Solana (SOL) will host three new NFT games on its blockchain where players can compete and trade with NFTs.
The gaming industry is in the midst of a growth spurt and is evolving along with the technology. With nearly US$24.8 billion generated to date, 2021 is already 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.
With the rise of the blockchain gaming industry, people can actually earn for time spent in the digital universe. For individuals looking to play some games while earning crypto and NFTs, this is quite appealing. The expanding Solana (SOL) blockchain is now playing host to three new NFT games.
Star Atlas
Star Atlas is setting its sights on the strategy genre where players explore space, fight for territories and use other dynamics to dominate the “grand strategy game”.
Welcome to the final frontier. Welcome to Star Atlas.
The full Teaser Trailer offers you a glimpse into a vast cosmic metaverse of the future. ✨
Players can also mine resources in the digital universe which they can sell in both in- and outside marketplaces.
Game assets are divided into four pillars, with ATLAS and POLIS being the monetary tokens. POLIS is the governance token where players have a say in the fate of the metaverse and the rules governing it, and ATLAS is the payment token for monetary exchange.
Planets are divided into parcels that can be owned and traded. These land parcels allow payers to reap a land tax, which is similar to staking the coin. In-game items like ships and their components can also be bought and sold on the secondary NFT marketplace with Solana-supported currencies.
Aurory
Aurory will be another gaming platform based on the play-to-earn mechanism. The platform wants players from all over the world to discover blockchain use cases in a fun and educational way.
Aurory will use an SPL token as the core of its gaming ecosystem in both solo and multiplayer modes, but also in its marketplace. The 2D animation side scroller has multiple modes that allow players to earn NFTs when defeating creatures in the single-player mode. The NFTs can then be used in multiplayer mode wherein other NFTs can be earned by battling.
Each time players complete a quest, they gain some tokens that will be usable to play multiplayer games or to buy items in the marketplace.
Genopets
Genopets is an innovative game where users can create a Genopet or “digital familiar”, which is an NFT connected with your fitness data. Genopets is the first Move-to-Earn MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) where players that stay active evolve with their pets.
$KI tokens are generated through data collected by fitness devices and are used in battle, to craft valuable items, and to upgrade your Genopet’s style and performance. Players can earn by trading items and move-sets on the NFT marketplace as well as battling one another in play-for-keeps mini-games.
Solana is currently the seventh-largest crypto by market cap and has seen massive growth and utilisation in the past few months, raising US$450 million to challenge Ethereum for the dapp and DeFi market. In a related event, Australia’s Power Ledger has moved from Ethereum to Solana, favouring its higher throughput and speed.
Just when you thought the world of NFT gaming couldn’t get any weirder or more lucrative for the least possible effort, crypto’s latest trend is playing games before they’re even built.
Developers used to take sometimes years to build a game before releasing it, then cashed in by selling in-game items and raking in the profits. But crypto degens have flipped the script by selling the in-game items first and then hoping somebody else will build the game.
Yet even without guarantees of any future utility, these items and artifacts are selling for millions – US$211 million over the past seven days, in fact, according to data from NFT-Stats.
Dom Hofmann, Loot creator. Source: vox.com
On August 27, Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann described the Loot project as “randomised adventurer gear”, stating there were only 8,000 bags of said gear. Of course, all 8,000 were snapped up within four hours after Hofmann provided a link to an Ethereum contract, which members of the crypto community used to create the bags and send them to themselves. It was free to claim the bags but they had to pay transaction fees.
Each bag contains eight items for a supposed adventurer, a few wearables and a weapon. They’re all named as in any mythological game, with descriptors such as “Dragonskin Armour” or “Platinum Ring of Anger”.
Not Real, Not Digital, Just White Text on a Black Background
But these are not real bags, nor are they even digital ones. They are simply white text on a black background, saved as images and minted as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. They look like the reversed panel in the tweet below:
LOOT
– randomized adventurer gear – no images or stats. intentionally omitted for others to interpret – no fee, just gas – 8000 bags total
Back in March, Hofmann created Blitmap, which he described as a “community-created fantasy universe”, a blueprint for what Loot would become. Since Blitmap’s launch, Hofmann considered other ways to promote the creation of blockchain-based art and communities to surround them. One idea was to let people mint NFTs based on his random-item generator for free, just to see what would happen. He would not provide any artwork or any instructions on what to do with them. And he would give these “bags” of items away for free, minus the transaction fees required by the Ethereum network.
