Gaming tournament platform GameCentric has partnered with distributed GPU network Aethir to help it build out its web3 gaming presence.

Based in Dubai, GameCentric’s community platform claims 160,000 active users across over 50 web2 games but is pushing to support hundreds of blockchain games as it plans to launch its own GCVC token.

It hopes integrating with Aethir will enable it to launch its own non-custodial wallet and an enhanced marketplace providing gamers with a seamless experience across both web2 and web3.

In turn, GameCentric’s MENA and Indian audience will provide Aethir with more regional distribution as it builds on the launch of its Aethir Edge cloud network hardware.

“We are thrilled to partner with Aethir at such a critical stage of our web3 expansion. This partnership not only strengthens our commitment to providing a seamless web3 gaming experience but also accelerates our vision of creating a fully decentralized ecosystem where players can own, trade, and monetize their in-game assets,” commented GameCentric’s CEO Saad Khan.

Aethir’s CRO Paul Thind added, “Building scalable and efficient infrastructure is crucial for companies competing in the gaming industry. By integrating with our decentralized cloud infrastructure, GameCentric will be able to set new standards in secure and seamless gaming experiences, meeting the demands of an expanding community of players.”

Find out more at the GameCentric website.

LayerZero Labs and Animoca Brands have announced a partnership to simplify blockchain integration in games.

LayerZero Labs and its interoperability protocol LayerZero connects over 80 blockchains, aiming to make NFT ownership and cross-chain interactions more seamless, and allowing players to focus on gameplay as opposed to the underlying technology. 

As part of the deal, Animoca Brands’ will leverage LayerZero across its portfolio games and subsidiaries as a default choice of interoperability solution. Notably, Animoca’s own interoperable network project Mocaverse has already adopted LayerZero Labs’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard. 

The companies will also invest resources to organize joint community events such as hackathons, content creation and other initiatives, to promote more awareness of interoperability and LayerZero’s technologies. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Animoca Brands as the preferred interoperability provider of their portfolio projects. This collaboration will create seamless omnichain interactions and enhance the digital experiences for our respective communities,” commented LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino.

“We are extremely excited about this unique partnership. We envision an omnichain future for digital content and gaming. At a time when the games industry faces new and old challenges, it’s more important than ever to signal our dedication to and support for mission-aligned builders like Bryan and the LayerZero team, who are developing battle-tested infrastructure for the future of the internet,” added Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu.

Further to its existing investment, which was announced in March 2024, Ethereum L2 Mantle has signed a strategic partnership with Singapore-based blockchain MMORPG MetaCene.

The two organizations previously worked together for the browser-based xMetaCene play-to-earn mini-game, which ran on Mantle and attracted over 450,000 wallets.

The just-launched PC/mobile MetaCene: Gold Rush experience, which rewards players with non-tradable in-game items and $3 million-worth of its to-be-released MUD and MAK tokens, also runs on Mantle.

In the longterm, however, MetaCene’s main game, which will launch as first chapter MetaCene: The Genesis of Fire, will run on the Ranger Protocol, albeit within what’s described as a “multi-chain future”.

“As with any serious gaming venture, computing-intensive interactions between players and assets require a highly-performant network to support seamless gameplay,” commented MetaCene CEO Alan Tan.

“To that end, we are excited to take MetaCene’s mission to revolutionize blockchain gaming to the next level through our collaboration with Mantle. Our strategic alliance will allow us to tap on Mantle’s cutting-edge modular L2 technology, strong technical support and resources to propel the growth of web3 blockchain gaming and GameFi to proliferate across the robust and well-established Mantle Ecosystem.”

 Download MetaCene: Gold Rush from the game’s website.

Leveraging the explosive growth of Telegram’s TON blockchain, Animoca Brands has announced a strategic partnership between the MOCA Foundation and the TON Foundation.

This will see TON creating an identity and reputation-based system called the TON Society ID framework that will be integrated within Telegram’s Mini App Platform.

It will use Mocaverse’s Realm Network SDK, which launched via the Moca ID network. A similar deal was announced in June 2024 with One Football, which is creating a Football ID layer. Mocaverse is also launching its own Anime ID network alongside San FranTokyo and MyAnimeList.

