Gm web3 gaming frens and hamster betting degens. Or, bonjour to those just getting back from EthCC. We had Tom on the ground at the conference, and there was definitely a lot of buzz around gaming. Hopefully you got to catch him at the conference, HyperPlay LAN party, or in a Megaweapon/Might Action Heroes lobby.

Here’s what’s going on this week:

• Solana Upgrades Game Dev Experience

• Change Log

• VCs Deploying More Capital

• REP is Creating New Creator Economies

• Other News

Solana Upgrades Game Dev Experience

At PlayGG —Solana’s two-day gaming conference in San Diego—Solana Labs unveiled its latest feature to drive web3 native and traditional game studios into the Solana ecosystem: GameShift.

GameShift is an API that creates an easily accessible environment for new and existing games to connect to the Solana network. The API allows developers to add ownership elements and connect to NFT marketplaces without building out the infrastructure independently.

Less time on blockchain development = more time on building a great game

In addition to the launch of GameShift, Solana also introduced its Solidity compiler, Solang. Solang bridges that gap between Solana and EVM, allowing developers to deploy their existing EVM games on Solana.

Solana’s transaction speed was already enough to have game developers commit to the blockchain, but many have remained on EVM blockchains due to their popularity. According to The Big Blockchain List, nearly 70% of blockchain games are on EVM-supported blockchains. Solang adds another reason for developers to build or transition to Solana.

Solana is already the fourth-largest gaming chain by market share, but Solang and GameShift could significantly increase Solana’s game development.

Change Log

• Pomerium is releasing Pome Survival Companion Pet NFTs on Binance NFT, offering stat increases in Survival and interoperability across Pome titles.

• Earn Alliance releases an updated community platform, including a launchpad with >2,400 Web3 games.

• Immutable collaborates with another game studio, Fabwelt, and their 3rd person shooter, Arsenal.

• Fableborne, the F2P mobile ARPG x Base-Builder, has partnered with MagicEden in the runup to their Primordials mint.

• Axie Infinity launched AXP and Axie Levels through dynamic on-chain NFTs.

Fresh Funding

We’re not even a month into Q3, and funding for web3 gaming is already heating up. We’ve already seen $109 million of capital raised in July, compared to a total of $193.6 million in Q2. TL;DR, pretty much back in a bull market.

Here’s a look at the four projects that raised over the past week: FutureVerse, Cosmic Wire, SKYPLAY, and Xterio.

Futuerverse

Futerverse is an AI and metaverse project born out of the acquisition of eight crypto and AI companies, including Non-Fungible Labs and Altered State Machine. The team plans on connecting the merged IP through an “open metaverse” on its own XRP-based, EVM-compatible blockchain, The Root.

FutureVerse raised $54 million in a Series A funding round led by 10T Holdings and participated in by Ripple Labs.

Cosmic Wire

Cosmic Wire is a metaverse infrastructure provider creating 3D architecture tools, AI-supported avatars, and broader blockchain solutions like DiD management and interoperable marketplaces. The startup was recently selected as part of Google Cloud’s Web3 startup program.

Cosmic Wire raised $30 million in a seed funding round led by the co-led by the Solana Foundation and Polygon.

SKYPLAY

SKYPLAY is a Korea-based gaming platform with over 300k MAU across 170 countries. The platform currently supports an NFT marketplace and around fifteen P2E games.

SKYPLAY raised $10 million in strategic funding from LDA Capital.

Xterio

Yes, Xterio technically announced their funding last Wednesday, but it’s the only other funding announcement we’ve had this quarter, and we didn’t want to leave it out.

Xterio is a gaming platform, and publisher primarily focused on developing free-to-play games and GameFi-as-a-service. The project plans to expand into AI integrations and launch its own tokens.

Xterio raised $15 million in strategic funding from Binance Labs.

REP is Creating New Creator Economies

Earlier this month, REP announced that it was partnering with GalaChain to build a dedicated social network for the Gala gaming friend system. REP is a Web3 social media platform that prioritizes user data privacy and decentralized governance. It features an in-profile marketplace, customizable profiles, and private social networks.

This is especially important at the moment with streamers moving away from Twitch with aggressive revenue cuts to its streamers and restrictive contracts. Middlemen are removed, enabling creators to monetize content through several streams—through digital goods, native tokens, or direct tipping.

Development of the platform is also put in the hands of its users. Owners of REP Nodes, a crucial part of the platform’s infrastructure, can influence the distribution of $REPS and vote on specific modifications to the distribution mechanism. This democratized approach ensures that the development of REP aligns with the needs and desires of its community.

The full vision paper can be read here.

Other News

• The World of Warcraft origin story for Ethereum is all a lie.

• Ubisoft partnered with Cronos, joining the network as a node validator.

• PlayWay partnered with GameSwift to bring OuterLife into web3 via Polygon Supernet.

• Neopets canceled its web3 game in a move to design a game that’s “more in line” with its community.

• Galaxy Commanders partnered with Immutable to bring PvP space battles to Immutable zkEVM.

• Sui 8192 game spikes Sui transaction volume by 250 million in less than a week.

• Reality+ and OTZ Sports will launch Web3 FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer game.

• Openfort and Web3Auth have partnered to launch a framework to support developers looking to integrate MPC & Account Abstraction in games.

• HyperPlay teamed up with Immutable, the leading developer platform for web3 games on Ethereum.