Gunzilla Games acquires Game Informer, but why?

GAMING CHRONICLES 112

Raiden

and

Memento | Oscar

Mar 26, 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 :

Gunzilla Games acquired Game Informer
Immortal Rising raised $3M
Symbiogenesis is shutting down

🗞️ NEWS

GUNZILLA GAMES ACQUIRED GAME INFORMER

In a surprise announcement, Gunzilla Games, the makers of Off the Grid, acquired the game media company Game Informer
- Game Informer, a game magazine in print and online, was closed last year by its previous owner, GameStop, after 33 years in business
  - Many (former) subscribers seem to be millennials, who like the nostalgic feeling of game magazines. Is this the right audience for crypto gaming, though?
- The entire team, from editorial to production and beyond, has returned with the revival of the company
Jonah shared his views on both the pros and cons of this acquisition:
- Most significant pro: They’ll leverage Game Informer into a distribution platform “HUB” for Off the Grid’s TGE
  - Kosta shared this view, and is even considering revising his take that the MapleStory TGE will be larger than OTG
- Cons: expensive and little value for content, YouTubers (independents) make better content, lack of trust regarding reviewing crypto games, and you still have UA costs (platform doesn’t come with deep member traffic)
  - Even though Game Informer claims they’re independent, people might be sceptical about it being owned by a game developer, and more importantly, a bunch of “crypto bros” (the public’s perspective)
  - Independence (i.e., being unbiased) has become more important in the dying category of traditional game media. There’s a reason many people started hating on IGN
Despite opposing views and us maybe not seeing the exact business outcome of this acquisition at the moment, I am eager to see how this experiment unfolds
- But can this platform provide fair coverage of quality Web3 games and educate an audience of traditional gamers, or will it alienate them?

IMMORTAL RISING RAISED $3M

2 days before its TGE, Immortal Rising 2 announced a $3M funding round
- The funds will be used to enhance gameplay mechanics and grow the community (UA?)
- The round was led by Solarium Labs, the venture arm of Planeterium. Planeterium is the publisher of Immortal Rising 2, Busy Beans Studio is the developer
Immortal Rising 2, the successor of the original, has been one of the more successful crypto games so far, with 8.8M+ downloads and $1M+ in IAP revenue
- According to Appmagic, its main markets include Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines
However, when the airdrop allocations were revealed earlier this week, community members started sharing their concerns: “No good airdrop = No community”
- This player claims to have farmed the airdrop for several months, and only received a tiny token allocation
- Seemingly, a misalignment between the duration of the P2A campaign (up to 7 months?) and the expectations of players
  - The game had specific eligibility criteria, needing players to have participated in ORB missions and referrals from Immortal Rising 2 Vault, and engage in the P2A launchpool (seasons 1,2, and 3)
In 2025, it has become increasingly more difficult for games to satisfy their community (incl. P2A participants), + have a chart that goes up post-launch (e.g. G7)
- The incentives are not aligned anymore, and the more supply you allocate to your players at launch, the more gets dumped pretty much
- So, how much “community” is being built by allocating players more?
Market sentiment is a bit better now, but still doubtful this TGE will go well, as the appetite for gaming tokens remains almost nil

SYMBIOGENESIS IS SHUTTING DOWN

More unfortunate news this week as Symbiogenesis (by Square Enix) is shutting down in July 2025
- Whether Symbiogenesis was a game or just a collectible art project is debatable; however, the project still featured the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest IP
- It launched in mid-2023 and wasn’t welcomed by game critics and fans of the IP:
  - “Money is the only endgame here, when Square Enix could be pooling resources to enable new voices, bring back forgotten classics, or do literally anything other than throw piles of cash down a well for yet another hearty dose of blockchain bullshit” - TheGamer
Players could purchase NFT-based characters and explore a "multi-chapter fantasy," which promised utility to its 10,000-piece collection. However, the experience proved to be quite underwhelming
- Gameplay included a point-and-click Treasure Hunt, where players could earn points, unlock story content, craft items, and rank up on the leaderboards
- One of the dozens of underwhelming blockchain experiments brought by large Web2 corps
However, Symbiogenesis wasn’t Square Enix’s only venture into crypto gaming:
- In 2022, they sold $300M of assets to fund their plans to invest in blockchain, AI, and Cloud solutions
- In 2024, they led the round of Soccerverse, a Web3 soccer management game
- In 2024, they invested in HyperPlay (the game launcher by G7)
  - Funnily enough, Symbiogenesis debuted on the HyperPlay storefront
Overall, Symbiogenesis was largely doomed from the start. However, it seems Square Enix hasn’t shied away from investing in blockchain games and infrastructure