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This Week in Crypto Games: Ethereum Network Ronin Opens Up, and GameStop Goes Bitcoin?

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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, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

GameStop Bitcoin plans: Iconic video game store turned meme stock GameStop saw its GME stock rise from $26 to a peak of nearly $31 on Thursday, following a CNBC report claiming the retailer is considering investing in Bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies. GameStop did not reply to Decrypt‘s request for comment.

The retailer previously took a strong step into the Web3 world with the launch of an NFT marketplace and associated crypto wallet—aligning with gaming network Immutable and other industry partners in the process. But the company ultimately shut the NFT marketplace down in early 2024. If the CNBC report is accurate, we may be seeing GameStop reconsider its crypto ventures now that the regulatory future looks brighter in the United States, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

AI agent gaming companion: Ever feel lonely while playing a video game? There’s an AI agent for that. Balance.fun has launched as an extension of the E-Pal platform, becoming the home for AI agent gaming companions that will coach and support you via a chatbox while you play your favorite video games. This comes ahead of an Ethereum token launch for the project, which is currently scheduled for late Q1 2025.

When creating an AI agent on Balance.fun, the user can customize their personality by assigning it hobbies, jobs, and other traits, as well as select the character’s appearance. The agents use reinforcement learning, which means they learn based on the reward or punishment that comes after an action. So if your companion is watching you play League of Legends, then they may notice patterns in your gameplay that regularly lead to negative results, and can notify you about weaknesses in your game.

By comparison, E-Pal offers human companions that can queue up with you, critique your gameplay, or just chat. AI agents lack the emotional aspect of a human, but can be helpful when someone is looking for gameplay advice driven by raw data.

Ronin opens up: After four years of restricting who could build on the gaming network, Ethereum gaming network Ronin has officially gone permissionless—allowing anyone to build on the blockchain. With this move, Ronin creator Sky Mavis has released the Ronin Developer Console as a toolkit to help those building on the network. It lets developers offer sponsored transactions (so users dodge gas fees),  provides smart contract templates, and more

“Today marks the dawn of Ronin’s golden age,” Sky Mavis CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen said, in a statement. “With Open Ronin, we’re accelerating our growth—unlocking more games, DeFi applications, and dApps than ever before. I believe this moment will be studied for years to come.”

As part of the Open Ronin announcement, Pirate Nation developer Proof of Play said that the game is expanding from Arbitrum to Ronin, with a Ronin NFT mint planned ahead.

ICYMI

  • Mobile game developer Gumi Inc. is gearing up to acquire $6.58 million in Bitcoin (BTC) as part of its strategy to expand its blockchain operations.
  • A new experience is coming to Yuga Labs metaverse Otherside, called Bathroom Blitz.
  • NRN Agents started its reinforcement learning agent experiment, which it believes will bring “new levels of immersion” to gaming soon
  • Pirate Nation announced that its PIRATE token can now be earned by completing in-game quests.
  • Popular metaverse Roblox is part of an “active investigation” by the SEC, due to alleged lax safety measures for children.
  • The official design of crypto handheld console the SuiPlay0X1 was revealed—and it looks sleek.
  • B3, an ecosystem token for the Ethereum layer-3 gaming network of the same name, climbed to a new all-time high on Tuesday
  • Telegram game Zoo Family released its tokenomics, ahead of its ZOO token launch and airdrop.
  • Off the Grid surpassed 13 million unique players, according to Routescan data of the GUNZ testnet, with over 450,000 daily active addresses.
  • Crypto trading card game What Is This Sorcery blew past its Kickstarter goal, drawing in double as much required, to create physical cards for the game.

GG spotlight

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

Edited by Andrew Hayward

GG Newsletter

Get the latest web3 gaming news, hear directly from gaming studios and influencers covering the space, and receive power-ups from our partners.





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This Week in Crypto Games: Ubisoft’s ‘Might & Magic’, ‘Peaky Blinders’ in Development

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The crypto gaming space is ever expanding, and with prominent games releasing, token airdrops piling up, and the constant shifting of the markets around them all, it’s a lot to take in.

Luckily, we’re all over it here at Decrypt‘s GG. And if you’re looking to keep tabs on the latest happenings around crypto video games, this weekly roundup gives you a quick overview of the biggest stories we covered over the past week, along with a smattering of other interesting tidbits from around the space.