The 7,777 bags Hofmann offered up for minting were all snapped up more or less instantly. Over the next five days Loot bags were resold for US$46 million, and had a market cap of US$180 million. On September 1, the cheapest Loot bag could be had for about US$20,000. That price more than doubled overnight to US$46,000.
Game developers can build a game or multiple games around these collectibles, assigning items that match the attributes in the bags. So anyone who owns the bags may be able to access such items within these yet-to-be-created games.
No Secure Future But Plenty of Value
Despite the lack of any secure future, the bags continue to attract value. At time of writing the cheapest price for a Loot bag was 12.4 ETH (US$48,360), while the highest sale yet was for just shy of US$1 million – for a single bag.
With Loot now on the loose, the NFT gaming bonanza shows no signs of slowing. One of the other frontrunners in the space, Axie Infinity, saw its token, axie infinity (AXS), skyrocket over 50 percent in a single week last month.
Solana’s momentum is strong as it gained almost 50 percent in the past week, hitting new all-time highs daily in a steady upward climb.
Source: Coinmarketcap
From US$30 just a month ago, Solana has now reached a top of US$114 and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. According to CoinGecko, Solana’s trading volume is currently at almost US$5 billion, with a market cap now just short of US$33 billion, coming for Dogecoin’s #7 spot, the meme coin with a current market cap of US$37 billion.
Solana solves the ‘Blockchain Trilemma’, which basically states that among the three factors of decentralisation, scalability and security, a blockchain network must sacrifice one to properly implement the other two. Solana has managed to find the answer to the issue of scalability without the need for layer-2 solutions.
Solana is a Proof of History (PoH) blockchain with much faster transaction speeds and lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum, currently the most popular smart contracts platform and blockchain of choice for the DeFi and NFT market. The Solana network boasts approximately 1,000 live transactions per second (with testnet numbers as high as 50,000 TPS).
It could soon become the choice for many dApps that will choose to build on the Solana network instead of Ethereum, which has been widely criticised for its network congestion, high gas fees, and lack of scalability. Recently launched Solana-based DEX, Mango Markets brought bullish news for Solana, as did the Degenerate Ape Academy NFT drop, a project based on Solana’s NFT marketplace, Solanart.
NFT gaming appears set to continue its red-hot run. One of the frontrunners in the space, Axie Infinity, has seen its token, axie infinity (AXS), skyrocket over 50 percent in the last week.
Earlier this year, the price of the AXS tokens, also known as “shards”, reached a new all-time-high (ATH) of US$75.73. With the latest moves, however, and despite being 10 percent down from its ATH, AXS is currently the 34th largest crypto project by market capitalisation at just under US$4.15 billion.
Over the past three months, AXS has enjoyed a truly stellar performance, gaining 934.35 percent against the US dollar and 840.61 percent against bitcoin. Interestingly, these sharp recent moves have coincided with massive increases in Google search volumes, as well as Axie Infinity website traffic, both of which have also increased by 300+ percent over the same period.
Axie Infinity on the Lookout for Scams
With crypto fever in the air, the space is ripe for opportunists and bad actors to take advantage of inexperienced investors. Whether you are talking about the largest heist in DeFi history or the endless news of rug-pulls, it is perhaps not surprising to hear that a host of “Axie Infinity” scams have arisen. This has led the Axie Infinity team to caution investors and provide some much-needed guidance on asset security.
This infographic will teach you how to keep your assets safe!
In addition, to help new users onboard, they have provided extra step-by-step information on how to get properly set up within the Axie Infinity ecosystem. This will hopefully assist users in avoiding issues such as downloading a fake Ronin wallet that drains users’ funds.
We've just released 2 new pages!
The welcome portal will help new trainers get started with Axie ✨
The Product Catalog will ensure you always download our products from the proper sources 🤝
Despite NFT gaming being in its infancy, there are clear signs it is catapulting towards mainstream adoption. To avoid making rookie mistakes, it’s worth doing your homework on how you can participate without getting your fingers burned.
To get started, Crypto News Australia partner Zipmex has provided a useful overview of what Axie Infinity is and how it works.
This has been a year of unprecedented growth in blockchain non-fungible token (NFT) gaming coins. With some blockchain-enabled games seeing growth of almost 700 percent in a single week, digital games are becoming surprisingly profitable.
