This week in blockchain gaming ... new eras for @gigaverse @playcambria @YieldFields_RH 00:44 What's happening with degen games Onchain Heroes, Gigaverse and Cambria? 02:42 All 3 games are shutting down their Abstract versions and launching new products. 04:20 Gigaverse has completed its 2-month Awakening event. Rewards will follow. 05:52 Cambria will launch its RSGP token on Base. Its 4,096 Charter NFTs are revealed this weekend. 07:33 Yield Fields - from Onchain Heroes - completed its 3,333 Deeds mint, raising $8.3 million. Also revealed this weekend. 10:33 The top holder owns 156 Deeds NFTs. 11:26 These games show niche, highly financialized web3 games can be successful. 13:20 But can they expand their audience as they add persistent MMO game features to be sustainable?

A week in blockchain gaming including @playcambria @MegaCryptoPolis @GFAL_Official 00:21 Abstract will shut down on 15th December 2026. 00:50 Pudgy Penguins' Igloo Inc. launched it in January 2025 as a simple, L2 consumer chain. 02:23 But even simple L2s cost millions of dollars to run. Abstract didn't have enough users. 03:16 Probably its biggest mistake was launching an XP farming mechanic without quickly launching a token. 05:17 Still, Abstract did well early on with games like LOL Land, Gigaverse, Cambria etc. 06:28 Igloo will now focus on Pudgy Penguins as an IP and the Pengu token. 08:10 Cambria Genesis minted its 4,096 Founders NFTs on Ethereum this week. 09:28 First day volume was $230,000 with a floor of around $150 for Citizens NFTs. 11:58 It looks like MetaCryptoPolis is rebooting with AI agent gameplay. 12:53 GFAL is launching a WWII TCG, a football game, and Diamond Jewels Solitaire.

BCGW #214 is out w/ @HilmarVeigar talking all things AI, agents, alignment and @EVE_Frontier. 02:42 EVE Online as the ultimate boss of all online games - no win conditions, partial data etc. 03:49 You could argue that EVE Online provides the benchmark test for AGI. 04:25 Google DeepMind has its agents running in a private playground version of EVE. 04:33 This is important for continual learning, partial information, long-term memory. 07:55 Contrary to belief, EVE rewards trust and honesty, soft skills and conflict resolution. 09:28 Agents need an environment in which to develop a sense of morality. 10:26 In future, we could run tests with humans to harden the agents against manipulation. 14:09 Players don't care what technology is in the game. They care whether it's a good game. 16:53 In EVE Frontier, we've designed a game that humans and AI can play. 19:16 There has to be a boundary to agency. There has to be a cost. In EVE Frontier, it's fuel. 21:59 The rise of AI means that skilled players and hackers have been commoditized. 24:48 No blockchain game has the breadth and depth and scope of EVE Frontier. 28:19 EVE Frontier has attracted some of the earliest EVE Online gamers back to play. 30:35 The biggest milestone for EVE Frontier will be moving from Sui testnet to mainnet. 31:56 EVE Frontier's high fidelity controls are part of its richer physics and data asymmetry. 34:10 It's the case that humans tend to be more skilled in these situations than AIs. 37:34 EVE Frontier is designed to allow players to legally earn money. EVE Online isn't.

This week in blockchain gaming news, we're talking degens, Robinhood Chain vs Abstract and someone spending $40k farming @YieldFields_RH WLs. 00:42 Cambria, Gigaverse and the momentum of degen blockchain games. 03:35 These games have been running on Abstract, in part because of its XP farming. 05:52 But Robinhood Chain is the new blockchain attracting degen games. 06:47 Gigaverse Online is launching on Robinhood Chain. 08:45 Yield Fields is also launching on Robinhood Chain, and it's minting 3,333 Deeds NFTs. 11:20 The top player spent over $40,000 farming Yield Fields' NFT whitelists. 13:04 These degen games provide interesting peak into financialized product-market-fit. 14:29 Seedphrase has sold the only 7-trait CryptoPunk for +$3 million (+$5.8M?). He bought it for $18,102. 15:48 Animoca's Moca Chain has gone live with its mainnet. 17:35 90 games from the Axie Vibeathon are now live. Winners announced next week. 19:19 The Sandbox founders have launched crowdfunding for their new cosmic horror film @hhillsofficial

