So, why exactly did Animoca Brands acquire SOMO?
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TLDR :
SOMO gets acquired by Animoca?
Ragnarok Libre is shutting down
Pixiland pivots to Web2
🗞️ NEWS
SOMO GETS ACQUIRED BY ANIMOCA BRANDS?
In a surprise announcement on Wednesday, SOMO shared that it has been acquired by Animoca Brands (AB). The public’s response: “Why?” SOMO has made quite a name for itself in the past few years (borderline crime), so what’s in AB’s interest to acquire this company?
There wasn’t the case of AB “trying to save its investment”, because the company didn’t participate in any prior rounds. Is this simply about acquiring SOMO’s treasury, launching the SOMO token, or is there more?
To provide some context on what SOMO is and does (and doesn’t), let’s get into its history. Here’s the company’s description according to the AB press release: “SOMO is a crypto-native collectibles and gaming brand built for the next generation of collectors and internet-native audience”
The company was established in 2023, and shared its first post in September that year, which introduced the brand and came with a premint page. In early 2024, they revealed their 120 Monolith NFT collection
Back then, this NFT sale was incredibly hyped, reflected by the initial floor price of 88 ETH (different times…)
After concluding its NFT sale, the SOMO token was next. The token was going to launch via Portal’s launchpad (the SocialFi company). Through this partnership, SOMO also introduced a “social slop campaign”
On April 25, 2024, it held a public sale for the token. The sale raised $20M for the company and was even heavily overallocated
In April 2024, SOMO introduced its first game: SOMO Battleground
Over the next few months, the company primarily focused on building out its IP (i.e., releasing trailers and animations). In September 2024, it released a trailer for its next game: SOMO Duel. Later that same year, the company released an immersive in-person experience
Then, they decided to jump on the Telegram games hype and release a tapping game called Tap Tap Tripps
In January 2025, they decided to chase another hot narrative and join Abstract. Later that year, in July, they introduced a new experience called SOMO Codex. A socially-powered TCG experience
The TL:DR is that SOMO has been excellent at chasing narratives (SocialFi, Telegram tapping game, TCG experiences, joining Abstract, etc.), releasing trailers and animations, minimal progress with their games, while stringing along people for almost 2 years now
"Wen token?” This is the question many people want answered (including Raiden, who’s $50K deep into the pre-sale round). Whether AB will or has to honor the token agreement seems unclear at this point
More recently, SOMO has been teasing/alluding that the token launch is coming
So what’s AB’s play here? I see little value in the SOMO IP (games, experiences, assets, etc.), which also happens to come with a lot of baggage. Is this a takeover of the treasury, or do they see value in a token launch? We’ll have to see
RAGNAROK LIBRE IS SHUTTING DOWN
As I speculated, 2026 won’t be an easy year for crypto gaming like 2025 was. And so, Ragnarok Libre (RL) announced its shutdown this week (the third closure of the year: Boomland, BADMAD Robots, and now RL)
RL is a mobile (on LINE and Telegram) and browser idle RPG, part of the Delabs ecosystem. The game was only introduced in June 2025, and the game itself was released on August 11
RL is a game that uses the Ragnarok Online IP, as its name implies. Over the past few years, we’ve seen multiple Ragnarok games pop up in crypto, such as Landverse and Monster World. Moreover, the IP is incredibly popular (saturated) in traditional gaming, as there are probably over a dozen Ragnarok games right now
During its (incentivized) pre-launch campaign, RL accumulated over 500K sign-ups and saw similar numbers during its S1. However, it seems that didn’t translate to meaningful (real) player numbers to keep the game afloat (post-airdrop)
By now, we know that most metrics in crypto are not an indicator of success. Signups, downloads, wallets, it’s all vanity, and can be gamed. There are literally factories in India that provide “vanity metrics services”
The release of the game was paired with a P2A campaign in which 30,000,000 DELABS tokens (~$175K on the day of the claim) were distributed. In total, over 400K players participated during this season