Top stories

Ubisoft’s new crypto game: Ubisoft—the gaming giant behind Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry—is working with blockchain gaming company Immutable to develop Might & Magic: Fates, a free-to-play strategy card game for iOS and Android based on the iconic Might & Magic franchise. Players will collect and trade hundreds of cards featuring creatures and heroes from the series, using faction-specific mechanics to develop personalized strategies. It’s due out later this year.

Immutable operates the Ethereum-based gaming networks Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM, which will be merged together later this year. Ubisoft has been particularly active in the blockchain space, launching two games in late 2024 and making various investments alongside other collaborations. The Immutable alliance was initially announced in November 2023.

Peaky Blinders game: Anonymous Labs and Banijay Rights are developing a blockchain-based video game inspired by the hit TV series “Peaky Blinders,” scheduled for release in 2026. The game will feature post-World War I Birmingham settings, interactive experiences, and tokenized in-game currency.

The crime drama aired on BBC from 2013-2022, starring Cillian Murphy among others, and is available on Netflix. Anonymous Labs previously launched the “Simon’s Cat” meme coin on BNB Chain, based on the web cartoon of the same name. No details about the game’s blockchain network or economic design have been released yet.

CryptoKitties “Meowcoins”: Dapper Labs launched several “Meowcoins” on the Flow blockchain tied to its CryptoKitties: All The Zen game on Telegram. Seeking to avoid the trend of Telegram gaming tokens crashing in value after launch, Dapper’s approach creates an interconnected token ecosystem designed for sustainability.

The system includes three token types: Fancy Coins, Beancoins, and Family Coins. Players earn these through gameplay, with Family Coins representing achievement badges created by burning the other tokens. The ecosystem incorporates crypto-native concepts like prediction markets (the “Rumor Mill”) and future staking opportunities.

Players from previous seasons received airdrops last week. VP Arthur Camara told Decrypt that Dapper’s focus was on creating “a fun experience that is sustainable.”

ICYMI

  • KAI: Battle of the Three Kingdoms, an Oasys blockchain game based on licensed Sega IP, is launching on April 30.
  • The creators of the upcoming Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game offered $10K to anyone who could beat the game during an NYC pop-up. Everyone failed.
  • GoMining’s Bitcoin mining game, Miner Wars, added new features for beginners and competitive players alike.
  • Fantasy.Top, the X influencer-based crypto game, launched a new “clout” system.
  • Axie Infinity maker Sky Mavis has invested into Fishing Frenzy studio Uncharted as the mobile fishing game gains steam on Ronin.
  • A Bored Ape-themed mask in Off the Grid sold for nearly $15K worth of GUN tokens on testnet—a sign that there may be sizable demand for rare items as the game’s mainnet integration nears.
  • The creators of the B3 gaming network on Base are handing out Game Boy-like handhelds at the upcoming Token2049 expo in Dubai.
  • Nyan Heroes logged 11 million hours in the Solana-based game during its latest playtest, the devs said.
  • Role-playing game Calamity is migrating across Ethereum scaling networks, from Base to Ronin.
  • Neowiz’s Intella X gaming ecosystem is shutting down.
  • Clash Royale-like mobile game Ragnarok: Monster World has expanded from Ronin to the new Cross Protocol.
  • Playtron said that all 10,000 initial SuiPlay0X1 gaming handhelds have sold out, with shipping set for early summer.

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Bitcoin Mining Game ‘Miner Wars’ Expands With New Features

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In brief

  • GoMining added welcome packs and clan leagues to its Miner Wars Bitcoin mining game.
  • Players can buy digital miner NFTs on four different blockchains to start playing.
  • Miner Wars offers approximately 1 BTC in real crypto rewards daily to players.

GoMining’s Bitcoin mining game Miner Wars bolstered its feature suite on Tuesday with the addition of newcomer-friendly “welcome packs” and a “clan leagues” feature for competitive players, boosting the GameFi experience that’s tied into real-world Bitcoin mining.

Garnering more than 165,000 active players, GoMining says it has paid out more than 144 BTC—or over $13 million in rewards at today’s price—since Miner Wars’ September launch. 

“Positioned at the intersection of digital mining and GameFi, Miner Wars has found a welcoming niche with a loyal and stable audience,” said GoMining CEO Mark Zalan in a statement. He said that the fresh features will bring about a “new level of traction and user engagement.”

The game gives individuals access to GoMining’s real Bitcoin mining infrastructure via cross-chain “miner” NFTs, which correspond to a real share of computational resources from the firm’s mining centers. Digital miners have been issued on Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and The Open Network (TON) and can be traded on the GoMining marketplace or third-party platforms like Magic Eden. 

