Blockchain Gaming World

Why are degen games moving from Abstract to Robinhood Chain?

• [00:42] Cambria, Gigaverse and the momentum of degen blockchain games.
• [03:35] These games have been running on Abstract, in part because of its XP farming feature.
• [05:52] Robinhood Chain is the new blockchain attracting degen games.
• [06:47] Gigaverse Online is launching on Robinhood Chain.
• [08:45] Yield Fields is also launching on Robinhood Chain, and it's minting 3,333 Deeds NFTs.
• [11:20] The top player spent over $40,000 farming Yield Fields' NFT whitelists.
• [13:04] These degen games provide interesting data into financialized product-market-fit.
• [14:29] Seedphrase has sold the only 7-trait CryptoPunk for $3 million. He bought if for $18,000.
• [15:48] Animoca's Moca Chain has gone live with its mainnet.
• [17:35] 90 games from the Axie Vibeathon are now live. Winners announced next week.
• [19:19] The Sandbox founders have launched crowdfunding for their new cosmic horror film.

Sorare's new funding round, Animoca's Nasdaq listing pause and EVE Frontier Cycle 7.

• [00:25] Animoca has called off its reverse Nasdaq listing via a merger with Currenc Group.
• [02:00] Its situation is particularly complex as Animoca was previously listed in Australia.
• [03:51] Animoca still plans to list on a major exchange at some point in the future.
• [04:46] One key issue appears to be the time taken to audit Animoca's past accounts.
• [05:24] Dealing with crypto within standard accountancy rules is always very complex.
• [07:05] It was taking so long, it made little sense for either company to keep this deal in place.
• [08:26] Animoca is now an AI and stablecoin company so this also changes its positioning.
• [11:06] Sorare has raised another investment round - an undisclosed eight-figure sum.
• [12:00] Sorare raised a lot of money in 2021, but most of it was spent getting sport licenses.
• [13:21] Some of Sorare's original investors continue to have confidence in the company.
• [13:49] Sorare's new Arcade has been successful, with +$15 million revenue projected for 2026.
• [14:48] Sorare now expects to be profitable by the end of 2027.
• [18:00] Prior to TGE, Cambria has hit $40 million of volume for its Genesis event.
• [21:10] EVE Frontier is launching Cycle 7 on 29th September.
• [22:15] The big change is full freedom controls for the space ships, requiring player skill.
• [24:00] This is different to EVE Online's simple control method - spreadsheets in space!

Risk/reward pixel games Cambria and Gigaverse are going all MMORPG.

• [01:20] Pixelmon has stopped all game development.
• [02:02] The original Pixelmon NFT mint was peak 2022-era degen disaster.
• [02:32] Green goggle-eyed zombie Kevin became a wider crypto gaming meme.
• [04:09] A new team attempted a reboot, launching various games but to little avail.
• [07:50] There are currently two models for making blockchain games.
• [08:05] MapleStory Universe and EVE Frontier are $100 million-scale projects.
• [09:10] They are from experienced teams who know what they are building and for whom.
• [14:52] When it comes to indie games, the examples are Cambria and Gigaverse.
• [18:20]Cambria is moving from a seasonal approach to a persistent degen game.
• [19:22] This transition will also see the launch of the RSGP token.
• [22:20] Long-term success likely only comes with a focus on in-game status, not rewards.
• [23:40] Gigaverse is less regen but also moving towards persistence with Gigaverse Online
• [27:14] Also worth noting, MapleStory Universe and Axie both have AI hackathons ongoing.

MapleStory Universe announces its financials, Yuga talks Otherside resources, Colony: Survival is live via app stores.

• [00:15] MapleStory Universe has announced its H1 2026 financials.
• [02:22] Q1 had revenue of 14.4 M NXPC vs 13.2M NXPC given away in rewards.
• [03:55] Q2 was 16.6M in revenue vs 14.9M in rewards.
• [04:11] However, the NXPC price continues to drop; down 69% in the past 12 months.
• [04:38] Total H1 2026 revenue for MapleStory Universe was $9.9M.
• [05:00] Trading volume on the NFT marketplace was $10.4M.
• [05:36] MapleStory also burned $2M of NXPC as part of its quarterly burn process.
• [09:08] Yuga Labs has announced more details of Otherside's resource economy.
• [12:28] Parallel Studios has launched 4X strategy game Colony: Survival via app stores.
• [14:01] Animoca and AWS' Agentic Football Cup is now live.
• [16:03] Axie Infinity’s Vibeathon is live and submissions close on 21st September.
• [16:35] Axie and Onchain Heroes launch degen dungeon crawler Den of Mysteries 2.0.

Sky Mavis announces its AI-based Axie Vibeathon, while Animoca and AWS launch their Agentic Football Cup.

• [00:43] Sky Mavis announces Axie Vibeathon - using AI to make Axie Core games.
• [01:54] Registration is available until Monday 7th September. Submissions close by 21st.
• [03:10] You have to provide your own AI.
• [04:42] Sky Mavis provides a Builder Resource Kit that includes art assets and APIs.
• [05:35] The best 8 projects will get $250 of AI to build further, ending on 31st October.
• [07:08] Total prize pool is 20,000 bAXS, with the winner getting 9,000 bAXS ($8,500).
• [09:56] Animoca and AWS are launching Agentic Football Cup - Virtual League.
• [12:08] The 10 winners of the competition go to the AWS Re:invent conference in Las Vegas.
• [12:45] It's free to enter. You build/prompt a five-player AI football team.
• [14:08] There's also the ability to give live instructions during matches.
• [15:05] From 11th September, you play 10 games each weekend for 7 weeks.
• [16:05] All blockchain games should be running this type of AI hackathon.
• [17:12] Blockchain games are particularly suited for this sort of AI creation.