All these networks will share account, identity, reputation, and points systems allowing users to “express their identity and values on-chain, thereby promoting seamless interaction and engagement within and between the respective ecosystems”. 

The collaboration will be supported and developed by a steering committee, which will oversee co-branded hackathons and an accelerator program, plus ecosystem incentives in the foundation’s respective tokens worth up to $20 million.

Finally, the strategic partnership will be incentivized via a token swap that will see TON acquiring the newly-launched MOCA token at a price of 0.113, a 32% premium on its current market price of $0.085.

Animoca Brands already has exposure to the TON ecosystem via its hypercasual gaming platform Gamee. In addition, one of Animoca’s key investors is Kingsway Capital, which is also heavily involved in the TON Foundation.

Multiplayer tech outfit MetaGravity is deepening its relationship with web3 cloud compute company Aethir. Together they have announced a partnership to accelerate what they hope will be the rise of decentralized physical infrastructure – so-called DePIN – for gaming.

In this way, users of MetaGravity’s HyperScale Engine will be able to plug into Aethir’s Instaplay pixel streaming solution, making it easier and cheaper to spin up large, scalable experiences that don’t require downloads and work across all devices.

As part of the deal, the two companies have entered a long term R&D relationship to further optimize the synergies for users combining their technologies.

MetaGravity claims the HyperScale Engine enables orders of magnitude improvements in terms of player concurrency, physical simulation and graphical fidelity, while significantly reducing running costs. Meanwhile Aethir is attempting to build out a decentralized compute network which taps into underutilized GPUs thanks to the incentives of its ATH cryptocurrency.

MetaGravity first demonstrated its technology with a 5,000 player test for Star Atlas.

“By leveraging Aethir’s expertise in DePIN applied to cloud infrastructure, we can ensure that the immense processing power of MetaGravity’s HyperScale Engine is readily available to game studios and metaverse builders, empowering them to create truly groundbreaking and immersive experiences while embracing a trustless, permissionless future,” commented MetaGravity CEO Rashid Mansoor.

Aethir’s CEO Daniel Wang added, “Aethir’s DCI platform aligns perfectly with MetaGravity’s vision for the future of multiplayer online games – including simulation scale, real-time persistence and task environments for AI training. Together, we can unlock the true potential of DePIN, not just for gaming, but for a wider range of applications within the decentralised web”.

Earn Alliance has announced a partnership with Sky Mavis, entailing an integration of Ronin-based games within its web3 gaming discovery platform.

Described as an “engagement as a service” platform” – Earn Alliance claims to have 500,000 verified gamers. With this latest integration, its users will be introduced to games on Ronin including Pixels, Lumiterra, Ragnarok Monster World, The Machines Arena, Kaidro, Axie Classic, and Puffverse – starting with a dedicated Ronin Week on Monday 24th June.

For each of the 7 days during Ronin Week, a new game will be highlighted. The event consists of daily missions through which participants can earn exclusive badges and rewards. In addition to social engagement challenges, players can also earn rewards through in-game missions. While the games themselves are where users can complete most of the missions, Earn Alliance will elaborate on some of the challenges in its live show “The Wall”, which will also feature guests from the Ronin team.

“Our partnership with Sky Mavis marks a significant milestone in our mission to bridge traditional gaming with blockchain technology,” said Earn Alliance CEO Joseph Cooper. 

Meanwhile, Ronin is currently the fastest growing ecosystem in terms of daily active users, breaking 1.4 million DAUWs in May. Continuing to expand with third-party games, the network recently welcomed its first survival MMORPG Lumiterra.

Sky Mavis CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen commented, “Partnering with Earn Alliance for Ronin Week allows us to showcase the diverse gameplay experiences on Ronin,” said Sky Mavis CEO and Co-Founder, Trung Nguyen. “In the last month we announced Puffverse and Lumiterra, making this the perfect time to bring both Ronin and Earn Alliance’s communities together to try out these exciting new games.”