Those who purchase miner NFTs essentially join a mining pool, and earn proportional rewards when the pool mines a Bitcoin block. Users can then upgrade their NFTs, potentially improving their chances at winning Bitcoin rewards in the process. 

The digital miner NFTs are also used to join Miner Wars, which adds productivity boosts and multipliers while offering higher rewards than the usual compensation from mining. The game hosts around 120-150 rounds per day, offering around 1 Bitcoin in prizes alongside rewards of GOMINING, the company’s Ethereum-based token.

When joining the game, users commit the computational power of their miner NFTs—which is denominated in terahashes—to compete against other players, joining clans, or groups of other players in the process.

As of today’s updates, those clans are now being grouped into leagues to increase competitiveness with weekly promotions and demotions based on performance. Clans may be placed in lower-level leagues like the Dune League, which is designed for newer players, or pushed up to the Odyssey League—which offers bigger prizes, but is intended for more experienced and “elite” Miner Wars players. 

The firm is also adding welcome packs that come with free boosts to help users “become familiar with the UI and mechanics of Miner Wars,” GoMining Content Marketing Manager Laila Effiong told Decrypt.

While mining, or the process of securing and verifying blocks on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain, is a technically complex and energy-intensive process, GoMining aims to simplify it and educate more crypto users. The firm claims more than 3.5 million users worldwide, with its data centers boasting 7.5 million terahashes of computational power.

“Mining is complex, and we can’t understate that,” said Effiong, noting the difficulty of maintaining the efficiency of GoMining’s global mining operations. “But for the GoMining end users, they don’t need to feel any of that burden.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

GG Newsletter

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This Week in Crypto Games: Solana Game Pass, ‘Ponzi’ Games Pop, SEC and CyberKongz

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The crypto gaming space is ever expanding, and with prominent games releasing, token airdrops piling up, and the constant shifting of the markets around them all, it’s a lot to take in.

Luckily, we’re all over it here at Decrypt‘s GG. And if you’re looking to keep tabs on the latest happenings around crypto video games, this weekly roundup gives you a quick overview of the biggest stories we covered over the past week, along with a smattering of other interesting tidbits from around the space.

Top stories

Solana Game Pass: A free Solana Game Pass NFT mint launched on Magic Eden last week, designed to help boost the Solana gaming ecosystem via rewards, collaborations, and early access to upcoming games. The program’s initial “Season 0” spans four weeks with 30 partnered games, including Star Atlas, Nyan Heroes, Stepn, and BR1: Infinite.

Pass holders can complete quests on GAM3S.GG to win raffle tickets toward a $10,000+ prize pool of SOL, NFTs, and other assets. Over 33,000 passes have been minted as of this writing, with the mint remaining open throughout the four-week campaign. Future seasons promise enhanced features including in-game quests and an improved progression system.

“Ponzi” games pop: Crypto game Bigcoin recently surged in popularity before its token crashed 83%, creating a surprising reaction: players embraced its purported “Ponzinomics” and actively sought similar experiences. Bigcoin’s simple mining simulation lets players earn BIG tokens on Ethereum‘s Abstract network, with transparent reward calculations that many found refreshing compared to vague and oft-disappointing play-to-airdrop models.

The phenomenon appeared to attract crypto traders beyond typical gamers, with some seeing these self-described “Ponzi games” as more transparent alternatives to insider-dominated projects. Since BIG crashed, similar games like Minereum and Dungeons of Fortune have briefly gained attention… with similar results.

SEC drops CyberKongz case: The SEC has concluded its investigation into Ethereum NFT and gaming project CyberKongz without findings or enforcement, the project’s team said last week, adding to the list of numerous recent closed crypto investigations under the Trump administration. CyberKongz had received a Wells notice in December after two years of SEC scrutiny regarding its BANANA token, game elements, and Genesis Kongz contract migration.

Project leaders celebrated the decision as a victory after facing “unjust allegations” and “crippling legal fees,” noting that they “elected to fight this battle for the betterment of Web3.” CyberKongz joins other NFT-related companies like Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs and marketplace OpenSea that recently saw their SEC investigations closed.

ICYMI

GG spotlight

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

GG Newsletter

Get the latest web3 gaming news, hear directly from gaming studios and influencers covering the space, and receive power-ups from our partners.





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