This week's blockchain gaming news is @Sorare funding, @animocabrands listing pause and @EVE_Frontier Cycle 7. 00:25 Animoca has called off its reverse Nasdaq listing via a merger with Currenc Group. 02:00 Its situation is particularly complex as Animoca was previously listed in Australia. 03:51 Animoca still plans to list on a major exchange at some point in the future. 04:46 One key issue appears to be the time taken to audit Animoca's past accounts. 05:24 Dealing with crypto within standard accountancy rules is always very complex. 07:05 It was taking so long, it made little sense for either company to keep this deal in place. 08:26 Animoca is now an AI and stablecoin company, so this also changes its positioning. 11:06 Sorare has raised another investment round - an undisclosed eight-figure sum. 12:00 Sorare raised a lot of money in 2021, but most of it was spent on securing sports licenses. 13:21 Some of Sorare's original investors continue to have confidence in the company. 13:49 Sorare's new Arcade has been successful, with +$15 million revenue projected for 2026. 14:48 Sorare now expects to be profitable by the end of 2027. 18:00 Prior to TGE, Cambria has hit $40 million of volume for its Genesis event. 21:10 EVE Frontier is launching Cycle 7 on 29th September. 22:15 The big change is full freedom controls for the space ships, requiring player skill. 24:00 This is different compared to EVE Online's simple control method - spreadsheets in space!

Can degens do persistence? There are many factors you could use to create a blockchain gaming taxonomy. At present, however, it seems that when you consider the most active blockchain games, the key axes are: the level of financial intensity, and the persistence of the gameplay. With the days of play-to-earn long gone, most blockchain games require some sort of spending, at least if you want to do anything beyond the entry-level experience. Notably, Gigaverse and EVE Frontier are gated by upfront payments — $10 and at least $30, respectively — while MapleStory Universe requires a small purchase of its NXPC token to verify users' wallets as an anti-sybil measure. As for Cambria, you have to buy keys to enter its dungeons. A previous incarnation required a $50 NFT. However, financial intensity isn’t just about paying the entry fee. It’s about how integral spending money and cashing out winnings are to the game. As high-risk, high-reward experiences, financial gain has been a key selling point for Cambria and Gigaverse. Not for nothing are these self-defined degen games. So how does persistence fit? It’s a particularly important attribute at present for both Cambria and Gigaverse, which are moving from ephemeral seasonal deployments to become persistent MMORPGs — Cambria Genesis and Gigaverse Online. These changes aren’t without risks, though. For the past years, the games have built their communities around on-off sessions of win-lose financialized gameplay. Now, they will have to balance this against a different set of rewards, which require sustained play and spending to acquire in-game kudos — a quality that can’t be easily cashed out. Of course, such notoriety is something Fenris Creations has enabled in EVE Online over the past two decades, and — moving the other way — it’s something it’s hoping to combine with blockchain-based financialization in EVE Frontier. Like Cambria and Gigaverse, the game is operating on a seasonal basis, with each of its three-month cycles ending in a full content wipe. But, even within such a context, relationships and rivalries honed over years in EVE Online are already re-emerging. This has been demonstrated in the surprise destruction of one alliance’s battleships via the clever use of blockchain data by another alliance, which had reformed just to see if EVE Frontier was any good. Now that’s real persistence.

Time to welcome back an old friend as we tackle a week of blockchain gaming, including @playcambria @gigaverse @Pixelmon ☠️ and general discussion of @MaplestoryU and @EVE_Frontier 01:20 Pixelmon has halted all game development. 02:02 The original Pixelmon NFT mint was peak 2022-era degen disaster. 02:32 Green goggle-eyed zombie Kevin became a wider crypto gaming meme. 04:09 A new team attempted a reboot, launching various games but to no avail. 07:50 There are currently two models for making blockchain games. 08:05 MapleStory Universe and EVE Frontier are $100 million-scale projects. 09:10 They are from experienced teams who know what they are building and for whom. 14:52 When it comes to indie games, the examples are Cambria and Gigaverse. 18:20 Cambria is moving from a seasonal approach to a persistent degen game. 19:22 This transition will also see the launch of the RSGP token. 22:20 Long-term success likely only comes with a focus on in-game status, not rewards. 23:40 Gigaverse is less regen but also moving towards persistence with Gigaverse Online. 27:14 Also worth noting, MapleStory Universe and Axie both have AI hackathons ongoing.

This week's blockchain gaming news comes from @MaplestoryU @OthersideMeta @ParallelColony @hellominds_ @AxieInfinity 00:15 MapleStory Universe has announced its H1 2026 financials. 02:22 Q1 saw revenue of 14.4 M NXPC vs 13.2M NXPC given away in rewards. (RoRS>1) 03:55 Q2 was 16.6M in revenue vs 14.9M in rewards. 04:11 However, the NXPC price continues to drop; down 69% in the past 12 months. 04:38 Total H1 2026 revenue for MapleStory Universe was $9.9M. 05:00 Trading volume on the NFT marketplace was $10.4M. 05:36 MapleStory also burned $2M of NXPC as part of its quarterly burn process. 09:08 Yuga Labs has announced more details of Otherside's resource economy - 74 onchain resources! 12:28 Parallel Studios has launched 4X strategy game Colony: Survival via app stores. 14:01 Animoca/Minds and AWS' Agentic Football Cup is now live. 16:03 Axie Infinity’s Vibeathon is live and submissions close on 21st September. 16:35 Axie and Onchain Heroes launch degen dungeon crawler Den of Mysteries 2.0.

