Blockchain Gaming World

In episode 212, Jon talks to YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon. [00:48] Casual degen web3 gaming platform YGG Play is shutting down. [02:17] LOL Land launched well but overall revenue peaked in October 2025 at $3 million. [03:40][ Why was the crypto liquidation event on 10th October 2025 significant? [05:00] Why releasing more titles typically doesn't add revenue for crypto games. [06:19] Why this wa...

MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp hackathon has closed with over 430 entries. [00:22] MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp and the rise of web3 game jams in the AI era. [02:10] Why Verse8's AI platform made this hackathon easier to enter - over 430 entries. [02:48] Playing the Vibe Camp games -- many seems high quality. [03:12] MapleStory’s curation dilemma -- openness vs controlling the IP....

Jon Jordan talks to Nexpace COO Keith Kim about MapleStory N's first year, and how AI will power the MapleStory Universe ecosystem in 2026. [01:00] MapleStory N’s first year - $31M revenue, 3.8M accounts, 650K engaged wallets. [02:10] How the profile was different for MapleStory N to traditional MapleStory gamers. [02:57] What we have done well is being agile and altering our strategy, adjusti...

Axie: Terrariums goes live, Fishing Frenzy and Pudgy Party close down. [00:42] Sky Mavis is rebooting its vision for Axie land NFTs with Terrariums. [01:25] It builds on the complex learnings of the original Axie land game Homeland. [02:14] Homeland was an attempt to combine land-based gameplay and NFT staking. [04:31] It was a surprisingly deep resource-management game but a bad staking system. [...

The Sandbox announces its AI creation and distribution platform The Sandbox Studio. [02:05] The Sandbox announces The Sandbox Studio, its AI-powered creator tools. [03:00] Roblox as the obvious benchmark for AI-powered UGC in games [04:20] Did The Sandbox waste time in H2 2025 on Corners, its memecoin experiment? [06:40] What The Sandbox Studio actually is, and why it is still only in alpha [07:25...

Nexpace announced a $60,000 Vibe Camp for MapleStory UGC using Verse8 AI tools. [00:32] MapleStory Universe, Verse8 and the $60,000 AI UGC VibeCamp [04:00] Why MapleStory Universe is one of web3 gaming’s serious IP plays [05:03] How Verse8 lets users vibe-code games [06:10] Why AI-generated games work better with existing emotional IP [07:40] Nexpace’s ambition for third-party creators to out-earn...

Can Aavegotchi DAO takeover the project, the State of Pixels, and the rise of open source in the agentic era. [00:35] Aavegotchi dev Pixelcraft is one of the OG web3 gaming studios. [05:16] It's looking to hand over control of Aavegotchi to the DAO. [06:28] DAOs haven't been successful for reasons like coordination and authority. [07:25] It's a nice vision, but the reality is Pixelcraf...

The big beasts arise as we talk EVE Frontier, MapleStory Universe and how Wemade's approach bests Ubisoft. [00:34] Jon attended EVE Fanfest 2026 in Iceland. What are his takeaways? [02:40] Why EVE Fanfest works beyond being just an event for players. [05:05] EVE Frontier is EVE Online if made from scratch now. [06:46] In Cycle 6 (out 25th June), EVE Frontier finally becomes more of an actual s...

Jon Jordan talks to Verse8 CEO Kevin Lee about the challenges and opportunities for the AI game-making platform. [01:09] Kevin Lee’s background at Planetarium doing web3 investing and private equity. [02:56] Verse8 started as a WebGL engine project inside Planetarium. [03:31] We first realized the potential of AI technology for game-making in 2024. [04:44] By 2025, it was clear that LLMs could gen...

The big news this week is CCP Games' MBO, rebranded as Fenris Creations and backed by Google DeepMind. [00:32] Fenris Creations (ex-CCP Games) has gained independence from Pearl Abyss for $120 million. [02:26] Pearl Abyss originally bought the company for $225 million in 2018. [03:26] Why CCP and Pearl Abyss were an awkward fit, culturally and corporately. [04:35] Pearl Abyss now has very succ...

Reaper Actual raises capital, tracking FIFA Rivals NFT sales, and whatever happened to Wildcard's Thousands? [00:25] FIFA Rivals NFTs have finally migrated to the Pulse market. [02:55] Pulse uses USDC stablecoin for all NFT trading, even for in-app trading. [8:11] FIFA Rivals is fairly simple; 90 second mini-games and build your team. [10:12] Even powerful players are not too expensive: Guimar...

FIFA Rivals moving to Pulse market, Verse8 x YGG hackathon results and Hytopia's worrying pause. [00:16] Mythical Games is migrating FIFA Rivals to the new Pulse marketplace. [02:46] But there's been some sort of delay. FIFA Rivals is the last of Mythical's games to migrate. [04:19] The significant change with Pulse is it uses the USDC stablecoin. [05:51] Why in-game item markets shoul...