“My experience and learnings from Axie Infinity, which Ronin was originally built to scale, is what inspired me to start Earn Alliance, so this collaboration has been a major dream in the making,” added Cooper.

The partnership is announced at the heels of Earn Alliance’s recent staffing revamp. Notably, it’s hired entertainment-industry veteran Kimberly Knoller as new Chief Marketing Officer, while gaming veteran Graeme Griffin is the team’s new Head of Gaming, and software engineer and gaming veteran Amit Goel onboards as Director of Product (Ad Tech).

Stay up-to-date via the Earn Alliance platform, and download the app via Google Play or Apple Store.

South Korean web3 game developer Delabs Games has unveiled new strategic partnerships with web3 gaming companies including Ambrus Studio, Cow Cup and Proof of Play.

In a mutual quest, Delabs and E4C: Final Salvation-developer Ambrus Studio have announced a deal to “share resources” between their games. As well as offering strategic support, Ambrus Studio founder and gaming veteran Johnson Yeh will also onboard Delabs as an advisor. Yeh brings his experience in esports, having formerly been Riot Games’ managing director for Greater China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, contributing to the success of League of Legends and Valorant. 

Another partnership is with little known developer Cow Cup and its mobile-based battle royale MOBA Counter Fire. This collaboration entails cross-community airdrop campaigns such as Delabs Games’ Ladybug’s Journey and Counter Fire‘s Hill’s Treasure Hunt.

Additionally, Delabs’ platinum tickets and golden tickets will be airdropped to the Counter Fire community, while Counter Fire’s Founder’s Tag will be integrated into Delabs’ upcoming airdrop event part 3. Delabs community members joining Counter Fire’s pre-season testing will also be whitelist to the project’s Genesis Heroes mint.

The news follows Delabs’ recent announcement it’s moving all of its portfolio games to Arbitrum, having previously deployed its inaugural lawnmower racer Rumble Racing Star on Polygon. Initially only available for PC, the game’s now also expanded to mobile. The studio’s second game, Metabolts, is a dystopian character collection RPG, while the third title, space-themed survival game Space Frontier is still in development.

Following its move to Arbitrum, Delabs has also joined forces with Arbitrum-based RPG Pirate Nation from Proof of Play, airdropping Platinum tickets to holders of Gen 0 Pirate NFT holders, which give a 30% boost to leaderboard points in Rumble Racing Star.

Blockchain game store HyperPlay and crypto wallet provider MetaMask have extended their collaboration with the launch of a new HyperPlay-curated games directory within the MetaMask service.

The new directory will be integrated within the MetaMask Portfolio dashboard, offering users a one-stop shop for game discovery in combination with management of digital assets. Essentially, this means MetaMask users will now be able to find games from platforms including Epic Games, GOG and HyperPlay’s own game store, directly within MetaMask.

Among some of the high-profile web3 titles on the directory are Shrapnel, Phantom Galaxies, Bushi, and Craft World.

This latest announcement is a strengthening of a previous collaboration between the companies. Initially launched as a collaboration between MetaMask and the Game7 DAO, HyperPlay is already offering a MetaMask wallet overlay to facilitate in-game purchases and token distribution across its games. Additionally, on the back of the launch of MetaMask Snaps in December 2023, HyperPlay expanded this functionality, offering MetaMask support to its games on non-EVM blockchains such as Solana and Sui too.

“We are thrilled to further our relationship with MetaMask. Together, we’re shifting the gaming paradigm by expanding accessibility and interoperability for all players. There is no wallet solution more focused on interoperability, extensibility, and user safety than MetaMask,” commented HyperPlay founder JacobC.eth.

“Our continued collaboration with HyperPlay underscores the importance of streamlining wallet interactions for players and game developers alike. Blockchain gaming has incredible potential to disrupt game developer monetization strategies and how gamers play, but we need to improve player adoption through seamless user experiences,” commented MetaMask senior product manager Kai Huang. 

In June 2023, HyperPlay raised $12 million in a series A round, which was co-led by Griffin Gaming Partners and BITKRAFT Ventures, along with Consensys and Square Enix.

