💸Capital continues to flow into crypto gaming…what does it mean? | Crypto GameBites Issue 8
Oct 28, 2021 11:38 pm
PLUS: a deep dive on Star Atlas, a taxonomy of blockchain games, and more
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Issue #8 | October 28, 2021
Gm frens!
If you signed up recently, you’ll recall that I promised each week’s edition on Wednesdays.
Well guess what?
Sometimes I publish on Thursday, just to keep you on your toes.
JK — my schedule been all screwed up since my daughter was born 😅.
I’ll do my best to publish Wednesdays, but you might see me on the occasional Thursday instead.
Anyway, let’s get to it.
This week, you’ll see that money continues to pour into the Web3 game space.
You’ll hear from VC Nico Vereecke on what this means for the future of the space. Nico recently joined BITKRAFT Ventures to focus on investing in blockchain games and he was gracious enough to chat with me about it.
You’ll also hear twice from my favorite Web3 gaming analyst and writer, Ryan Foo, who explores the spectrum of blockchain games and gives us a great overview of Star Atlas, one of the most ambitious and anticipated blockchain games ever announced.
So without further ado…
LFB 🧱🧱🧱
— Michael
🔥This week’s lineup:
🗣Brief interview with BITKRAFT VC Nico Vereecke about the future of blockchain games
✨Star Atlas: The most ambitious blockchain gaming project
🕹Categorizing the different types of blockchain games
💰VC Land & Money Talk
🍬MicroBites
🐦Random Tweet
– Michael
ICYMI: Steam bans blockchain games from its platform (and why this matters)
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VC Nico Vereecke shares his vision of the future of blockchain games
One of the first people I connected with in the crypto gaming space is Nico Vereecke, host of my favorite gaming podcast, The Metacast.
He recently joined BITKRAFT Ventures to invest in blockchain games, so I conducted a brief Q&A with him via Telegram about his new role. We discuss his investment thesis, what all this new capital means for the space, and where he sees blockchain games going in the next year and beyond.
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Star Atlas: The First AAA Blockchain Game?
To call Star Atlas “the most ambitious blockchain game” is an understatement. It’s a spaced-based, open-world game that aims to be a “serverless massively multiplayer online game” and incorporates grand strategy, exploration, RPG elements, and space flight simulation.
It’s built on the Solana blockchain, which is fast as fuck, boyyyyy. At the time of this writing, Solana claims it can handle around 710,000 transactions per second, although it’s never actually exeeded 50,000 TPS. Either way, compare that to the roughly 30 TPS that Ethereum can handle 👀
But what makes Star Atlas really stand out is it’s one of THE BEST LOOKING GAMES I HAVE EVER SEEN, blockchain or not.
It features “film quality graphics” powered by Unreal Engine 5.
I’ve been wanting to write about it since I started this newsletter, but as you know, I’m smol brain and I felt like this project required a much bigger brain to deconstruct.
And guess what?
I found that big brain in Ryan Foo, who wrote about Star Atlas for Naavik’s Master the Meta newsletter.
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Blockchain games currently exist on a spectrum — where will they end up?
Since the crypto gaming industry is still in its infancy, developers are integrating blockchain technology in different ways.
On one end of the spectrum, you have minimal integration, such as centralized games deploying NFTs. On the other, you have entire games built entirely on the blockchain.
Ryan Foo (yes, I’m a fanboy) wrote an erudite Twitter thread exploring the spectrum of blockchain games, informed by two core concepts: (1) true digital ownership, and (2) Layer 0 is people.
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VC Land & Money Talk
⚾️Candy Digital, the company building Major League Baseball’s NFT ecosystem, is now valued at $1.5 BILLION after securing a $100 million Series A round co-led by Insight Partners and Softbank Vision Fund.
🎴NFT sci-fi card game Parallel raised $50 million from crypto VC firm Paradigm, bringing its valuation to $500 million.
🖲Sipher, the company developing MOBA/metaverse game “World of Sipheria”, raised $68 million in a round led by Hashed, Arrington Capital and Konvoy Ventures.
📱GreenPark Sports, a “social sports gaming developer” raised a $31 million Series B round as it prepares for its first NFT drop.
🤖a16z led a $7.5 million seed round for OnChain Studios, which is building Cryptoys, a platform that combines elements of NFTs, gaming, and AI. a16z GP Arianna Simpson says to think of it as “Roblox meets NFTs meets Amazon Alexa.”
⚽️MonkeyBall, the team building a Solana-based NFT soccer game that claims to be a cross between “FIFA Street & Final Fantasy”, secured seed funding of $3 million.
👾Sci-Fi strategy game MetaWars, which is built on the Binance Smart Chain, raised $2.3 million in seed funding from investors that included YouTube personality Mr. Beast.
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MicroBites
The Loot community has updated the LootProject.com website to “help players make sense of this ever-expanding Lootverse.”
DraftKings has partnered with Polygon Studios, the NFT and gaming arm of the L2 Polygon network, to “accelerate the adoption of NFTs and Web 3.0”.
The devs behind Influence, a space strategy MMO, have announced their decision to launch the game on the StarkNet L2 scaling solution.
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Random Tweet:
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That’s it for this week!
Thanks for bearing with me and my smooth brain that’s gotten even smoother from sleep deprivation since the birth of my daughter 🙏
Until next time…
You’re GMI 🚀🚀🚀
– Michael, editor of Crypto GameBites
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Disclosure: From time-to-time I might add links in this newsletter to products I use and I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Also, I hold crypto assets (shocking right?). See my investment disclosures here.
Disclaimer to protect my a$$: All investment strategies and investments involve risk of loss. Nothing contained in this magical newsletter should be construed as financial or investment advice. We’re just two brains connecting through cyberspace and shooting the shit about the wild world of blockchain gaming, where buzzwords like “crypto” and “NFTs” roam freely. Any reference to an investment's past or potential performance is not, and should not be construed as, a recommendation or as a guarantee of any specific outcome or profit. Remember to do your own damn research and don’t just ape into things like I did with all those shitcoins from the Spring 2021 bull run.