EVE Frontier's hackathon deconstructed, Limit Break's first game, Xociety pauses, SANDchain completes testnet phase 1. [00:15] Deconstructing EVE Frontier x Sui $80,000 hackathon [03:19] There were 123 submissions. Largest categories were bounty boards, insurance, gate tolls. [07:20] Data was another key theme - escrow-style systems for buying and selling information. [10:05] 25% of submis...

Pixels' Stacked P2E rewards platform is live, Verse8 raised $5M, Wildcard's WC token is live. Jon has a new hat. [0:17] Jon wants everyone to know that he has a new GamesTX hat. [1:23] Pixels has launched Stacked, which is a P2E rewards platform (or engine!) for web2/3 games. [3:42] Effectively, Stacked is a productized version of the P2E layer in Pixels. [8:36] Stacked currently supports...

Jon Jordan talks to Pixels' CEO Luke Barwikowski about Stacked, the company's new P2E rewards platform. [0:56] Introducing Stacked, the new rewards app from Pixels. [2:02] Pixels still believes in play-to-earn for web3 gaming, notably using data-driven rewarded play. [3:44] Stacked is the productification of Pixels' reward system that any game can plug into. [5:09] It allows you to dis...

The Sandbox reveals mobile shooter NEXT, Wildcard's WC token goes live on 26 March, AlphaTON buys GAMEE. [2:29] The Sandbox has announced standalone mobile battle royale game NEXT. [2:47] The Sandbox's vision for mobile has never been strong. This is a new start. [4:55] More important than the game itself, NEXT is a symbol of agency and urgency. [6:50] You have to log into NEXT with your T...

EVE Frontier's Cycle 5, Night Crows' NFT Crusade, Shrapnel's early access and 1,000th Substacks! [0:43] EVE Frontier has launched Cycle 5, which will run for the next 3 months. [6:50] Changes include defensive turrets, collaborative options, tweaked ship controls, new ships. [8:10] You can also build and optimize Shells, the game's clone characters, for the first time. [9:14] Feral...

Thousands' THOU token, Limit Break's testnet, Cambria presells $1M tokens, FIFA/NFL Rivals NFTs moving to stablecoin Pulse Market. [2:29] The Thousands streaming platform has announced THOU token, but not many details. [2:55] This is in addition to Wildcard's WC token. Wildcard is the first game on Thousands. [4:28] How do Wildcard (game) and Thousands (platform) overcome the Cold Star...

Jon talks to Yat Siu about how agentic AI gives everyone intelligent assistants, unbundles information, forces onchain reputation and saves governance. [1:23] Why Yat has 9 Animoca Minds agents working for him on different tasks. [2:15] Yat's AI assistant now handles flight tracking, delays, alerts and pick-ups. [5:30] Most people will not run OpenClaw but have their AI assistants in email and...

Featuring Apptokens, bAXS, Fableborne, POWER, in-game ads in Off The Grid and Wildcard Premier League [0:43] Bitkraft has invested $3 million into POWER Protocol, the token used by Fableborne. [3:20] Fableborne is a mobile action RPG that has managed to stay alive through the P2E era. [6:21] POWER is now also being used by online gambling outfit High Roller. [10:08] Over the past month, POWER'...

The Sandbox Season 7 is going live, Gigaverse announces GIGABIT and Portal is rebooting. [0:38] The Sandbox Season 7 is going live on 25th February 2026. [2:22] For the first time, this isn't an Alpha Season. It's just called "Season 7". [5:26] There's a focus on community UGC, not the big brands, which will continue through 2026. [6:45] It looks like these UGC experiences wi...

EVE Frontier's $80,000 hackathon, Alek Larsen leaves Sky Mavis, and AI agent fun with Shaw Walters and Animoca Minds. [0:23] EVE Frontier and Sui are launching an $80,000 hackathon starting on 11th March. [4:50] It will be interesting to see how AI expands the number of people who get involved. [6:19] While web2 games struggle with AI, web3 games are well ahead of the curve. [10:20] The situat...

Jon talks to Eliza Labs Shaw Walters about his work on AI agent frameworks, and why blockchain games are a focus. [1:00] An introduction to Shaw Walters, the creator of AI agent framework ElizaOS. [3:10] "I see myself as a comedian and performance artist. I love the joke that becomes true." [4:48] "What I'm focused on is agents that get you your time back and agents that can pla...

Animoca Minds, MapleStory integrates Verse8 AI game-making tools, GOAT Gaming shuts down and Forkast esports prediction market. [1:11] This week has seen an explosion in interest about AI agents, notably Clawbot and Moltbook. [3:10] With ClawBot, you can create an AI assistant with access to your entire computer. [5:14] It was also a massive security issue. [6:20] Other people criticized it for ju...

Jon Jordan talks to Forkast CEO Chris Gonsalves and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures Ethan Sy. [1:12] Ethan's history. He was previously at Play Ventures, investing in web2/3 gaming. [3:05] Chris started at Bitcoin Center. Moved to Consensys, then co-founded Community Gaming. [4:26] Esports prediction markets launched within Community Gaming, which became Forkast. [4:56] Chris believes prediction mark...