Discover more about HyperPlay in our recent interview with founder Jacob.eth, and visit the new HyperPlay Games Directory via MetaMask here.

Mythical Games has announced it’s signed a deal with Pudgy Penguins to develop a mobile party game based on the Pudgy Penguins IP.

Launched on Ethereum in August 2021, Pudgy Penguins is a collection consisting of 8,888 NFTs. With a total trading volume of $376 million, its current floor price is 11 ETH, around $41,000.

In 2021, the team created Lil Pudgys, an extension of the initial collection, which consists of 22,222 NFTs. In 2022, current CEO Luca Schnetzler bought the brand for $2.5 million. The company has since released physical Pudgy Penguins merch and plushies, the latter which was recently announced to have hit 1 million sales in 12 months.

The deal makes sense given Mythical Games is the pre-eminent web3 game developer currently operating in mobile, notably with its NFL Rivals title. Ex-Mythical executive Rudy Koch is also an advisor to Pudgy Penguins. As well as this game, Mythical is working on a new mobile-first version of its PC party game Blankos Block Party, which was sunset in 2023.

Pudgy Penguins is also busy building out its social open world game Pudgy World which was revealed in December 2023.

The new game will launch on Mythos Chain, which is in the process of migrating to Polkadot, sometime in 2025.

Web3 gaming platform Immutable continues to expand its reach signing new notable industry deals. Most recently the company has unveiled a collaboration with EOS-based web3 game distribution platform and publisher Spielworks. 

Together the companies will focus on enhancing reward systems, including Immutable’s The Main Quest, and offering each other marketing support to grow user acquisition and engagement in games featured on Spielworks’ platform Wombat and NFT marketplace AtomicHub.

Moreover, the partnership entails the integration of AtomicHub with Immutable’s zkEVM, Immutable Passport, and Immutable Checkout, allowing users to trade NFTs from games in the Immutable ecosystem. A new Exposure Program, featuring special badges and tournaments, has also been introduced to reward participants for their trading activity. 

Immutable co-founder and president Robbie Ferguson commented, “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Spielworks and AtomicHub to further the reach and impact of The Main Quest rewards program. This collaboration will not only provide additional rewards for players but also offer enhanced exposure and marketing support for games building on our platform.”

Users will also be able to tap into Spielworks’ social app Wasder to earn additional rewards by interacting with other players and building their social profiles and networks.

“High-quality content within and around web3 games deserves a proper spotlight, and together with Immutable, we can really elevate the space for everyone — creators, players and traders alike,” commented Spielworks co-founder and CEO Adrian Krion. 

“We’re creating real impact here and setting a standard for collaboration in web3 gaming moving forward – between Immutable and us or any other companies looking to work together.”

On the back of its recent partnership with web3 gaming network Mon Protocol, Studio 369 has now announced a deal with multi-chain gaming hub Portal. 

Currently running early playtests, Studio 369 is looking to bring new players to its PC-based PVP mech shooter MetalCore by easing the onboarding process. To this end, the developer is collaborating with Portal.

Studio 369 CEO Matt Candler commented, “We feel that bringing MetalCore into this fold will enhance the value of both products. This space is going to need AAA titles to support growth, but also the means to connect players and assets. We believe we’re at the cutting edge of building such an ecosystem.”

Another goal of the MetalCore team is to create a player-driven ecosystem based on sustainable and interoperable economies with tokens integrated into the gameplay loop, which lays the foundation for an interconnected gaming token utility.

Portal aims to serve as a central hub for web3 gaming, with features including a wallet, companion app, multi-chain functionality, a launchpad, and a native PORTAL token. Debuting earlier in 2024 at a nominal $2.4 billion valuation, the value of the PORTAL token has since plummeted 77%.

“The team here at Portal knows how important it is to have the most innovative titles available through our platform. We want players to consider us the obvious access point for their favorite web3 games. Partnering with AAA offerings like MetalCore is essential to that vision,” said Justin Taylor, a member of the Portal team.

You can find out more about the development of MetalCore in our recent interview with CTO Dan Nikolaides.