gm gamers,

We rolling it back (not in a Munchables / Blast kind of way) to basics and have returned with our regularly scheduled weekly content on Thursdays. Hope you all stayed safe from the $60M exploit the other day, or at least are able to make it all back in one trade over the weekend.

Tom’s out at the CS Majors in Copenhagen at the moment and Griff is still trying to catch up on his followups from GDC. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some content about both events next week.

In the meantime, here’s what we’re looking to catch you up on from the past week:

• Insert Coin to Continue: The latest funding rounds in web3 gaming.

• Co-op Campaigns: Who’s teaming up in the gaming world?

• Change Log: Updates, patches, and new features from games we’ve covered.

• Release Radar: Upcoming games, playtests, and drops.

• On-Chain Activity: New on-chain game announcements and network migrations.

• Other News: The other things that happened in web3 gaming this week.

• Bonus Loot: Cool media we’ve been digesting this week.

Insert Coin To Continue

The latest funding rounds in web3 gaming.

• 7 Digital Labs ($4M). The Swiss-based game studio developing BloodLoop announced a $4M Seed Round with backers including Avalanche, Merit Circle, Optic Capital, GameFi Ventures, and others.

• BlockGames ($6M). Cross-chain game publisher and community platform BlockGames raised $6M in funding from Sfermion, Aptos, Maven Capital, Maple Block, and others.

• Delabs ($4.7M). The Rumble Racing Star and Metabolts developer raised a total of $12M to date, with its most recent round led by Hashed and participated in by Animoca, Spartan Group, Polygon, and Merit Cricle.

• Elixer Games ($14M). Game launcher and web3 gaming ecosystem developer Elixir Games raised $14M in a Seed Round from Square Enix, Shima Capital, and the Solana Foundation ahead of the launch of ELIX.

• Gunzilla Games ($30M). Off The Grid developer Gunzilla Games raised $30M in a funding round co-led by CoinFund and Avalanche and supported by Republic Capital and Morningstar Ventures.

• Illuvium ($12M). Illuvium raised $12M in a Series A funding round from Arrington Capital, Animoca, Spartan Capital, YGG, and others.

• Parallel Studios ($35M). The team behind Parallel TCG and Colony raised $35M from Solana Ventures, VanEck, Amber Group, Spartan Capital, Base Ecosystem Fund, Big Brain, and others.

Co-Op Campaigns

Who’s teaming up in the gaming world?

• Azuki x Arbitrum. Azuki is partnering with Arbitrum ahead of the launch of AnimeChain, an anime culture-focused blockchain built using Arbitrum Orbit.

• TCG World x SKALE. TCG World is teaming up with SKALE to create new metaverse experiences and gaming infrastructure for interconnected game environments.

• WAX x Amazon. L1 blockchain WAX partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS), allowing developers to deploy WAX nodes directly in the AWS console.

• MARBLEX x CARV. MARBLEX, the web3 arm of Netmarble, is partnering with CARV to bring enhanced data availability and AI mechanisms into the MARBLEX ecosystem.

• XPLA x MatterLabs. MatterLabs will join XPLA in support for the development of web3 games on XPLA’s zero-knowledge gaming chain zkXPLA.

Change Log

Updates, patches, and new features from games we’ve covered.

• Common Ground World, a Gala-based farm simulator, added guilds as part of its latest update.

• Crypto Unicorns governance members can now collect rewards and voting badges for the latest CUIPs.

• GangWars unveiled Mob Run, a new game mode developed in collaboration with Animoca’s Tower Ecosystem project.

• Gods Unchained is hosting a Mid March Madness event, featuring 100k GODS in Sealed Mode rewards.

• Illuvium Arena Beta 3 patch added Ascension Tokens, Hyper adjustments, Augments reworks and other major changes.

• Nine Chronicles revealed 8 new events starting from now through the end of April.

• Wilder World was listed in the Epic Store.

On-Chain Activity

New on-chain game announcements and network migrations.

• DESPERADO B218 (Immutable). Desperado is an NFT-based RPG game migrating to Immutable following a commitment to build on the zkEVM from web3 gaming platform Luxon.

• Menya Dragon Ramen New Branch (Wemix). Menya Dragon Ramen New Branch is a PvP shooter developed by Turkish developers Fly Penguin.

• PlayDapp (Avalanche). PlayDapp is launching its own subnet on Avalanche, bringing a range of new games and functionality to the ecosystem.

Other News

• Blast-based Munchables was hacked for $63M ahead of its launch. The community is currently weighing the possibility of a rollback on transactions.

• ChainSafe Gaming launched its Marketplace Toolkit, a free and open-source marketplace for games that builds on the marketplace infrastructure developed for Parallel.

• Ethlizards team announced a rebranding to Lizard Labs, a slightly less Ethereum-based, but ultimately still Lizardy version of themselves.

• Gall3ry, Emojam, Magmic, Trophy, UFORIKA, and GamingWire & Chainwire joined the BGA.

• Pixelverse, a new web3 game from Step App CEO Kirill Volgin, was announced and is expected to launch soon.

Bonus Loot

• 📘 THE $63 MILLION EXPLOIT OF MUNCHABLES ON BLAST, NFT CULTURE (Read)

• 📘 Horizon’s Michael Sanders Discusses Scaling Web3 Gaming, GAM3S (Read)

• 📺 Unreal Engine 5.4 Preview 1 GDC 2024, Unreal (Watch)

• 🎧️ GEC Bonus EP: What’s up at GDC 2024?, Game Economist Cast (Listen)