Playing Games and Earning Crypto
Mobile gaming, traditionally largely centralised, now benefits massively from NFTs, which allow gamers to transfer items that were won or purchased from one game to another game, thus conferring real-world value on digital in-game assets.
The transfer of NFTs outside of the ecosystems they were designed for gives them distinct value. Users have been found to spend 10-100x more on in-game NFT assets. This is because NFTs are unique and will remain with buyers forever.
To truly understand the extent of this phenomenon, let’s look at a few games that are realising mind-boggling growth.
StarLink
The price of StarLink ($STARL) token jumped a massive 40 percent over just 24 hours after a week of immense growth, with its trading volume rising 80 percent to just under US$29 million. The crypto gaming currency claims to be the “first 100 percent community-owned decentralised virtual space project” in which users can buy, sell and trade virtual satellites and spacecraft, and enact landings as they explore the solar system.
StarLink is following the ‘metaverse’ trend by creating a virtual world that can host data, ideas and NFTs. The company aims to evolve into a platform that offers visual and audio adaptations to drive NFT technology further, bringing it into real-world space and virtual reality concepts.
Splinterlands
NFT game Splinterlands is a new wave online collectible card game with the aim of replacing traditional trading cards. It has raised over US$3 million through a private token sale, which led to a price rally of over 100 percent for the newly issued token.
Online cards are minted as NFTs, meaning that players can own digital cards in the same way they would physical cards. The company has introduced a play-to-earn system where players can earn crypto rewards based on their in-game performance.
Splinterlands supports cross-compatibility blockchains to ETH, Tron and Wax, so that players can earn and trade coins.
FaraLand
FaraLand has been voted one of Binance Smart Chain’s top winning NFT projects.
Faraland is honored to be selected in Binance Smart Chain’s Top 10 Most Valuable Builders program!!
We appreciate the enthusiastic support from our investors and users!😍😍😍
The NFT metaverse game has gone up almost 700 percent in a week. This turn-based RPG game native to Binance Smart Chain makes use of NFTs to allow players involvement and ownership of their in-game assets.
Players own their warriors, pets, armour and items in the form of NFTs that are used to engage in “thrilling battle”. The in-game token, FARA, can be used to upgrade characters, reinvest in the game, and can even be cashed out for real-world prizes.
Flow
The price of Flow, a token from Dapper Labs, the company that brought you CryptoKitties, has risen from US$18.26 to US$27.56 following an announcement from Binance that it intends to list the project. The Flow blockchain is highly scalable and allows easy integration for third-party developers.
Fear
NFT-based horror game Fear has seen a growth in price of 429 percent in a single week in anticipation of the launch. Fear joins other video games in utilising crypto underpinnings and NFT mechanics to add another layer of player involvement and ownership.
Fear, the first horror game in a series native to the ETH blockchain, launched on July 20, and holders of the FEAR coin will have access to NFT trades and sales. Like other games, NFTs represent in-game items and allow users to become more involved than ever in the workings of the game.
Players will be able to earn FEAR coins by simply playing the game, and will be allowed to farm in-game items. This gamifies staking and yield farming and serves to strengthen the ties between crypto and gaming.
A number of fake Ronin wallets have been spotted circulating on the Google and Apple app stores. The fake wallets trick users into giving up account information, then drain the funds or collectibles held within.
The uptick in Ronin wallet scams parallels the increase of fake wallets across mobile platforms. According to the legitimate Axie Infinity (ASX) page, the company has only released extensions for browsers and has “no Ronin Mobile Wallet at the moment”.
There is no Ronin Mobile Wallet at the moment.
Scammers are uploading fake Ronin wallets in many locations.
According to Axie Infinity, the wallet is “your boarding pass to a new digital nation” by allowing an extension that lets users play Axie Infinity (ASX) and other decentralised applications running on Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain built specifically for blockchain games.
Various reddit users and members of the Axie community have cautioned against the fake wallets and fake Ronin/Metamask support circulating on the web and among dedicated Telegram and Discord groups.
Saw this being shared around. Be careful of fake ronin and metamask wallets! Especially important for scholars! And please don’t click on any links in Facebook offering free SLP! pic.twitter.com/ZylvsXUOFV
— Elon ASS (Axie School of Scholars) (@AxieElon) July 25, 2021
Some users have taken to Twitter, asking developers to implement more safety and compliance measures to keep users’ Axies safe.
