Gm gamers! I hope everyone’s bags are securely stored following the market turbulence earlier today. Griff is back from galavanting in Europe and Tom has just discovered Sorare fantasy football (we take the small wins). Although prices may be in the red, we’re so back. Today we’re talking Farmville, Sci-Fi TCGs and Animoca.

Today’s slate:

• Zynga Bringing Web3 to Sugartown

• Change Log

• Parallel // The Web3 MTG

• CyberConnect x Animoca

• Other News

Before we get going, don’t forget to follow us for some right-click savable content.

Zynga Bringing Web3 to Sugartown

Zynga has officially entered web3 gaming. At GamesBeat Summit Next, the Take-Two mobile gaming subsidiary announced it’s first web3 game Sugartown.

Sugartown is an Ethereum-based project that bills itself as a game, platform, and ecosystem. Developed by Zynga’s web3 studio ZW3, Sugartown has recieved significant hype for its wide reaching vision, including P2E mechanics, staking, social gaming experiences and more.

The hype around the game is justified. Zynga is a powerhouse in mobile and social gaming, reporting record revenues of more than $2B and a mobile monthly active user base of 184 million before the Take-Two takeover. As part of Take-Two, Zynga has injected the company’s game portfolio of popular platform titles like Red Dead Redemption, 2K, and Borderlands with staple social mobile games, including Farmville, Words With Friends, and Cashier 3D.

In a previous Web3 Weekly, we discussed the close similarities between web3 and mobile gaming, and how mobile gaming veterans are leading innovation in web3 gaming. Zynga is the latest company to further this trend, bringing a viral gaming experience that produced over 110 million downloads across ten games last year.

Sugartown will hold a free mint for its first NFT collection, The Oras, in the future. Following the mint, Ora holders will receive early access to the Sugartown platform and ecosystem.

Be like Mark, ride the wave, and stay up to date with the project’s Discord. 🌊

Change Log

• Gods Unchained released Pauper Mode, a new rotating game mode that only uses a fixed set of common and rare cards.

• Rouge Nation: Proteus is live, featuring new characters, weapons, environments, and enemies.

• Hunters On-Chain launched on iOS and Android.

• Wildcard introduced Wildfile soul-bound tokens to track participation for in-game rewards.

• Might Action Heroes launched on Android.

• MetalCore kicked off its third Alpha 3 event, Guild Wars.

• Wrecked League’s first Mech mint is live, with the game expecting to launch in mid-September.

• Champions Ascension is now on Steam.

Parallel // The Web3 MTG

If you've been on gaming Twitter this week, you will have seen Parallel all over your feed, and the numbers don't lie! It's the number one trending web3 game this week after releasing starter decks as part of Base's Onchain Summer. It's not only their strong community that believes either with a $50m raise from Paradigm in 2021.

Parallel is a trading card game (TCG) and a sci-fi universe set on post-apocalyptic Earth, drained of its life-sustaining capabilities. In a desperate bid for unlimited energy, scientists experimented with anti-matter-augmented fission, causing unparalleled devastation. This led to Earth's mass exodus and the birth of five parallel civilizations: The Earthen, who stayed and rebuilt; The Kathari, who innovated human genetics on Jupiter's moon, Europa; The Marcolians, who dominated Mars; The Augencore, adapting for deep space on their ship Caine-1; and The Shroud, a mysterious entity with an unknown location. After 10,000 years, a newfound energy source on Earth beckons these Parallels back, igniting conflicts over its ownership.

Minting a starter pack gives you 40 NFT cards for your chosen Parallel and 10 apparition packs for off-chain cards as well as a limited edition card back only available for the next 2 weeks. Most importantly, you will get access to the closed beta, where you can start battling and earning $PRIME. The earning mechanism is based on the number of NFT cards used in your deck for a win, with a full deck of NFTs granting the most $PRIME.

We are very excited to see Parallel’s growth. For those of you wanting to jump into the beta straight away, each starter deck is 0.05 ETH - otherwise, still head over to the website to sign up for when free-to-play drops.

CyberConnect x Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands and CyberConnect have partnered to create a decentralized social layer for Mocaverse, an NFT collection within Animoca Brands' ecosystem. The collaboration will use CyberConnect's CyberAccount, a leading ERC-4337-powered smart account, to power the identity layer of Mocaverse, allowing companies in Animoca Brands' portfolio to offer interoperable user experiences.

This partnership signifies a great step forward in the evolution of Web3 social networks. By leveraging CyberAccount, users can seamlessly navigate across their preferred applications without the need to create a separate account for each. The collaboration aims to solve the pain of existing wallet solutions for users while offering developers the tools to deploy tailored user experiences. Animoca stated that this 'super account' approach will revolutionize user onboarding.

CyberConnect is Web3's pioneering social network, enabling developers to craft social applications using ERC-4337. Mocaverse is an ambitious initiative by Animoca Brands, aiming to unify the Web3 community through a distinctive NFT collection. Animoca Brands stands as a vanguard in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification, with a mission to champion digital property rights and foster the open metaverse.

Other News

• Nakamoto Games announced the launch of a new layer one protocol built for P2E mobile apps.

• Star Atlas unveiled Sage Labs, a P2E space economy simulation game.

• Zepeto and Jump Crypto raised $13 million for its collaborative, Arbitrum-based metaverse platform ZTX (ZepetoX).

• Axie Infinity launched Project T, an early prototype social game that allows players to interact while playing mini-games.

• Oasys and XPLA partnered with Hashed, Xangle, Nexon, and others for the upcoming multichain/game hackathon Beyond Boundaries.

• Animoca Brands joined Amazon as an AWS Activate Partner, providing opportunities for its portfolio company to accelerate web3 development on AWS.

• The Philippine National Police issued a warning advising citizens of the risks associated with P2E gaming and Axie Infinity.

• Shrapnel is giving away +$5,000 over the next three weeks as part of its insignia beta challenge.