Last time we talked about Delabs as a studio, they announced that they raised an additional $5.2M and were close to their token launch (TGE was on the 28th of July)
I said: “With its TGE coming soon (presumably) and strong market sentiment coming out of Korea, we might see a good token launch”. But, unfortunately, I was wrong and overestimated their chances of success
DELABS opened at around an $8M market cap and is now trading at ~$2.7M (-67%). It didn’t seem RL, its partnership with Verse8, or GIGACHADBAT (GCB) moved the needle for the studio token. Plus, it seems unlikely that any catalysts in the near future will make this token move up
Outside of RL, Delabs halted the development of Metabolts, seems to have abandoned Space Frontier, and it sunsetted Rumble Racing Stars last month. Furthermore, communications for Boxing Star X seemed to have slowed down, and GCB remains the only title in their catalog that might last
However, the original version of Boxing Star X, Boxing Star: Boxing Fight Game, is still performing. According to SensorTower, the game generated $70K on Android and $60K on iOS last month
Despite the above, Delabs did raise a total of $17.2M (over multiple rounds). So, they likely still have runway left and might launch another title sooner or later
Overall, Delabs seems to be in a tough spot right now, so I’m curious about what their next move will be. They will likely continue to pursue LINE and Telegram apps as their primary focus
PIXILAND PIVOTS TO WEB2
Most often, struggling studios in crypto gaming shut down. However, now and then, there’s a studio that pivots from Web3 to Web2 (like Moonfrost). Pixiland is one of these studios in the 2nd camp, which shared that they’re pivoting yesterday:
“Due to ongoing market volatility, increasing regulatory uncertainty / compliance requirements, and limited remaining resources, sustaining the Web3 model long-term has become extremely challenging.”
I.e., they couldn’t figure out a sustainable monetization model for the game
For context, Pixiland is a browser-based pixel-art strategy game/social RPG with features such as village building, resource management, exploration, and combat, etc.
Before it moved to Ronin in mid-2025, the game also functioned as a Telegram game, part of the TON ecosystem
As part of this transition, any existing TGE plans will be canceled, wPixi will be converted into GEM (a sole in-game currency), players will withdraw NFTs back to their wallets, and more. Effective immediately
The Web2 version of the game will then launch on the first of February. During this phase, the team will prioritize server stability and fixing critical issues, but isn’t promising any major content updates (likely because it doesn’t have the resources)
Naturally, players weren’t happy with the decision. Especially because Pixiland held its Frontier Land NFT sale quite recently, in November. During the sale, the team raised around 200K $RON ($28.5K)
Other than a 1:1 transition of the NFTs to (offchain) items in the Web2 version. It doesn’t seem like players will be reimbursed
Tokens/NFTs can create a significant amount of “community baggage” if a studio shuts down. Even though the team’s intent may seem malicious, given the recent occurrence of the NFT sale, the funds could have been used to keep the studio alive for the last two months. A lack of transparency seems to be the mistake that was made here
Similarly, there was a game last year (I forgot the name), which launched a P2A campaign, in which players could spend to earn more. Closely, after concluding that campaign, the studio closed down
Next to Frontier Land NFTs, Pixiland released 2 more collections: Pixiland: Genesis Pass and Pixiland Building
According to Tengri the Truth, who’s very sceptical of the team’s intentions, Pixiland “managed to scam more than half a million $RON”
Whether this team’s intentions were malicious is something I cannot judge. Yet, it’s unfortunate to see another game on Ronin leave and disappoint its users in the process (like Ragnarok Monster: World did)
FLASH NEWS
Skarly teases a new game part of the OCH Universe: Maze of Gains
Polygon acquired Coinme & Sequence to become a regulated payments platform
The Power Protocol partners with High Roller, one of the largest casinos
SDF launched its FUN token across Base, Solana, and CEXs (incl. Coinbase)
BADMADROBOTS is freezing development and putting the project on hold
NFL Rivals lost their game license with the NFL (what’s next?)
Cartridge has acquired Playmint, a UK-based crypto game dev studio
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