The shift from CEX to DEX continues...
GC ALPHA 24
Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets that are spoken of in this newsletter.
(P2A) EVENTS & SOCIALFI
PIRATE NATION S3
Pirate Nation recently concluded Season 2, marking the beginning of Season 3. This new season introduces several new features:
Leaderboards are now divided into 3 categories:
Booty points: now only earned through gameplay quests and becoming soulbound tokens
This season also comes with new Booty ranks
Collector points: earn by collecting pirates, ships, and rare items
Social points: earn by completing social quests and referring friends
NFT holders will receive exclusive bounties with new rewards (resources and building upgrade plans)
The level cap of pirates, ships, and shipwrights is increased
These new levels come with new cards and new items
You can acquire crafting buildings to create rare and valuable items. Each of these has a specific skill and progression tree
Furthermore, we will see updates later in this season, allowing players to form guilds and collaboratively progress through PvE content
JOURNEY TO OLYMPUS EVENT #2
King of Destiny’s Journey to Olympus continues today with event #2
It will run for 2 weeks again and will take place inside the app
The event will also have a few changes, here’s what’s new:
Firstly, the prize pool will be as big as for event #1 but can grow based on player participation
Scoring has been revised, with more weight pushed towards Deals
VIP scores and multipliers from the first event will carry over
There’s a new multiplier introduced that comes with Avatars
It scales based on rarity and every player is limited to 1 Avatar multiplier
Players will be rewarded primarily on points, however, leaderboard rank plays an important factor as well (applicable for the top 1000)
The crypto webstore is introduced, allowing players to buy items in crypto
Considering the prize pool of the event is modular will play an important role in terms of your earnings
FLASH EVENTS
Fableborne S3 is launching on Nov 20th with new content and new prizes
MapleStory Universe's 2nd Pioneer Test is kicking off on Nov 20
Aavegotchi introduced its P2A campaign, which is starting on Nov 21
MARKET TALK
G7 REPORT INSIGHTS
A few days back Game7 published “The State of Web3 Gaming 2024 Report”. Here are some of the highlights:
Web3 gaming is maturing in 2024, indicated by a decrease in new game announcements + an 84% reduction in projects ceasing developments/exiting
The growth of gaming chains outpaced new game releases - in 2024 263 new games were announced and 104 chains (67 gaming-focused)
The ease of launching an L2 or L3 plays an important role here
This also means the competition for great apps (games) will only increase
Over 90% of the games fall under the large indie or smaller categories
Additionally, they add that well-funded indie gaming projects seem better positioned to make a Web3 breakthrough (the next Axie moment)
RPGs, casual games, and action games maintained their positions as the most popular categories for Web3 titles in 2024
They add that devs focus on familiar game types and seek Web3 to innovate on the Web3 side, before moving to more complex game genres
Telegram was the big new platform this year, becoming a significant distribution platform - 21% of the Web3 games launched on TG
Overall mobile and Telegram make up over 40% of the new launches
In Q3 funding grew by 17% YoY. The focus has been strategic rounds with gaming token launches up 200% YoY
In Q1 and early Q2, we saw the largest influx of launches, this slowed down later in Q2 and till the end of Q3. Q4 has been fairly active in terms of launches again
TL;DR of 2024: the market is maturing, chains are outgrowing games, Web3 continues to be indie, Telegram is the new distribution platform, and funding is slightly up
MORE DEX-FIRST LAUNCHES
The DEX-first narrative continues with Super Champs and Avarik Saga announcing they’re following the same path
This will make a total of 5 DEX-first gaming token launches (XBORG, SWORLD, LIZ, CHAMP, and AVRK)
For context on the approach and its performance so far: XBORG is up 171%, SWORLD is up 189%, and LIZ is up around 6% since its launch
In contrast, the vast majority of CEX gaming token launches in 2024 are down (note: sample size)
As long as these DEX numbers stay in the plus and the project has a strong community I foresee these launches doing above average
Note: I don’t think every project can go the DEX-first route
Whilst others are waiting for the “right conditions” - which you will never know when they’ll come, other teams, are pushing the boundaries of the token distribution model
I hope we continue to see teams like XBORG willing to take these risks in the areas of friction to innovate
This also has me thinking about where we will arrive in a year or so
ON THE RISE
Low Life Forms says: “SOON” - it’s probably referring to a token launch/campaign