Some may argue that the Metaverse has been around for years, as demonstrated by early gaming platforms, yet virtual ecosystems are now being embraced by almost every industry. A recent report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company believes that the Metaverse has the potential to generate at least $5 billion in value by 2030. McKinsey also found that investments exceeding $120 billion have been put toward Metaverse platforms this year, indicating that major growth is underway. While notable, there is still the perception that most metaverse platforms are lacking when it comes to graphic quality. For example, Mark Zuckerberg was …

One of Web3’s leading digital property rights developers, Animoca Brands, announced yet another major acquisition to its increasing portfolio of gaming subsidiaries. The company announced the purchase of WePlay Media, which developed the popular blockchain-game MotoGP Championship Quest, on Sept. 16. According to the agreement, the acquisition is in an effort to bolster user engagement in motorsport mobile gaming. Graeme Warring, the co-founder and COO of WePlay Media and co-creator of MotoGP, called the acquisition an exciting development for both parties as they expand their reach to motorcycle fans across the globe. “Animoca Brands has the ability to reach hundreds …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Play-to-earn gaming was one of the breakout sectors of the cryptocurrency market in 2021 and the trend was led by Axie Infinity (AXS), a mobile, blockchain-based game where users collect, breed, raise and battle nonfungible tokens (NFTs) called Axies for monetary rewards. As the market topped and then entered what has become a deep bear market, AXS price retraced from an all-time high near $170 to its current price at $15.20 following several setbacks, including a $600 million hack of the Ronin sidechain that hosts the game. Currently, the future of P2E gaming remains in question and advocates are watching …

Ready Games, provider of developer and creator tools for the Web3 community, will launch a new ecosystem with the goal of incentivizing Web2 game creators to explore and switch to Web3 with minimal development time and cost while distributing games “as normal” through traditional app stores. On Friday, the company announced the launch of the ecosystem that will include the utility token AURA and a set of developer tools, specifically aimed at bringing mobile Web2 games into Web3 in compliance with Apple and Google app stores’ rules. This process took only five days in the ecosystem’s Alpha version, Ready Games …

SpongeBob and Warhammer mobile game scores Polygon partnership Free-to-play mobile games publisher Tilting Point has entered a multi-year partnership with Polygon Studios to launch 10 Web3 games over the next two years. Polygon Studios and Tilting Point plan to help native Web3 game developers scale their games alongside free-to-play developer partners, as well as studios that want to bridge from Web2 to Web3 gaming. The first three titles in the works are interstellar strategy game Astrokings from Korean developer AN games, which Tilting Point acquired earlier this year, virtual slot game The Walking Dead: Casino Slots, based on the AMC …

This week's Nifty News sees the arrival of Louis Vuitton to the NFT gaming scene, Johnnie Walker's entry into Web3 and Elon Musk's apparent embrace of Bored Ape Yacht Club. Louis Vuitton makes its mark in the NFT gaming scene To commemorate Louis Vuitton’s bicentennial birthday in late 2021, the French luxury brand launched an NFT game called Louis The Game. At the time of publication, the game has been dowloaded more than 2 million times on both Android and iOS devices. Louis The Game follows its protagonist, Vivienne, as she overcomes challenges and acquires candles and other collectibles. NFT …

Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of Spells of Genesis; generally regarded as the very first play-to-earn blockchain game. EverdreamSoft, the game studio behind SoG, first distributed many of the game's trading card-based NFTs back in 2015, though its mobile trading card game did not go live until 2017. To commemorate the occasion, Everdream Soft announced the opening of an NFT History Museum within the CryptoVoxels metaverse on April 20. This virtual exhibition will feature new and vintage SoG cards as well as assets from various other popular NFT collections. Spells of Genesis fuses a trading card game with point-and-shoot arcade …

Indignant gamers have review bombed Storybook Brawl on Steam over fears of potential NFT and blockchain integrations following crypto exchange FTX’s acquisition of its developers Good Luck Games, LLC. Storybook Brawl is a free-to-play auto-battle card game that was launched on online gaming platform Steam in mid-2021. The game’s review history showed an overwhelming amount of support until March 22, the exact day FTX US announced its acquisition. Since that time, the game has moved to an “overwhelmingly negative” status with 600 out the last 761 reviews being negative. While it is possible for anyone who hasn’t played the game …