The newly open-sourced Pixels has launched its community hub, including voting, curated tools, apps, mini-games, and Pixels-as-service hosting.

• [00:27] Wemix has opened pre-registrations for mobile roguelike Hellsquad Rrrush!: Stone Rush.
• [02:30] Pixels open-sources its frontend, backend and launches its community hub.
• [04:35] Pixels has also added community voting, which is now live.
• [05:47] Cambria is approaching its RSGP token launch; likely in September.
• [07:36] The TGE event has generated $27 million in volume; c.$500k in revenue for the dev.
• [08:20] But from a small user base - 2,427 wallets in the past week.
• [09:08] Talking to CEO Robby Yung about the AI vision for The Sandbox.
• [10:13] Sandbox Studio adds AI for pro developers to publish games across multiple platforms.
• [11:14] The vision is to be able to use multiple platforms as a revenue multipler for a single title.

The Sandbox CEO Robby Yung explains how its new Sandbox Studio AI tools will reboot the blockchain gaming platform.

• [01:10] How Robby Yung sees the past 12 months in blockchain games.
• [03:30] How adoption of AI changes game development and distribution.
• [06:48] One problem for The Sandbox was its original tools were too simple for pro developers.
• [08:22] How can The Sandbox employ AI to support professional creators?
• [10:01] Can you maintain The Sandbox's brand if you move away from its voxel art style?
• [11:21] Adding AI to The Sandbox has been ongoing for around 3 years.
• [13:05] In the future, game studios will be much smaller because of AI.
• [14:50] But will indie devs actually use AI tools? Many seem to hate AI.
• [17:02] The Sandbox's AI tools are designed to give developers absolute control.
• [20:30] With AI, game devs will be more creative and publish across multiple platforms.
• [23:00] Does this level of AI portability undermine The Sandbox as a platform?
• [21:10] "We view the metaverse as the world and The Sandbox as a city."
• [28:14] The goal is not to automate game creation but to give creative people better tools.
• [29:02] Why The Sandbox is running game jams prior to Studio's planned October launch.
• [31:43] AI is amazing but only when it does what you ask it to do. You need granular control.
• [33:15] Sandbox Studio is designed for people who are already using Unity and Unreal.

Axie Infinity revives AOC NFTs, Pirate Nation's community regroups for Booty Wars and MapleStory Vibe Camp 2 is live.

• [00:15] Pirate Nation's community is attempting a new risk-to-earn game.
• [01:40] Booty Wars is not Pirate Nation 2.0. It doesn't use any of the old assets directly.
• [03:10] There will be a new mint of 6,969 Booty Pirate NFTs.
• [04:40] Booty Wars will be inspired by the likes of degen games like Cambria and Gigaverse.
• [06:24] Axie Infinity is reviving Origin Coins (AOC) to create up to 275 new Axie Origins NFTs.
• [09:04] This means up to 97 Mystic Axies (3.3 ETH floor) could be minted (35% chance per roll).
• [10:59] MapleStory Universe has launched Vibe Camp 2, which runs until 15th September.
• [12:09] Vibe Camp 1 had 693 game submissions, generating 88,000 gameplays.
• [13:30] This time the prize pool is $15,000 NXPC tokens.
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The Sandbox repositions its LAND NFTs for the AI era, Gigaverse Online is announced, Proof of Play shuts down.

• [00:20] The Sandbox is rebooting functionality for its LAND NFTs.
• [01:03] The original vision for The Sandbox didn't work due to the friction of mini-game creation.
• [01:49] It's fixing this with its new Studio AI tools, which are in beta.
• [03:08] This means it can also make LAND more useful as an enhanced publishing primitive.
• [06:10] Obviously this may not solve the issue of getting enough players into The Sandbox.
• [07:32] Gigaverse has announced its move to persistent MMORG Gigaverse Online.
• [11:40] Pirate Nation dev Proof of Play has shut down after open-sourcing code and IP.
• [15:10] MIR4 was released 5 years ago. It's hosted 40,000 character NFT trades.
• [20:32] Sunflower Land dev Thought Farm announces Pokemon-lite RPG Yakkamon for Ronin.

Jon and Jenny talk about Pixels' roadmap for going open source, and Ronin's new Honor Score reputation system.

• [01:02] Pixels has open-sourced its frontend.
• [02:40] Why the concept of open source is back for blockchain gaming.
• [03:55] As well as Pixel, MapleStory Universe and EVE Frontier are also becoming more open.
• [05:30] How MapleStory's AI hackathon winners came up with very novel ideas for games.
• [07:54] Open source is important for Pixels because the core game isn't super deep itself.
• [10:35] This also increases the opportunity for interoperability between Pixels-based games.
• [14:25] Open source doesn't guarantee success but gives communities creative freedom.
• [16:53] Ronin has announced a new reputation system for users, called Honor Score.
• [22:42] Blockchain gaming is only now becoming sustainable.
• [23:32] Will building around a game with AI become more important than playing the game?