Hi Team! Today I was hacked and I discovered in discord that several people were also, due to a lack of security in Ronin's account. the hacker has already sold over 41k AXS plus received >250 axies as a gift on his account! what happened? I have all prints is you want it! Cheers pic.twitter.com/d54NoaJ8VJ
Scams have been a problem in the crypto space and come in various forms. Even the well-known hardware wallet company Ledger has suffered from scams where people selling fake Ledgers could get access to the funds.
Axie a Leader in NFT Gaming
Valued at just under US$5 in June of this year, the AXS token is currently trading in the US$35 to US$45 range, putting the project’s native NFT platform above OpenSea and Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot, which have been dominating the market for most of 2021.
With over 250,000 active daily players, much of the success of Axie Infinity is attributed to its community of players who collect, battle and trade digital creatures. Its revenue is earned by charging a fee when players buy and sell Axie NFTs in its marketplace, and by collecting fees for creating and breeding axies.
Its great to see so many new games are integrating blockchain technology to power features such as in-game cryptocurrency, native tokens, digital collectables, asset trading, enhanced randomness and more.
Lets take a look at some of the most exciting blockchain enabled games to hit the gaming industry this year.
CSC | Space MMO
CSC is one of the most visually stunning blockhain supported games available at the moment, as you take an adventure on a space ship through the cosmos. It is essentially a deep space MMO fast-paced combat game, where you will find a robust player economy and an un-paralleled crafting experience. Players can travel through the cosmo space, jumping into the star systems, and discover mines, treasures, steller bodies, and more random things. In the game you may also encounter random pirate ships and battle against other players online for resources and control. The in-game trading system called “GFC” token is backed by Ethereum ERC-721 and supports buying/selling of all items including ships, ship skins, module upgrades, supplies, weapons, and armour. The game is free to download and play on Steam.
AxieInfinity
AxieInfinity lets you enjoy multiplayer battle gaming a beautiful pixie type environment, where each Axie is a delicate looking mythical creature that has so many hidden traits. This game has over 250,000 players and wholeheartedly promotes and runs using the Ethereum cryptocurrency. Axies are digital pets that have 6 different body parts – each part can be selected from hundreds of different types, having their own unique powers so every Axie posses 6 powers combined. There are categories of Axie based on power level, rarity, and traits and you can raise them on farmland in-game that involves pet raising, breeding, and battling, allowing you to play this all day without getting bored. As it is a blockchain-enabled game, you own your data, nobody has any access to your game data, not even the company itself.
SandBox
SandBox is one of the most awesome open-world experiences that you will ever play. It is a community-driven “Minecraft like” game platform where gamers can monetise voxel assets and experience gaming on the blockchain. What makes this game so great is the freedom to design your character in any way you like, and you can earn money from almost anything in-game. Characters, clothing and other assets can be bought and sold using the SAND cryptocurrency on the Sandbox marketplace, or you can transfer it to others and still earn points, and if you get enough accumulated points, you can withdraw it for real cash.
Dissolution
Dissolution is a free-to-play FPS game that will take you into a world full of rogue AI, 400 years into the future. The solar system is invaded by numerous rouge group of powers are in chaos, and players from all around the world are thrown into this chaotic deep space environment. Each player is placed into desolate places surrounded by hostile environments to compete for resources and territory. It has both PVP and PVE features with real-world simulations allowing you to team up with your friends and rage into this epic game. Most importantly, this game is blockchain-enabled so whatever you achieve through your journey with Dissolution, you earned it yourself and get to own it yourself. They have recently announced the game will be going live on Google Play as a mobile game too.
9 Lives Arena
9 Lives Arena is a highly competitive and fast paced online RPG game that solely focused on FPS “hack’n’slash” gaming. This skill-based PVP game is packed with tonnes of adrenaline rush as you survive and defeat other players with special weapons and spells. In the shop you can buy anything from a samurai sword to a wingsuit to power up your character ready for battle. All items are uniquely customised and tradable on the Ethereum blockchain.
Blankos
Blankos aka Blankos Block Party is a mischievous MMO RPG online game, multiplayer epic battle royal game modes. With this game you can go on solo quests and unlock new rewards to trick out your Blankos, or grab a squad and compete in epic block parties. Features let you race, jump, play, and shoot with your friends. The producers made a stunning vibrant gaming world that resembles a giant block party with custom art designs, world-building & exploration, and collector avatars. You can play Blankos online using cryptos and it’s now available on Windows 10.
