The new era of blockchain-based games involves more than advanced graphics and sophisticated gameplay. Through the advent of technologies that enable decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), in-game incentives can turn into real-life financial rewards. Dragon Mainland is a play-to-earn game that combines PvP (player vs player) and PvE (player versus environment) warfare, breeding dragons, free commerce and collecting NFTs. By absorbing other dragon skulls, players can level up their own dragons and earn cryptocurrency in the game. The platform takes the experience one step further by offering players the opportunity to earn more by trading NFTs collected in-game …

Huobi Group, a company operating one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is launching its own nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, following in the steps of other major crypto exchanges. Huobi has rolled out a trial for Huobi NFT, an NFT marketplace allowing users to buy and trade NFT artwork and collectibles in numerous sectors like games, art, animation and music, Huobi Group announced on Monday. According to the announcement, the launch marks a milestone in the extension of Huobi’s metaverse strategy, a concept combining multiple technologies like virtual reality to bring a 3D virtual environment featuring activities like online gaming …

Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video gaming organizations — responsible for creating popular franchise games such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and For Honor — hosted their Q2 earnings call this week, where blockchain was a key topic of discussion. Alongside reporting a 15% increase of unique active players in the first half of the year compared to 2020, and that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has become the second most profitable game in the companies history, the French firm’s CEO, Yves Guillemot also expressed intentions for investment and adoption of blockchain-centric gaming companies on the platform. Despite making notable advancements …

Most recognize the word “blockchain” through its references from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). However, the currencies and their underlying technology have since grown far more significant, now including the multimillion-dollar nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that are taking the world by storm today. Unfortunately, collectors now face a new problem: determining which NFT projects are worth investing in. As digital artists release new NFT collections (sometimes on a weekly basis), it can be hard to know which releases may be the next CryptoPunks and which will fall by the wayside. That said, NFTs, in general, have come a long way since …

Blockchain technology enables value to be encapsulated and sent securely and efficiently around the world, the primary example being cryptocurrencies. However, the potential of this technology is only starting to be realized and is already impacting different industries. One sector ripe for such disruption is the gaming industry. With nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the rewards players earn on/with the items they buy are no longer siloed on a single platform with no real-world value. As these developments are still in their nascent stages, many gamers are relegated to merely buying digital property, interacting with digital neighbors, or battling digital creatures. Now, …

Artist collaborations are an undeniable cornerstone of modern pop culture. The confluence of creative minds ultimately captured in a single artwork is something that has perpetually aroused audiences, critics and the creative community. Take “The Marilyn Diptych,” by American pop art pioneer Andy Warhol. The iconic art piece is based on a publicity photograph of Marilyn Monroe for the 1953 noir thriller Niagara. Regardless of the actress' undeniable appeal, the photo itself didn’t stand out until Warhol put a spin on it, turning it into one of the 20th century’s most admired masterpieces. But is that enough of an argument …

GameStop (GME) is assembling a team of blockchain and NFT experts to work on the firm’s upcoming NFT platform. The firm’s GME stock is a cult favorite amongst retail traders as a result of the r/wallstreetbets and Robinhood saga earlier this year. On Reddit the r/Superstonk community boasts 659,000 members, and is dedicated to hosting business and stock discussions related to GME. A post about GameStop’s job listings yesterday has received more than 10,000 upvotes at the time of writing, with many members posting bullish sentiments over GameStop’s latest move. GameStop quietly unveiled a bare-bones website for its NFT marketplace …

Digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, the Blockchain Game Alliance, Enjin, and 26 blockchain game companies have called out video game corporation Valve for its decision to not allow content related to cryptocurrencies or nonfungible tokens through its Steam marketplace. According to an open letter published by Fight for the Future on Oct. 26, the companies and projects are requesting Valve reverse its decision to “prohibit an entire category of software from the Steam platform” and take a chance on crypto and blockchain technology. Steam updated its onboarding process for partners on Oct. 14 to stipulate no applications …

The online gaming industry has been on the rise for the past few years and for a good reason. From a global pandemic pushing an online revolution to the ever-increasing mobile and internet penetration, more people are spending more time online. It is no wonder the industry is big money, raking in over $20 billion in revenue for 2020 alone. With an estimated 1 billion online gamers currently active worldwide, experts forecast growth in numbers reaching a whopping 1.3 billion active gamers by 2025. The numbers speak for themselves. Gamers are so enthusiastic about their favorite games, that some spend …

A new play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game that hopes to emulate the addictive success of 2013 mobile phenomenon Flappy Bird has drawn backing from some of DeFi's biggest names. Kain Warwick from Synthetix, Stani Kulechov from Aave, Tyler Ward from Barnbridge, angel investor Santiago Santos (ex-ParaFi Capital) and 0xmaki from Sushi joined a pre seed round this week for the forthcoming Fancy Birds which is due to launch in around a month. Fancy Birds is a single player mobile game with 8,888 randomly generated NFT characters minted initially with custom features, that fight through levels to earn their spot as “the …

Critics of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) look at these digital assets as being invaluable JPGs, without any specific use case. The main argument here is that while an NFT might hold value like a rare stamp or Pokemon card, they don't have the real-world impact on making them little more than a collectors' item. Whether you agree or are an avid collector yourself, the same fact rings true, with a functional, engaging platform, the NFT world would be revolutionized, as would the real-world industries surrounding them. One of these industries might just be horse racing, a sport that continues to grow …

Nonfungible token (NFT)-game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands has doubled its valuation to $2.2 billion after closing a new funding round that fetched $65 million. The latest funding round was conducted at a pre-money valuation of $2.2 billion, and included backing from gaming giants Ubisoft Entertainment along with Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital to name a few. It’s more vindication for a company that was kicked off the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in March 2020, in part for its involvement in cryptocurrencies. According to the Wednesday announcement from the firm, more than 43.8 million newly issued shares …