the past developers have over-promised and under-delivered, with BigFry also stating that he thinks the technology required to build a game like this is still far away.

Star Atlas Is Not Your Average Game

Star Citizen had the same problem with lots of content but no game builds ever piercing the veil, with some some believing Star Atlas could be on the same road. There are more than 250 players already on the leaderboards, with the top-ranking player owning over US$800K in total in-game assets.

According to a YouTube interview with Star Atlas founder Michael Wagner, the project aims to break the mould in the industry by creating a metaverse where the aim is not just to play a game, but to construct an economy where gamers, entrepreneurs and people who want to work to earn money can come together and empower each other.

This is one of the main reasons why the game is being developed economy first, to allow players to understand the mechanics as well as to build all the systems from scratch on the blockchain. After slowly onboarding players to the marketplace and intricacies of the economy, actually playing the game comes next. At the moment there is a mini-game available where players can craft loot. Additionally, Wagner says that one of the first gameplay mechanics to be released will be the ship mission, available on May 31, 2022.

There are other works in progress such as character models and environments which can show for something, but that’s an easy task for a team of designers. Wagner says that in January 2022 there will be a digital showroom with interactable character models created with the new gaming engine, and where players can view their created NFTs.

In the meantime, the company has published a roadmap to assure investors and future players that everything is still on track:

It remains to be seen how the project will develop, but according to the roadmap the game’s 3D browser version is a “fully charted game map [Star Atlas] viewable and playable in-browser. This also unlocks coordinates for ship missions, exploration, and mining actual owned land claims”, scheduled for release on July 31, 2022.

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Blockchain Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Galaxy Interactive Raises $325 Million for NFT and Blockchain Gaming Startups

Galaxy Interactive, a division of Galaxy Digital Holdings and a VC firm focused on gaming startups and interactive technology, has raised US$325 million to invest in blue chip NFTs.

Galaxy Digital announced the fundraising on October 19, stating that the capital will go to Galaxy Interactive’s second fund, combining a total of US$650 million in assets under management.

According to the statement, Galaxy Interactive has already allocated US$150 million to new companies, including 1047 games, Republic, Art Blocks, and Elodie.

Younger Generation Moving En Masse From Physical to Digital World

Galaxy Interactive was established in 2018 by general partners Sam Englebardt and Richard Kim. The fund, which is now more flexible for investors, aims to appeal to a wider demographic of investors, especially in the knowledge that younger generations are moving from the physical to the digital world as technology innovation grows exponentially.

What would you invest in if you believe that younger generations are moving en masse from the physical to the digital world? Today, the implications of that question present themselves everywhere, in so many fascinating ways and through the utilisation of revolutionary technologies.

Sam Englebardt, partner, Galaxy Interactive

More Capital Flocking to NFTs and the Metaverse

A lot of money is swirling around NFT projects and the Metaverse, which could host a new way of interaction and trade with people in a global virtual reality world.

The P2E (Play-To-Earn) movement has generated massive profits in 2021, with titles such as Axie Infinity frontrunners in the space.

While most blockchain-based games are built on Ethereum, other projects have taken to Solana to compete in an alternate ecosystem. These include Star Atlas, Aurory, and Genopets – three titles gaining the attention of gamers and investors alike.

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Crypto News DeFi Gaming NFTs Tokens

Axie Infinity Continues to Soar, Up 86% in a Month

Axie Infinity has been leading the P2E (Play-to-Earn) movement by becoming the highest-revenue generating game in the market, with over 1.8 million daily active users worldwide. Data from Binance shows ASX, its native token, has surged over 80 percent in just one month, highlighting the interest from investors and gamers alike for blockchain-based games.

ASX Has Mooned 150,000% Since its Launch

ASX had an 86 percent price boost last month, trading at US$121.36 at the time of writing.

Daily chart of ASX/BTC

Additionally, analytics firm CoinGecko reported that ASX was the second-best performing asset of the market in Q3 2021, with a three-month best ROI (return of investment) of 965 percent, and YTD (Year to Date) gains of approximately 15,000 percent.

Two weeks ago, ASX surged above 100 percent following a massive airdrop of US$60 million to early users and a staking rewards feature, where token holders generated returns of up to 385 percent APY.

Controversial Updates

While Axie has been thriving in the DeFi and NFT markets, some recent updates have staggered its price surge. Recently, the team behind the game revealed the 1.1.0a update, which embedded three fundamental technical changes: to the Ronin Block Explorer, bug fixing and game dynamics, and game tokenomics.

The last one caused the prices of ASX and SLP to drop nearly 10 percent in a matter of hours. Normally, players sell their Axie characters with their respective levels and characteristics, but this update now automatically resets the monster’s level to 1. This has outraged the community. But what’s more is that players with less than 800 MMR are prohibited from receiving rewards for playing the adventure modes or daily quests.

Despite the setbacks, Axie continues to be the frontrunner of P2E video games when it comes to revenues. The ASX token is now one of the top 50 tokens in the crypto market, following a 50 percent price boost in just a week.

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs Solana

World’s First ‘Move to Earn’ NFT Game Genopets Raises $8.3 Million

Genopets, the world’s very first mobile ‘Move-to-Earn’, or ‘play-to-earn” (P2E) non-fungible token (NFT) game, has raised US$8.3 million in seed round funding to “bridge the physical and digital world(s)”, the company announced on October 18.

Genopets is an innovative game built atop the Solana (SOL) blockchain in which users can create a Genopet – an NFT connected with their fitness data. Genopets is one of three exciting P2E games launching on Solana. The game allows users to do real-world exercises to earn rewards within the game, which they can later cash out.

The funding round was co-led by Pantera Capital and Konvoy Venture (investors and board observer at Axie Infinity).

Exercise Brings Measurable Rewards

Genopets has said that the money raised in the seed round will fund its goal “to bridge the physical and digital world(s)”. The game aims to “provide income to individuals as an incentive to stay physically active”, CEO Albert Chen said in a statement.

Josh Chapman, managing partner at Konvoy Ventures, added:

Genopets is a liquid digital asset representation of a gamer’s physical activity in the real world. It sits at the intersection of gaming, play-to-earn, and physical activity. This platform connects a gamer’s real-world steps with their progression, customisation, and value creation in the Genopet universe.

Josh Chapman, managing partner, Konvoy Ventures

P2E Is a Key Force Behind the Massive Growth of NFTs

The announcement of the seed funding round comes at a time when the NFT space, and specifically the NFT-gaming industry, is exploding. Other NFT gaming platforms such as Sydney-based “Immutable” recently raised A$82 million (US$60 million) in a Series B funding round, bringing its total funding raised to A$105 million. Creators of SimCity also recently launched Proxi – a blockchain-based AI-driven game that employs NFT technology.

Paul Veradittakit, partner at Pantera Capital, had this to say about the booming NFT gaming industry:

Play-to-Earn pinpoints an intersection of gaming and blockchain that has struck a chord with users – earning real money proportional to in-game performance.

Paul Veradittakit, partner, Pantera Capital