Evolution Land
Evolution Land is a virtual simulation blockchain game that supports cross-chain interactions. The game will have up to 26 continents, each of which is deployed on a different public chain. Two continents have been built so far and have been deployed on Ethereum (Atlantis Continent) and Tron (Byzantine). On your land, your apostles can be deployed to manage mines, farms, and can even be doctors or musicians. What makes this game interesting is that it has an open SDK so developers can build their own Dapp’s which can be deployed on Evolution land.
WarRiders
WarRiders is the first blockchain enabled MMO RPG game where people can earn cryptos by destroying opponent’s cars. It is a full-fledge 3D game with tonnes of dangerous rides and weapons, where each player gets to choose his ride. Rides can be bought with Benzene, the only cryptocurrency available on the chaos and bloodstains and integrated with the MetaMask browser extension. The currency converts approximately 1 BZN = AUS$0.8 USD allowing you to equip yourself with the most powerful weapons and destroy through enemy lines. You can also earn money through hardcore playing with WarRiders’s in-game currency.
Age Of Rust
Age Of Rust is a blockchain enabled far future world apocalyptic game that will take you into an android robotic age in 4424. The game plot opens a sci-fi premise on a stasis gone wrong on a colony ship, as you wake up in an unfamiliar world surrounded by rogue machines and monstrous weaponry. Half post-apocalyptic and half cyberpunk, Age Of Rust takes adrenaline on your nerves on every scene. It is a single-player 1st person shooting game with stunning graphics and physics. You can use Ethereum as the game currency as it supports crypto wallet and ETH tokens to fight and and earn coins. Age of Rust Season 1 game is now available on Steam.
Crypto Kitties
Crypto Kitties game is fun, full of surprises, and lots of collectible things around as a fully blockchain enabled MMO game with RPG fighting stimulations. CryptoKitties was one of the first blockchain-based games, where you can bring any two cats together (male & female) and breed a new cat. The new cat is one-of-a-kind, and 100% yours, stored on the Ethereum Blockchain, and can you can buy & sell your cats with the community.
Gods Unchained
God Unchained game is a free-to-play trading card based game which uses blockchain to store your cards and collections. This game was invented by ex-Google and Riot engineers, founded by the largest gaming investor in the world. If you are a lover of magical cards, surely you can’t resist Gods Unchained as it has thousands of characters as cards, each presents a unique power within a certain power division. The game has made a world record in 2019 where millions of players have spent $85 billion dollars in this super high-level graphic 3D trading card game.
Hash Rush
Hash Rush is an online sci-fi/fantasy RTS game plotted on the fictional Hermeian Galaxy, where you can play, build, fight, and trade your commodities for ‘Galaxy Points’. Then, you can trade those points for skins and Ethereum or Bitcoin. As you proceed further into the game, you will unlock the mining colony, monster battles, and crystal trading. The most difficult task on Hash Rush is Crypto crystal mining, as successful miners will receive tokenised blockchain rewards as well as in-game items, bonuses, and prizes.
UpLand
UpLand is a google map powered parallel world where users play, operate businesses, and connect with more Uplanders. This virtual game is kind of based on the concept of the classical Monopoly game where users can buy, sell, trade, and navigate virtual properties that are pointed using the real-world reference. As it’s a blockchain enabled game, the owner of the virtual assets are real people and the digital assets are stored on the Blockchain as NFTs. The UPX cryptocurrency fuels an open market economy in the game as users buy and sell NFT properties. This game is available on both Google and Apple platforms.
Neon District
Neon District is the cyberpunk role-playing adventure and flagship game developed by Blockade. Leveraging the latest in decentralized technologies, players battle to progress through a sci-fi dystopia and earn in-game NFT (non-fungible token) items. You can buy and sell items such as characters, gear, craft, level up teams, swords, hats and more than 1 billion NFT items are available for purchase on OpenSea NFT marketplace.
The Six Dragons
The Six Dragons is a fantasy open-world RPG game filled with rich graphics and resources inside a stunning 64 square kilometre digital world. The game takes you into a decentralized environment where swords and magic are your main weapons to survive. You can build safe houses with over 300 different crafting options, make vaults, collect weapons, and roam around the villages to hunt monsters. The Six Dragons game allows you to trade items between players or sell them in an online “Blockchain Blacksmith” cash store. The game has also recently introduced cryptocurrency Chainlink Oracles for on-chain verified randomness for in-game interactions.
