The GameFi ecosystem comes back at a time when crypto prices are rising
After a dormant 2022 and a largely muted 2023, GameFi projects are making a comeback as the bull market rages.
This week, access-to-income protocol StepN announced a partnership with Adidas for 1,000 Genesis Edition nonfungible tokens (NFT) on Solana. The launch is part of an ongoing year-long partnership between the two organizations that will see future releases of NFTs and wearable sneakers. Each NFT sneaker from the Genesis Edition will be priced at 10,000 GMT ($2,200).
Created by FSL in 2021, StepN allows users to earn rewards by walking, running or jogging. Rewards are available after users purchase a virtual sneaker NFT and connect their smartphones. By connecting to the app, users will receive GMT tokens, which have an inflation-adjusted supply of $6 billion and a current hybrid market cap of $1.2 billion.
“The collaboration between the most used lifestyle app and global brands like Adidas is now becoming a reality,” commented Shithi Mangani, CEO of StepN. Last week, the activity-finding protocol realized $30. Million airdrops to its loyal users.
For other protocols, it's more about hardware.
Earlier this month, Orth Games unveiled its first Web3 handheld gaming device, the “Bitboy One.” In the year Inspired by the first generation Nintendo Gameboy in 1989, the device allows players to earn Bitcoin (BTC) through retro-style games.
“Through BitBoy's native applications connected to the Bitcoin blockchain, users can play a variety of video games permanently written as ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain,” Orth Games staff wrote. “The options range from HTML games to chain adapters and ROMs,” he added. Both Bluetooth and WiFi are supported for multiplayer activity.
Additionally, each BitBoy device comes with a one-to-one 3D rendering of the physical device in the form of standard text, which can then be viewed on VR devices such as Apple's Vision Pro. The tool saw its official launch at Paris Blockchain Week.
Other projects have shifted their focus to video games.
The ARPG In the Darkness, developed on Arbitrum and developed by Seraph Studios, has recently sold over 11,000 Ether (ETH) in in-game NFT sales that include heroes, advance passes, gear and more. Seraph Studio is backed by Korean game giant Akrotz Soft-backed. Set for a pre-season launch on April 19, the game features a dark medieval setting where players can customize their heroes, fight monsters and find treasure.
The game teased upcoming features in the preseason that will allow players to rent out their in-game NFT devices to earn rewards and earn precious NFTs.
The game It has been under construction since 2021 and has spent a total of $8 million on operations and research. At this point, developers are incorporating new technologies into the final release, such as features like multiplayer AI companionship. The game is scheduled to launch on PC, iOS and Android.
According to data from Dapradar, the number of unique active wallets in GameFi more than doubled from last year to 2.54 million. Last December, game studio founders Yat Siu and Johnson Yeh predicted that “tens of millions” of players would join Web3 games this year. Despite their enthusiasm, GameFi projects have also been criticized for prioritizing the “financial” aspect of gaming over entertainment, and have suffered several notable failures over the past year.
Related: Is GameFi subject to the same market forces as the traditional gaming industry?
