As the hype surrounding play-to-earn (P2E) games and platforms began to dwindle in early 2022, Web3 participants began to emphasize the need for games to be more “fun” and less finance-oriented. In the most recent episode of NFT Steez, Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond spoke with Aron Beireschmitt, the CEO of Laguna games and founder of Crypto Unicorns, about the sustainability of P2E-focused blockchain games. For Beireschmitt, the evolution from a play-to-earn to a play-and-earn model suggests that there is still experimentation and maturation to be seen for these games. “Nothing has changed about making games,” says Beireschmitt, but with …

Phat Loop Studios, the company under fire last week for abandoning its Kickstarter and crypto-funded MMORPG game Untamed Isles, is now denying accusations that they lost their backers' funds investing in crypto. The company came under fire last week after announcing a “hiatus” of their Pokemon-like open-world video game, with some the community accusing the developers of spending game development funds to bet on the crypto markets. In a statement on Wednesday, the developers behind the project, which raised over $841,000 NZD ($525,000 USD) on Kickstarter, insisted that all funds raised “were spent by the studio developing the game.” The …

Australian indie game developer Grease Monkey Games, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has received received financial support from video-game giant Epic Games to develop a new blockchain-based motorsport game Torque Drift 2 Receiving an Epic MegaGrant from the Fortnite developers, the funding will be used to develop the motorsport title, which is based on drifting. The Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, which has been used in many industries after it was first showcased in the 1998 game Unreal. According to an Aug. 18 announcement from Animoca Brands, the Epic MegaGrant, which ranges …

Play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain-based games gathered investors’ attention in late 2021, with Axie Infinity leading the pack with over 2 million active users. In P2E games, players are awarded tokens or nonfungible token assets (NFTs) as they progress throughout the game. These digital assets can be sold using marketplaces and cryptocurrency exchanges, generating income in a decentralized manner. However, there is a large discrepancy between P2E and traditional PC and console gaming experiences. In that sense, crypto games are a couple of decades behind due to the restrictions imposed by blockchain technology. Yes, most crypto games lack a decent user experience …

Polygon’s VP of Global Business Development for gaming Urvit Goel believes games that integrate nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have a natural edge on traditional games that don’t allow users to sell their in-game items. Goel spoke candidly with Cointelegraph in Seoul last week about Polygon’s (MATIC) push toward helping NFT games proliferate and why game publishers in South Korea like Neowiz and Nexon are diving headfirst into the space. One of the main arguments Goel made is that the traditional business model that NFT games are competing against may be inherently weaker. In traditional gaming, users typically buy in-game items with …

Com2uS, the mobile game developer, wants to create its own version of Web3, “where it is free to play and own.” This is according to the company’s president Kyu Lee, who spoke at Korea Blockchain Week 2022 in Seoul, revealing the plan to launch a new blockchain. XPLA, which roughly represents the words explore and play, will be a blockchain network focused on the needs of the company’s gaming community, along with metaverse experiences. For Lee, blockchain was the obvious next step for the company’s presence in the gaming industry: “It was almost a no-brainer, [wouldn’t] you like to play …

South Korea's most popular metaverse blockchain Klaytn is set to benefit from deeper liquidity and improved token swaps through a new partnership with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol 1inch Network. Klaytn has enjoyed success in South Korea as the country continues to see prolific nonfungible token (NFT) and GameFi use. Klaytn is a product of tech behemoth Kakao - which commands a user base of some 52 million people that use its flagship KakaoTalk application and suite of software products. Klaytn derived its proprietary blockchain technology off the Ethereum Virtual Machine and powers various play-to-earn and AAA games, NFT marketplaces and …

South Korea is considered the fourth biggest gaming market and one of the biggest blockchain adopters. However, the country has banned play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games due to the crypto integration. The new pro-crypto president Yoon Suk-yeol had hinted at lifting the ban, but the government yet to showed any significant effort. Anthony Yoon, managing partner of blockchain investment and accelerator firm ROK Capital, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, said that GameFi is a natural fit for Korean game publishers. Yoon shed light on the current state of GameFi in the country and how game studios are approaching blockchain integration …

Sky Mavis, the firm behind Play-to-Earn (P2E) heavyweight Axie Infinity is looking to “double down” in South Korea and ramp up adoption despite the regulatory hurdles. Speaking with Cointelegraph at the Korea Blockchain Week on Aug. 9 (local time), Sky Mavis co-founder and growth lead Jeffrey Zirlin stated that despite the domestic ban on P2E games still being in place, the “Korean market is one of the most important gaming markets in the world, and we have tons of players in South Korea.” Zirlin added that the company is currently looking at ways to tailor the Axie Infinity game to …

Despite a backlash from a vocal part of the gaming community, a new survey has revealed one-third of gamers have expressed interest in using crypto in the Metaverse. And, more gamers than not believe that the Metaverse will have a positive impact on gaming. The survey was published on Wednesday by institutional software developer Globant. It was conducted by YouGov and polled 1,000 adult PC, console and/or mobile gamers last month, with 34% of respondents indicating an interest in conducting crypto transactions in Metaverse. The concept of play-to-earn (P2E) in the Metaverse is also relatively well received by gamers, with …

GameStop’s new nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace took home roughly $44,500 from transaction fees in the first 24 hours after it launched via a public beta on Monday. GameStop NFT reportedly generated around $1.98 million worth of NFT sales on its first full day of business. As the platform charges a 2.25% fee on NFT sales, this equates to roughly $44,500 worth of fees. While that sum may seem underwhelming, considering it would represent just 0.27% of GameStop’s daily revenue for 2021, it depends on the perspective. According to gaming news outlet Kotaku, GameStop had 4,816 stores across the U.S. at …

Bear markets are always tough, but one of the positives is they clear the clutter and this allows legitimate projects to stand out. While most investors are focused on the latest centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finances (DeFi) scandal, the blockchain gaming sector has quietly weathered the storm better than other niches of the market. As shown on the chart above, all sectors of the market have experienced a noticeable decline in active users, but the gaming sector has proven to be the most resilient at retaining users as the bear market intensified. Transactions continue to rise Further proof of …