Crypto Wars
Crypto Wars game is a Japanese based blockchain enabled game with a decentralized civilization theme. It is free to play world MMO game with thousands of unique skins and armory, where you can build houses, workstations, cattle-farms, and more on your village as well as customizing everything. You can go for war with others and take command of their territories to earn ETH crypto as everything you obtain will be stored in your blockchain wallet, completely sealed from others. Who thought you could earn money playing a strategy game?
Blockchain Cuties
Blockchain Cuties is a new multi-blockchain enabled online game based on crypto collectibles and adventures. You can play this game with puppies, lizards, bear cubs, cats, and other real & fantasy world creatures called “Cuties”. You can collect them, breed them, test their battle skills, train their attire, equip them with a ton of arms, and more. Each Cutie is 100% unique and is owned by you only as stored on the Ethereum blockchain as an NFT.
EGamers.io
EGamers.io is a crypto gaming community for seasoned gamers, where thousands of gamers collaborate together from every part of the world. It gives latest news feeds about gaming market updates and existing blockchain games as well as dApps. You can visit their website to find lots of cool stuff which support blockchain technology.
Epix Industries
Epix Industries (formerly PixEOS) is a new NFT community for brands, artists and their fans. Everything on here is fully digital, which means each piece of art doesn’t exist in the real world, but exists on the Blockchain as a token. Epix is creating NFT collections for digital fashion, cyber myths, hip hop music icons and other interesting topics.
My Crypto Heroes
My Crypto Heroes is an RPG battle enabled game that is built on the Ethereum blockchain. The game is inspired by mythical world heroes where you can run quests, search for rare items, and battle against other players for dazzling rewards and fame. My Crypto Heros was the world’s number one blockchain enabled game based on daily activities in 2019 as voted by DappRadar.
Brave Frontier Heros
Brave Frontier Heroes is the partner game to My Crypto Heroes as it combines the proven gameplay of Brave Frontier with the proven game economy of My Crypto Heroes. By playing the game, you will own Brave Frontier characters (Units) and weapons (Spheres) as digital assets, secured by blockchain technology. This allows you to freely buy and sell those assets to others, or even use them between other worlds.
Splinter Lands
Splinter Lands is a fantasy world next generation online collectable card game, aiming to replace traditional physical cards. The idea of this game is to collect cards, trade and earn rewards through tournaments, ranked play, and quests – with over $275,000 dollars in prizes so far. Splinter Lands supports cross-conpatiability blokchains to Ethereum, Tron and WAX so you can earn HIVE tokens and trade them.
Sky Weaver
Sky Weaver is a new Ether-powered trading card game set to be launched in late 2021, with a BETA game already live in action to try. One fan described the game as “SkyWeaver is a brand new gaming experience that resurrects all the fun of childhood collectible card games – in a browser – and with the ability to trade cards just like in the old days”. The game is available on Windows, Apple macOS, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android.
Crypto Emoji
Crypto Emoji is a unique game built on the concept of “Emojinomics” which give you the freedom to design and create emojis and compete with other players. Unfortunatelty, it looks like this game is now discontinued.
CropBytes
CropBytes is a decentralized farm simulator game with an open world feature, allowing you to can earn crypto real-time from your in-game NFTs. The game launched in 2018 and now has over 80,000 players world wide. This game lets you enjoy your free time by building farmlands, growing crops, and raising cattle. You’ll need to feed your animals once by purchasing fruit coins (FRF) from the market and water them daily, similar to a Tamagotchi (if anybody is old enough to remember those – if you forget to feed them they die!). It is important to note that the in-game assets (Game Coins) are currently not stored on a blockchain, but they so offer up to 500 TRX tokens for referring a friend to join.
Kieran Warwick, the Aussie co-founder of an NFT-based game, has shared news of the massive profit he made flipping a piece of virtual real estate. Warwick bought a $300 plot of ‘land’ in the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity and sold it for $28,000.
I just sold a plot of land for 28K that I bought for $300.
You think this isn't going to be a revolution?
What happens when your kid asks for your CC to play a game and comes back with bundles of cash?
Increasing the value of unique digital assets, represented by Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), is the cornerstone of play-to-earn games built on the blockchain.
Warwick is a self-described ‘Yield Farmer’ and, with his brother Aaron, the co-founder of Illuvium, a decentralised strategy game and NFT collection built on the Ethereum network. He also worked closely with his other brother, Kain Warwick, to establish DeFi platform Synthetix.
Illuvium is a creature-based game similar to Pokemon where gamers capture creatures called Illuvials that are represented by NFTs, and also taps into DeFi users looking for yield farming opportunities.
