Ronin ATH, Immutable x OKX launchpad, & web3 native game distribution
Blockchain gaming roundup, 22nd March
As the first days of spring approach (in UK) the bees are not the only ones buzzing. Numerous news dropped this week in conjunction with GDC in San Francisco
But first, Ronin has hit a new all-time high of 1.2 million daily active unique wallets, beating the previous peak of 1.1 million DAUWs from 21st November 2021, which was generated during the height of Axie Infinity. A significant difference is that Ronin’s peak in 2021 immediately dropped, whereas in 2024 the chain’s activity is spread across multiple thirdparty games and native Sky Mavis’ titles, as well as token sales and continuous airdrop events.
Jon has been following the early development and more recent makeover of Immutable’s anticipated mobile squad battler Guild of Guardians. This week an official launch date was announced – 15th May. In addition, Immutable unveiled an onchain crafting system that allows players to burn existing Guild of Guardians NFTs to generate a new series of in-game characters. This is due to begin on Monday 25th March.
In more Immutable news – and more significant to the games currently building on Immutable’s zkEVM rollup – the company announced a partnership with crypto exchange OKX to launch a GameFi launchpad. Effectively, this means Immutable’s zkEVM and Passport solution will integrate with OKX’s NFT marketplace, and more generally be supported by the OKX ecosystem.
Much anticipated PC extraction shooter Shrapnel announced the launch of its marketplace, alongside three days of STX2 playtesting. Initially, 10 cosmetically-enhanced weapon skins, which can all be used in the STX2 playtest, will be up for sale in the marketplace.
Best not to ask about Jon’s progression in Sharpnel so far, but it certainly made HyperPlay founder JacobC giggle as the two mentioned it in this week’s podcast interview, which mainly focused on native web3 game distribution platforms.
Talking of which, in an exclusive interview with BlockchainGamer.biz, Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu shared some valuable insight of his experience of games distribution via centralised app stores too, and why he thinks they need to adopt instead of resist blockchain technology.
In terms of chain migrations, Pixelcraft announced its forthcoming L3 rollup Gotchichain is moving to Base from previously building on Polygon. Also migrating its game portfolio from Polygon, including mobile title King of Destiny, is game developer InfiniGods, which has found a new home at Arbitrum.
This month, our prominent blockchain gaming Mavens discuss how to leverage the current positive sentiment in web3 gaming.
Notably, or maybe not so, this week also marked Jenny’s debut year, and Jon’s first year back since the website’s inception in 2018, as editor and editor-in-chief for BlockchainGamer.biz. Thus, plenty of reasons to pop the champagne!
Additional news
With our record breaking PGC San Francisco event at a close, we quickly stride towards our forthcoming Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 on 1st-2nd May. Take advantage of our early-bird pricing offer and grab your tickets today!