1 August 2025 | Weekly news roundup

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:22] Blockchain gaming is quiet. It's having a 'back to school' moment.[1:05] There's a wider focus on general crypto with ETFs, treasury companies etc. Not gaming.[3:51] Web2 game Wildcard and its Thousand web3 ecosystem is gearing up for its October launch.[5:10] Wildcard has just surpassed 75,000 wishlists on Steam. [9:04] Details about ownership of in-game character cards has been released, including rev share. [11:05] The WC token has been released but it's airlocked into wallets so it's hard to get a price for it.[12:40] People will also be able to buy game arenas, but they would be very expensive.[16:10] Jon's theory of blockchain games operating in a battle royale-style shrinking area.[18:10] Pudgy Party has done 500,000 downloads within 2 weeks.[19:57] The Pudgy Party Power Pudgy NFT skin now has a floor price of $3,300.[21:27] Adam Weitsman has acquired the HV-MTL NFT collection from Faraway Games.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[1:18] Looking at the most popular blockchain games, we can start to see some trends for 2025. [1:42] Axie Infinity and Aliens Worlds have been very stable throughout 2025.[4:17] Games such as Pixels and Nine Chronicles have decline sharply as they rethink their vision.[6:00] MapleStory Universe is the big growth story of the year so far - c. 70,000 DAUWs.[8:41] Craft World has launched its first mainnet collab with Ronkeverse.[15:16] Gigaverse has raised $2.3 million to build out open world gameplay.[16:55] We're seeing a rise of degen-focused onchain games. Niche but generating revenue.[20:42] LOL Land is a good example. It's basically an onchain lottery but generated $1.5 million.[22:15] Similar are RWA platforms for Pokemon cards like Courtyard. $125 million of trading in August.[27:10] Animoca has announced MocaPortfolio, which will be rewarding $20 million to stakers.[28:43] This is part of a wider narrative for Animoca to boost the MOCA token around a possible IPO.[32:33] Stakers will burn their staked points to get various free tokens. The first is Magic Eden's ME. [34:01] How is Mythical Games doing with its three mobile games now live?[35:06] This is in contrast to the trend towards more niche, onchain degen-focused games.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:38] What's going on at The Sandbox? Co-founders shifted? Job cuts? Memecoins?[0:52] Animoca's Robby Yung will be the new CEO as Animoca exerts more control over the project.[1:30] To a degree, the news is only "big" because its The Sandbox, which everyone knows.[3:25] Animoca is annoyed because it wanted to announce the restructure and new vision in the [4:10] Things have been going very slowly at The Sandbox. Change was needed.[7:19] Despite these changes, The Sandbox will still have nine offices globally.[10:40] From the outside, it looks like The Sandbox has suffered from a lack of strategy.[12:13] The Sandbox will be announcing a "big new project" a couple of months.[13:34] This project seems to be about expanding the scope of the SAND token.[17:51] Jon's wild rumor. A SAND treasury company? Fronted by Barron Trump? Stranger things...[19:12] Mobile game Pudgy Party is out today with a Steal a Brainrot collab.[22:10] It's a cute battle royale game with lots of customization and light combat options.[23:01] The concept is Mythical does the game, Pudgy Penguins brings the marketing. [28:42] The Axie Infinity Constitution has been revealed. You can vote from 1 September.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:35] Proof of Play is shutting down fully onchain game Pirate Nation.[3:08] As well as combat, it had a deep crafting system but never attracted enough players. [4:00] Its play-to-airdrop seasons artificially boosted audience but not revenues. [6:06] The main reason it shut was it cost $150,000 a month to run the underlying blockchains.[7:45] The PVE mode from the game is now available to play on the Abstract blockchain. [8:40] NFT holders will get a final airdrop of PIRATE tokens.[9:00] Proof of Play will continue to operate, focusing on "profitable business operations".[14:30] Ronin strategy game Wild Forest is rebooting, including a new PVE campaign. [18:45] The WF token is up 400% but still down 80% from its original launch.[21:26] South Korean game item marketplace Overtake has raised $7 million.[24:52] It's a web3 project based on existing web2 markets ItemBay and ItemMania. [25:33] Splinterlands has launched its cheeky $500,000 Crypto Game Recovery Fund.[27:35] It's giving assets to holders of NFTs from games which have shut down. [32:53] TGC Project O has been announced for Immutable.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:52] Jon's been talking to MMOG veteran John Smedley about new FPS Reaper Actual.[2:30] What's interesting about the project is how perceptions about web3 have shaped its vision.[4:31] Steam doesn't allow blockchain and some of the Steam community hates blockchain. [4:51] So the web3 version of Reaper Actual will only be available via its own website.[5:45] Splitting the game into web2 and web3 versions isn't strong from a marketing pov.[8:30] The problem is they'll have a web3 game with most players playing the web2 version.[11:57] Shrapnel has raised $19.5 million for its global launch in Q1 2026.[13:03] It's funny to see how all the Avalanche fanboys ignore Shrapnel now it's moved to Gala.[18:05] Fully onchain game Craft World now accounts for 50% of all transactions on Ronin. [21:40] Ubisoft's forthcoming TGC Might & Magic: Fates is doing a pre-sale on 3rd September.