Virtual plots of land in the Illuvium world could soon be a reality too, according to Kieran Warwick’s reply to a comment on his tweet:
The most expensive NFT real estate sale to date also involved Axie Infinity plots – nine rare plots were sold for 888 Ethereum, or around US$1.5 million, in February:
Technology is keeping pace to enable people to secure their digital assets too. In June, cryptocurrency hardware company Ledger announced it would use new funding to provide secure gateways to a growing ecosystem of NFTs, real estate, and other forms of value on the blockchain.
Initially thought to be for the mining of cryptocurrency, it turns out the gaming consoles were being used to mine valuable FIFA Ultimate Team football cards.
❌ Ukraine’s largest crypto farm has been shut down by @ServiceSsu
Almost 4,000 PlayStations inside and guess what they were farming…
The mining farm was using stolen electricity worth five to seven million Ukrainian hryvnias (US$183,610 – $257,055) in a month. Money aside, the withdrawal of electricity may have much greater consequences as entire communities in the city of Vinnytsia were left without power.
PlayStation 4s used to farm FUT cards. Source: Ukrainian Security Service
FIFA Ultimate Team Mining Bots
FIFA Ultimate Team is a game mode in FIFA that allows users to build teams with players of their choosing based on the cards they own. They then compete with each other online to win coins allowing them to buy even better individual players and player packs.
The PS4s were being controlled by computers that ran bots to grind earn in-game currency. Afterward, accounts would be sold on the black market for profit. EA Sports has issued warnings that buying or selling in-game currency on the black market may result in a ban. It’s reported that the purchase of loot boxes makes up 30 percent of EA Sport’s total revenue.
Buying FIFA player cards can be done through the FUT Web App or the console, and some cards – such as that featuring Portugal captain and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo – can fetch over US$1,000 as listed for sale on U7BUY card marketplace.
FIFA Ultimate Team Cards
We are starting to see more online games supporting in-game currencies, such as Counter-Strike’s CSGO allowing players to wager bitcoin when playing against others.
EA Sports reportedly has over US$1 billion in revenue across FIFA and related games, so the money involved in this industry is mind-boggling.
In June, Crypto News Australia reported how players can now wager on Counter-Strike games using a Bitcoin gaming wallet. Via Infuse technology, it allows players to scan a QR code, join a lobby and play Bitcoin-infused games.
Atari has announced that it wants to bring its ambitious Atari Hotels to Australia and New Zealand, as well as perform a strategy shift towards making premium games again.
Atari, the first big name in the video game industry, was vanquished by Nintendo and Sega in the console wars of the 1980s. Atari became less relevant in the console market but kept making games. It also pursued other business ventures in later decades, including casinos, TV shows and blockchain technology.
Artist’s impression of a future Atari Hotel
In 2020, Atari announced it would also be entering the premium accommodation business, with plans to build a number of Atari Hotels across the US, the first of which was slated for Phoenix, Arizona.
Atari hopes its hotels will become an entertainment and gaming mecca, where people will come from all over the world to immerse themselves in an “all-in-one luxurious and entertaining experience”.
Atari hotels will […] immerse visitors into the video game universe and the Atari brand. The hotels will feature Atari gaming playgrounds, several function rooms, co-working areas, fine restaurants and bars, a bakery, a movie theatre [and] gym.
Atari Press Release
In March this year, Atari announced it was planning on bringing its ambitious hotels to other parts of the world, including Australia and New Zealand.
The Atari Hotels will also accept its own Atari Token (ATRI) for use on the premises. The exact details of what the token will be used for are unclear, but Atari said it would include “loyalty programs and exclusive VIP experiences”. It makes sense that they might also function as digital arcade tokens that allow you to play your favourite games in the Atari “gaming playgrounds”.
Atari won’t be the first hotel group in the US to accept cryptocurrencies on the premises. Kessler Collection Hotels recently announced it too would be accepting payment in crypto.
Atari Wants To Make “Premium Games” Again
In an exciting turn for retro and modern gamers alike, Atari also announced earlier this year, its intention to abandon its free-to-play and mobile game strategy to focus once again on creating premium games for PC and its own Atari VCS console (released to Indigogo backers last year and to the public in June).
Atari said that “the first titles are currently in development and the first releases are planned for the financial year 2021/22”. Historically, Artari’s most popular video games have been Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Asteroids.
