The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

Dr. Disrespect: Midnight Society, the studio building the first-person shooter game Deadrop, announced Monday that it dropped co-founder and popular streamer Dr. Disrespect (aka Guy Beahm) following tweeted allegations over why he had been banned from streaming platform Twitch. Beahm later admitted to having conversations with a minor that “leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate,” although he claimed that “nothing illegal happened.” 

The studio's move led fans to speculate over the future of Midnight Society and Deadrop. Some immediately suggested that the game was now “dead in the water,” while others believe the game can survive if it continues to focus on expanding and upgrading the core game loop. Speculation continues to grow with little word from the Midnight Society camp.

More Telegram tokens: Telegram-based games are the biggest thing happening in crypto gaming right now, and two more notable games made their token plans clearer last week. Pixelverse, a cyberpunk-themed gaming ecosystem that has a rising Telegram combat game called PixelTap, announced Friday that it will launch its token on The Open Network (TON)—the same network as Notcoin and the upcoming Hamster Kombat token.

Meanwhile, another hot Telegram game called Catizen—a puzzle matching game with cartoon cats—announced over the weekend that its TON token drop is planned for July. That's right around the corner!

Notcoin fresh start: Viral Telegram game Notcoin has teased a “fresh start” amid a campaign that will see approximately $8 million worth of NOT tokens either burned or given out to the community. On Tuesday, $3 million worth of unclaimed NOT tokens were burned, with an additional $5 million to be distributed as “bonuses” to the community.

Soon after, some type of new beginning was teased in the official Notcoin Telegram channel. While everything is still unclear, it appears to relate to TON NFT collection Lost Dogs Co, after following breadcrumbs left by the Notcoin team. This may have something to do with Notcoin’s goal of becoming “the Netflix of social, viral games.”

MetalCore token: Studio369, the developer behind the sci-fi mech shooter MetalCore, launched its Ethereum token this week alongside the third phase of its closed beta, introducing new gameplay modes and economic features to the blockchain-based game.

On Thursday, MetalCore’s Closed Beta 3 (CB3) started featuring session-based PvP esports competitions, including Domination, Capture the Flag, and High-Value Target modes. Then on Friday, Studio369 conducted the token generation event for its MCG token across Ethereum’s mainnet and Immutable zkEVM, the layer-2 scaling network that MetalCore is being built on.

Worldwide Webb rebrands: Worldwide Webb, a retro-style Ethereum NFT game, announced last week that it is rebranding to Soulbound as it embraces a new sci-fi narrative path forward. Soulbound is a roguelite game that challenges players to clear dungeons full of enemies while trying different tactics and character builds.

At the same time, Soulbound announced that it's building the game to be playable within popular gaming chat app Discord, after winning in the Discord App Pitches 2024 competition.

"We see Discord as the future for gamers, so we needed a brand name that breaks away from the web and launches us into next-gen platform gaming," Soulbound founder and CEO Thomas Webb told Decrypt's GG. "This name gives us the freedom to build a universe around Soulbound without any preconceived notions. After years of brainstorming, we finally nailed it."

ICYMI

• Hamster Kombat was slammed by the Iranian government as the game purportedly topped 200 million players.
• Avalanche shooter BloodLoop launched its play-to-airdrop campaign via the Epic Games Store.
• Netmarble's Marblex crypto gaming ecosystem is migrating to Immutable zkEVM, and Marblex and Immutable are launching a joint $20 million dev fund.
• Metaverse infrastructure company Futureverse and crypto venture capital firm Animoca Brands formed a strategic partnership to invest in technology stack and token ecosystem.
• Web gaming ecosystem Game7 announced its partnership with Mantle, bringing a handful of Mantle’s top games to the Game7 portal.

• Kadokawa Corporation, the Japanese parent company behind hit game Elden Ring, was hit with a ransomware attack.
• Roblox opened its virtual IKEA store, with jobs attracting over 178,000 applications.
• Dr. Disrespect will be removed from NBA 2K24 in the next patch, following his admission.
• Solana-based cloud gaming network Shaga raised $1 million through an angel investment round.
• MMORPG Lumiterra is migrating to the Ronin network.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward