Arbitrum, the largest layer-2 network on top of Ethereum, has awarded its biggest-ever developer grant to Lotte Group, the multibillion-dollar South Korean conglomerate known for its vast portfolio of shopping malls, media companies and entertainment properties. According to Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, the grant cements Arbitrum as the main blockchain infrastructure provider for Caliverse, Lotte’s metaverse gaming platform.

Offchain Labs shared the news at CES 2025, the technology tradeshow happening this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. A representative for the company declined to disclose the exact size of the grant “at this stage.” It was technically awarded by the non-profit Arbitrum Foundation, which periodically doles out grants in $ARB tokens to help spur development in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

“Lotte is Arbitrum Foundation’s largest grant recipient to date. And we’re proud to be working with partners so closely aligned with our vision,” said John Park, Head of Korea at The Arbitrum Foundation.

Lotte’s Arbitrum integration could signal renewed interest from traditional companies in building blockchain-based virtual worlds—the “metaverse” concept that earned mainstream buzz a few years ago but has since become less top-of-mind for many technologists and investors. Lotte first showed interest in releasing metaverse-related products in 2022 and announced that it was entering a “strategic partnership” with Arbitrum last year.

Caliverse is mainly a venue where the South Korean megacompany experiments with emerging tech trends like artificial intelligence, virtual reality and crypto. Caliverse users can explore virtual worlds featuring differing kinds of media content and futuristic shopping experiences. The app currently features content from a grab-bag of big brands, ranging from 7-Eleven to the Tomorrowland music festival. Much of the content on Caliverse comes from fashion and beauty companies like Givenchy, MCM, and L’Occitane.

Users can currently shop for those brands or experience concerts and other kinds of media within the Caliverse app. The new integration with Arbitrum means that blockchain users will be able to pay for certain services using crypto, and systems like in-game transactions could start running on-chain.

The Arbitrum blockchain has become a popular choice among gaming platforms, with the network experiencing a 72% year-over-year growth in 2024 for gaming, according to Offchain Labs. According to a press release the company shared with CoinDesk, Arbitrum currently hosts 119 game titles and 23 gaming-focused blockchains through its Arbitrum Orbit stack, a customizable toolkit that lets developers create their own blockchains based on Arbitrum’s technology.

“Arbitrum’s blockchain is the ideal home ground for Lotte Caliverse, delivering industry-leading 250ms block times that ensure high-quality performance within virtual worlds and gaming experiences,” said Steven Goldfeder, the co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs. “With Arbitrum now powering Lotte Caliverse, in-game transactions will be seamlessly integrated on-chain and will eliminate transaction latency, providing users with a smooth, consumer-friendly experience that sets a new standard for Arbitrum-based interactions in virtual worlds.”

Read more: Trading Platform Robinhood, Layer-2 Arbitrum Team Up To Offer Swaps To Users

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week-plus—this is an extended edition due to the holidays—along with a few other tidbits you might have missed.

Biggest news

Hamster Kombat TON layer-2: After the fourth-largest gaming token launch of 2024, the makers of Telegram tap-to-earn game Hamster Kombat revealed plans to create a layer-2 network on top of The Open Network (TON).

This came after a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) vote overwhelmingly voted in favor of the move, with 1.1 billion HMSTR token voting power in favor and just 104,368 against. However, it’s worth noting that the top two voters hold over 88% of all voting power as of this writing, giving a couple of whales immense influence.

Prior to this, the devs announced that Hamster Kombat’s hotly anticipated (and much-delayed) second season will be “more than just a game,” with three games now in the works to become the core of an entertainment ecosystem using the IP. Called HamsterVerse, a closed beta is already underway for 30,000 community members.

Off the Grid stands tall: As the end of the year dawned, Avalanche-based shooter Off the Grid raked in some media accolades. Not only did it win GG’s Game of the Year, but the battle royale shooter also won Gam3s’ Game of the Year award and made it to a Rolling Stone year-end gaming list.

Gunzilla Games shared its 2025 plans with Decrypt alongside the GOTY honors. Most notably, this includes an estimated Q1 2025 date for its GUNZ network to enter mainnet, which would enable its GUN token to be freely traded. Before then, the studio wants to launch ranked and solo queue modes, and open up the remaining 80% of the map while kicking off the game’s storyline.

After that, Gunzilla will be looking to onboard third-party developers to the GUNZ network, and is even eying a possible Telegram mini app for the ecosystem. It should be a big year for one of crypto gaming’s biggest success stories to date.

Illuvium’s next steps: Crypto gaming franchise Illuvium announced how it will be moving forward in the new year. The project previously launched three titles that fed into each other, both through shared resources and a narrative loop—but focusing on all three titles has been too challenging. Going forward, the team will prioritize efforts on one game at a time, starting with the auto-battler Illuvium Arena.

The lengthy blog post also touches on plans to reduce microtransactions, add more content, and raise more funding. Perhaps most significantly, the post ponders the possibility of temporarily shutting down the flagship title Illuvium Overworld until it is a “fully realized experience.” But coming into 2025, improving the Overworld MMO experience is said to be the Illuvium team’s “top priority.”

ICYMI

• Telegram game Catizen distributed rewards to airdrop pass holders on Friday, which saw holders receive three different tokens.
• Iconic gaming brand Atari revealed a new handheld console, the “My Arcade.”
• Zoo, a surging Telegram game with over 12 million players, confirmed that its mining phase will end on January 31 and that one in-game ZOO token will be equal to one future on-chain token.
  
• Sonic SVM confirmed that players of its TikTok tap-to-earn game will receive a SONIC airdrop on the Solana blockchain.

• Crypto trading card game Parallel crossed 6 million games played in the history of its existence, with developers claiming that it currently averages 200,000 games a week.
• Telegram game Cat Gold Miner announced that its token will be listed on Bitget, Gate, MEXC, and other exchanges on Thursday, January 9.
• Someone turned the iconic first-person shooter Doom into a CAPTCHA human verification challenge.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past couple weeks that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward