BOGX leaves holders and employees in the dust...

GAMING CHRONICLES 113

Raiden

and

Memento | Oscar

Apr 02, 2025

Gaming Chronicles focuses on curating the latest web3 gaming news every week.

You will find the latest news, educational content, and game reviews.

TLDR :

BOGX rugs Web3
IntellaX pivots away from gaming
Shrapnel partners with the Chinese government

🗞️ NEWS

BOGX RUGS WEB3

After weeks or even months of silence, AmberBella, the (former?) CMO of BOGX comes out to share and confess the truth about the company’s practices
- From a high level:
  - Issues started during the Ethereal mint (the 2nd collection). During this event, they prioritized Web2 features, leading to mint issues, which led to internal disputes over excessive monetization and the Web2 team refusing to create benefits for NFT holders
  - Furthermore, the Web2 team was using their own accounts during playtest #3 to compete on the game leaderboards and claim cash prizes
  - At some point, the Web3 side of the game became completely abandoned. And the team’s salaries went from delayed to no payments at all
    - When Amber noticed the signs of abandoning Web3, she proposed a plan to properly liquidate all the NFT assets and refund buyers. However, she simply got blocked by the founder
  - To mitigate some of the damage, Amber chose to refund as many holders as possible using her own funds
The makers of BOGX, Void Labs, raised $6M in a round they announced in May 2024, from Delphi Digital, OKX Ventures, YGG, and others
- I can’t imagine this round didn’t include some type of token warrants…
In May, BOGX also held its Genesis NFT mint, the Orisols collection
- It was a free collection, but I remember that these were trading somewhere in the 0.6+ ETH range at their peak
Lastly, it isn’t the first time teams from mainland China have shown this kind of behavior, as blockchain games are heavily controlled and restricted over there
- Furthermore, 1mpal also brings up an important point that Web3 allows companies to sell investment products that hold no real value, while avoiding legal responsibilities

INTELLAX PIVOTS

In other news, Intella X announced it’s pivoting away from a Web3 gaming platform to Predict Go as a new business direction
- Intella created a “gaming ecosystem” backed by the South Korean game company NEOWIZ, with its core focus being on infrastructure, publishing, and UA (similar to G7)
- The platform housed games like Cats & Soup, A.V.A., Eternal Return, and House of Slots. Mostly revamped games from Web2
Now, the company is pivoting because:
- “…over the past few years, interest in the Web3 gaming market has declined faster than expected, both from users and investors.”
- Furthermore, they mention that acquiring users and generating revenue has become more challenging, and that overcoming these would be difficult
In establishing their new business strategy, they considered product market fit, market size, and differentiation, which led to the decision to pursue PredictGO: a Web3 prediction platform
- Pretty humorous that they simply pursue another Web3 trend. A model that inherently doesn’t have a moat
Intella X raised $12M from investors like Polygon, Animoca Brands, and Magic Eden in January 2023, plus introduced a $10M gaming initiative program in May 2023
The IX token is still coming, but after this huge pivot, we have to wonder what the numbers will look like

SHRAPNEL x CHINESE GOVERNMENT

Perhaps the most surprising news of this week is Shrapnel partnering with the Chinese government to launch the first licensed Web3 game on the nation’s chain, as reported by Decrypt:
- The official “RWA Trusted Copyright Chain” is China’s government-led blockchain platform to authenticate and manage digital assets and IP
  - It enables verifiable ownership and facilitates compliance with trading digital assets within the nation
- The collaboration between Shrapnel and the chain involves:
  - A game launcher tailored to the Chinese market
  - A marketplace utilizing the Trusted Copyright Chain to manage issuing tokens and real-world assets (RWAs) compliantly
  - Exclusive tokenized in-game cosmetic items, only available to Chinese players
- Furthermore, a preliminary agreement was reached between Shrapnel and Linjing Game Labs (a Chinese publisher) to create government-compliant distribution of Shrapnel’s localized Web3 game in China, including minting, issuance, free trading, and local ops
The Chinese gaming market is extremely regulated in general (for both Web2 and 3). Foreign games require sophisticated licensing, domestic publishing, and have heavy content restrictions
- World of Warcraft, for instance, shut down after 18 years of presence in China over disputes and adhering to regulations. China was one of WoW’s largest player bases
However, despite the regulations, China is one of the most lucrative gaming markets in the world, therefore providing significant opportunities to foreign games
- The question is whether a game like Shrapnel can appeal to the Chinese audience