In the latest episode of the Blockchain Gaming World podcast, editor-in-chief Jon Jordan talks to MMOG legend John Smedley about his new studio Distinct Possibility and its forthcoming persistent extraction shooter Reaper Actual, which will be released on Steam and Epic Games Store as a pure web2 game, with the web3 version only available via its own website.[2:33] Reaper Actual is a mix between a MMO and a FPS: an "open world persistent shooter".[4:18] It's like Escape from Tarkov in an open world and had a baby with Rainbow Six Siege.[6:00] How Reaper Actual is different to the likes of Delta Force and Arena Breakout.[9:20] The game's persistence is around bases but also a player affinity system.[11:40] How the game is using genAI ethically in terms of paying voice actors.[14:40] Why is it a blockchain game?[18:56] Why there will be a separate web2 version for Steam and EGS.[21:50] We are not a pay-to-win game. We never will be.[28:14] The game will sell bases, which in the web3 version of the game, will be NFTs.[33:07] Why Reaper Actual is building on Tezos' Etherlink EVM L2. [34:55] The first playable version will be released on Steam and web3 in late September.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:50] Craft World launched on Ronin. One day late. [2:43] It also launched its DynoCoin, which is designed to be a purely transactional token.[4:53] DynoCoin was a fair launch, 100% for community. No allocation for team, investors or KOLs.[6:42] If you want to cash out from Craft World, you need to buy a $8 Pro Account. This stops bots.[12:48] Shrapnel has ditched Avalanche and is moving to GalaChain. [16:37] The project has had many issues, mainly with its initial investor, also a high burnrate. [18:46] It's now betting everything on being a success in China. [21:49] FIFA Rivals has done 1 million downloads from app stores in 7 weeks. [23:34] Jon thinks it's a really good game, even though it's still missing its career mode. [25:11] And with Pudgy Party releasing soon, Mythical is really gearing up for success.

Jon Jordan talks to Voya Games' CEO Oliver Loeffler about the launch of idle resource game Craft World on Ronin and what's coming next?[3:20] Craft World isn't trying to chase hype. It's a project with a long term vision.[4:10] We have a long runaway. Yoya Games is very careful with its money.[4:55] Right now, we're not sure if we have product-market-fit so we're still experimenting.[5:53] Voya is still a small team -- 11 people, mainly in Germany. [6:18] AI provides a real boost in terms of productivity. 7:59 The Project Voyager token campaign attracted a lot of degen activity.[8:50] We see Project Voyager as its own game. We will reuse it to distribute future rewards.[12:08] Degens are a great crowd but you also need to onboard a wider audience to web3. [13:03] How Project Voyager winner CattanSettler got into Craft World.[14:30] Why Craft World choose Ronin as its blockchain.[19:35] Plans for a Ronin Mega Event. [23:04] Why the DynoCoin token has been designed for utility, not speculation.[29:30] What is Dynogotchi?[31:40] Future plans for Craft World and land NFTs, how this fits into the metagame.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[1:20] Delabs Games has announced its total funding is now $17.2 million.[2:58] Its new funding was a $4.7 million Series A round, prior to the DELABS token launch. [6:40] It's a difficult time for games team to launch new tokens. All prices are down. [8:08] GOAT Gaming has launched Season 4 with new idle game Underground Pepe. [13:58] Thinking about blockchain gaming as either a big game or the attention economy. [15:48] TOKYO BEAST is shutting down on 24th August.[21:33] Does it work to launch a web2 version of a web3 game? Jon thinks not.

Jon Jordan and Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including:[0:20] Saga and Chrono Labs have launched AI agent platform KEX.[1:38] Delabs Games has announced it's using new genAI gamemaking platform Verse 8.[4:00] It's interesting to see the second wave of AI agents - all around doing onchain transactions.[5:40] Delabs has moved from PC games to midcore games on LINE and now to AI-generated games.[7:27] Verse 8 is developed by Planetarium and its CEO has become co-CEO at Delabs.[8:38] The games made with Verse 8 are multiplayer and with NFT item economies.[10:58] Sky Mavis and YGG are reworking their play-to-earn models, giving away less to extractors.[16:19] The issue with doing this is you drop your DAUW count, which is seen as a key KPI. [19:08] Fully onchain football game Soccerverse is about to launch Season 2.[27:56] Craft World is going live on Ronin mainnet on 29th July.[31:53] Is Pudgy Party - out later this summer - the next big web3 game?