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

Off the Grid: One of the most anticipated blockchain games entered early access last Tuesday. The Avalanche-based Off the Grid is now available to play in a limited form on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as well as on PC via the Epic Games Store.

Developed by Gunzilla Games, which has its own Avalanche L1 (aka subnet) called GUNZ, the game is a battle royale shooter that drops players into a reality show-like experience, where they’ll have to fight to survive in large-scale online matches. Players can equip robotic limbs and swap them out during matches to gain new abilities, plus the game will eventually launch its GUN token and let players mint items as tradable NFTs.

The early access launch has made a huge impact thanks in part to a promotional campaign featuring a number of popular streamers. Off the Grid appears to be making inroads with mainstream gamers in a way that blockchain games previously haven’t, with the game topping the Epic Games Store free-to-play chart.

X Empire airdrop: The makers of Telegram crypto game X Empire announced last week that the X token will launch on The Open Network (TON) on October 24, with the current “chill phase” season ending its gameplay on October 17 ahead of the token launch and airdrop.

X Empire previously ended its “mining phase,” but then delayed the airdrop and launched the chill phase to fill the time. Since then, the game has topped the 50 million player mark.

TikTok tap-to-earn: After tap-to-earn gaming took over this summer with smash hits like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, and X Empire, the genre is expanding to Gen Z-favored social media app TikTok. SonicX, created by the team behind Solana layer-2 gaming network Sonic SVM, is a tap-to-earn game that launches natively inside of TikTok. The game plans to partner with content creators and run ads on TikTok that users will be able to click to open SonicX.

The game ultimately follows a similar premise to the other games in the tap-to-earn genre. Players will furiously tap their screens to collect rings, purchase upgrades to passively progress in-game, and invite friends to jump the ranks—all in the hopes of a future token airdrop that has yet to be confirmed.

Ubisoft NFT game date: Gaming giant Ubisoft announced Thursday that it will release Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles, its first original blockchain game, on October 23. The tactical PC role-playing game will be launched on the Oasys Home Verse gaming network.

Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles allows players to assemble teams of "Champions"—which are digital collectibles with unique abilities—to engage in multiplayer battles in a dark fantasy setting. The game features 75,000 Champion characters and includes a crafting system called The Forge, where players can combine existing Champions to create new ones with different traits.

ICYMI

• Season 2 of Hamster Kombat is set to begin around the end of October.
• The total number of TON holders passed 100 million after the Hamster Kombat token airdrop.
• Ethereum gaming network Ronin adopted Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol to increase security.
• Nintendo launched a hardware device! It’s not the Switch 2, though: It’s an alarm clock.
• Decentraland revealed a huge visual upgrade through its upcoming desktop client.

• Ethereum mobile game Guild of Guardians revealed its first expansion with two new guardians, launching on October 16.
• Gaming data layer CARV launched its token on Ethereum scaler Base last week.
• Immutable trading card game Gods Unchained released its Tower of Dread expansion.
• The Pixels tap-to-earn Telegram game went live in early access without rewards.
• Trading card game The Lost Glitches is re-entering open beta next week on Steam.
• Mobile tower defense game Ragnarok: Monster World entered beta.

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