I say hackathon, you say vibeathon. Let's call the whole thing AI ... @skymavis announces Axie Vibeathon, @hellominds_ announces Agentic Football Cup. 00:43 Sky Mavis announces Axie Vibeathon - using AI to make Axie Core games. 01:54 Registration is available until Monday 7th September. Submissions close by 21st. 03:10 You have to provide your own AI. 04:42 Sky Mavis provides a Builder Resource Kit that includes art assets and APIs. 05:35 The best 8 projects will get $250 of AI to build further, ending on 31st October. 07:08 Total prize pool is 20,000 bAXS, with the winner getting 9,000 bAXS ($8,500). 09:56 Animoca and AWS are launching Agentic Football Cup - Virtual League. 12:08 The 10 winners of the competition go to the AWS Re:invent conference in Las Vegas. 12:45 It's free to enter. You build/prompt a five-player AI football team. 14:08 There's also the ability to give live instructions during matches. 15:05 From 11th September, you play 10 games each weekend for 7 weeks. 16:05 All blockchain games should be running this type of AI hackathon. 17:12 Blockchain games are particularly suited for this sort of AI creation.

What makes a blockchain game? 🤔

The blockchain gaming news this week from @WemixNetwork @pixels_online @TheSandboxGame @playcambria 00:27 Wemix has opened pre-registrations for mobile roguelike Hellsquad Rrrush!: Stone Rush. 02:30 Pixels open-sources its frontend, backend and launches its community hub. 04:35 Pixels has also added community voting, which is now live. 05:47 Cambria is approaching its RSGP token launch; likely in September. 07:36 The TGE event has generated $27 million in volume; c.$500k in revenue for the dev. 08:20 But from a small user base - 2,427 wallets in the past week. 09:08 Talking to CEO Robby Yung about the AI vision for The Sandbox. 10:13 Sandbox Studio adds AI for pro developers to publish games across multiple platforms. 11:14 The vision is to be able to use multiple platforms as a revenue multipler for a single title.

In BCGW #213, I talk to CEO @viewfromhk about how AI reboots @TheSandboxGame 01:10 How Robby Yung sees the past 12 months in blockchain games. 03:30 How adoption of AI changes game development and distribution. 06:48 One problem for The Sandbox was that its original tools were too simple for pro developers. 08:22 How can The Sandbox employ AI to support professional creators? 10:01 Can you maintain The Sandbox's brand if you move away from its voxel art style? 11:21 Adding AI to The Sandbox has been ongoing for around 3 years. 13:05 In the future, game studios will be much smaller because of AI. 14:50 But will indie devs actually use AI tools? Many seem to hate AI. 17:02 The Sandbox's AI tools are designed to give developers absolute control. 20:30 Using AI, game devs will be more creative and publish across multiple platforms. 23:00 Does this level of AI portability undermine The Sandbox as a platform? 25:10 "We view the metaverse as the world and The Sandbox as a city." 28:14 The goal is not to automate game creation but to give creative people better tools. 29:02 Why The Sandbox is running game jams prior to Studio's planned October launch. 31:43 AI is amazing but only when it does what you ask it to do. You need granular control. 33:15 Sandbox Studio is designed for people who are already using Unity and Unreal.

Still haven't seen the official @gigaverse client, but Codex has my back.

This week's blockchain gaming news is from @BootyPirates1 @AxieInfinity and @MaplestoryU 00:15 Pirate Nation's community is attempting a new risk-to-earn game called Booty Wars. 01:40 Booty Wars is not Pirate Nation 2.0. It doesn't use any of the old assets directly. 03:10 There will be a new mint of 6,969 Booty Pirate NFTs. Pirate Nation holders can get WL. 04:40 Booty Wars is inspired by the likes of degen games like Cambria and Gigaverse. 06:24 Axie Infinity is reviving Axie Origin Coins (AOC) to create up to 275 new Axie Origins NFTs. 09:04 This means up to 97 Mystic Axies could be minted (35% chance per roll). 10:59 MapleStory Universe has launched Vibe Camp 2, which runs until 15th September. 12:09 Vibe Camp 1 had 693 game submissions, generating 88,000 gameplays. 13:30 This time the prize pool is $15,000 NXPC tokens.

Pirates live again!