Welcome to Web3 Weekly, a dive into the latest developments and news in Web3 gaming. While we continue to build up the platform and fine tune our formatting, we couldn’t help but diving right into it and sharing what we’ve been watching.

So, here’s what we’ll be looking at this week:

• Gods Unchained’s Epic listing

• Change Log - the latest updates and launches from Web3 games.

• 25% boost in Q2 Web3 funding

• Other News

Gods Unchained’s Epic listing

Immutable’s Trading Card Game, Gods Unchained, launched on the Epic Games store this week continuing Epic’s momentum in bridging the gap between traditional games and Web3 gaming. Nearly five days on from launch, the game remains within the top 10 trending games in the store which is accessible by more than 200 million users globally.

Gods Unchained flipped Web3 gaming OG Axie Infinity last September to become the leading non-Ethereum gaming NFT by trade volume. Over the past six weeks the TCG volumes have been about five times greater than the largest NFT gaming project on Ethereum, Yuga Lab’s Otherdeed for Otherside.

Change Log

• Registration for Fableborne’s closed playtest IV is now available.

• SkyCity (AlterVerse) Beta adds AI NPCs.

• Skrice’s Heroes of Mavia will begin its beta launch on June 30.

• My Neighbor Alice launched its Alpha Season 3.

• Season 1 of BAYC’s HV-MTL Forge launched today.

• Project Loki playtest is live for the next 48hrs.

Q2 funding for Web3 gaming gets a 25% boost

The past week saw an impressive amount of capital heading into Web3 gaming, with a total of $47.5M in funding for 4 projects. For reference, that’s over 25% of the total reported funds raised by Web3 gaming projects this quarter. Though Mythical Games’ Series C extension round deserves most of the credit for this, we still can’t help but feel bullish about upcoming raises in Q3.

Here’s a look into the three projects that raised over the past week: Mythical Games, Anichess, Pixion Games, and Startale Labs.

Mythical Games

Mythical Games raised a $37M Series C extension round, led by Scytale Digital and participated in by ARK Invest, Andreessen Horowitz, Animoca Brands, Moonpay, and others. Mythical Games is the gaming studio behind the Mythical Chain blockchain and games like Blankos Block Party and NFL Rivals. NFL Rivals recently hit a million downloads, just two months after launch. It’s latest game, Nitro Nation World Tour, is expected to launch at the end of july.

Anichess

Anichess raised $1.5M in an oversubscribed funding round participated in by Koda Capital, Bing Ventures, Asymmetry Capital, GameFi Ventures, and others. The game is a variation on the traditional game of chess and is still being developed by the Animoca Brands subsidiary. Anichess is being developed in partnership with Magnus Carlseon’s Play Magnus Group (acquired by Chess.com) and advised by over 30 chess grandmasters.

Pixion Games

Pixion Games raised a $5.5M seed funding round from Avalanche, Shima Capital, ReadPlayerDAO, GSR, and others. Pixion Games is the gaming studio behind the Web3 mobile game Fableborne, an isometric multiplayer game that enables players to use digital assets across the Avalanche network.

Startale Labs

Startale Labs CEO Sota Watanabe announced a $3.5M strategic funding raise from Sony Group during the IVC Crypto conference in Kyoto. Startale Labs is the result of a three-month startup incubation project developed by Sony Network and Astar Network. Watanabe is both the CEO of Astar Network and Startale Labs.

Other News

• Digital Arms partnered with Barrett Firearms to launch in-game Barrett NFTs based on real firearms.

• MetaMask revealed the six winning projects for its MetaMask Sidequest program.

• GameFi.org and Japanese-based gaming platform Oasys announced the launch of Oasys Navi NFT gaming marketplace.

• Smiley and Space Runners launched Smily World NFTs as a blue check type verification for Web3.

• Candy Digital merged Palm NFT Studio amid layoffs at Candy Digital.