Mythical Games is building FIFA Rivals, the NFL Rivals of football

GAMING CHRONICLES 95

Raiden

and

Memento | Oscar

Nov 27, 2024

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

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

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TLDR :

Mythical Games x FIFA Rivals
KGeN raises $10M
The Avalanche Retro 9000 program is live

🗞️ NEWS

MYTHICAL GAMES x FIFA RIVALS

Last week Mythical Games, the makers of NFL Rivals, announced they are launching a new game called FIFA Rivals in the Summer of 2025
- FIFA Rivals will be an officially licensed mobile football game, with arcade-like gameplay - a similar approach to how they broke into the NFL games scene
  - To date, NFL Rivals has accumulated 5M downloads and did $510K in sales volume in November
- Gameplay elements include: creating and managing your own football club, building and enhancing your lineups, and playing in real-time PvP matches
FIFA-licensed games have been around for a long time under the well-known FIFA series, developed by EA
- EA Sports and FIFA ended their licensing agreement at the end of 2022, as FIFA reportedly increased its asking price for the license
- In terms of mobile success, EA released a title called EA SPORTS FC Mobile Football (I believe it got rebranded after the agreement ended)
  - The game also falls in the non-simulation category, with arcade-like gameplay
  - Over the years the title accumulated 500M downloads and still brings in multiple millions in IAPs according to SensorTower data
It makes sense for FIFA to capture such a big market, as they currently have little exposure to the mobile vertical
- Furthermore, elements such as loot boxes and trading are very much ingrained in football games, think about the success of FIFA Ultimate Team
- So, it will be interesting to see if Mythical Games can break open this market with a fairer (P2P) trading model and Web3 ownership

KGEN RAISES $10M

Last Thursday KGeN announced they raised $10M in an ecosystem round led by Aptos, with backing from Game7 and Polygon at a $500M val
- Including the prior seed round of $20M in February 2023, this puts total funding at $30M
What’s KGeN?
- A decentralized game network that gives players control over their digital identities, aiming to create “a new paradigm for game publishing - one that's not just profitable, but fundamentally fairer"
  - Achieved through enhancing data capabilities, building stronger partnerships with studios, and improving gaming reward systems
- Through Web3 KGeN is building a network of micro-gaming communities in emerging markets, such as India, Brazil, Nigeria, SEA, and MENA
  - So far they have acquired over 10M users (mainly from India) across its products and the company is profitable with an annualized revenue of $12M (without a live token)
  - The company monetizes through different products, including their loyalty and eSports protocols and “Proof of Gamer Engine”
- In November 2023, KGeN launched an initiative of a $5-6M grant to support gaming studios in their transition to Web3
Lastly, KGeN was formally known as IndiGG (the guild)
- Funny how the transition of guilds continues to be a returning topic

AVALANCHE RETRO 9000 PROGRAM

Avalanche9000 is now live on the Fuji Testnet with up to $40M in grants
- The retroactive grant platform also included $2M for referrals
  - By inviting developers to the program you receive points, which translate to grants, builder credits, airdrops, and more (more like a B2B thing)
- Part of this program is the Avalanche Etna Upgrade, which will make launching an L1 99.9% cheaper than before, slash the average fee on the C-Chain by 96%, and establish interoperability within different blockchains
How it works:
- Companies can submit their project on the Retro9000 website if they’re eligible, users vote on the projects, and the projects get ranked on a public leaderboard
  - For projects to rank up, they need to actively collect votes and post regular updates on the live feed
- Your voting power is determined by the “Chill Factor”, which is based on your transaction history on Avalanche
The goal of this program by Avalanche is to lower the barrier to experimenting with the blockchain. Allowing more developers to enter, more games to come to Avalanche, and more opportunities for virality
- Keep an eye out for interesting indie projects inspired by DeFi mechanics, potentially joining the program