Singaporean game developer Confiction Labs has announced its flagship title Riftstorm is coming to Arbitrum-based gaming L3 Xai.

As part of the collaboration, Xai will support Riftstorm with blockchain integration and the forthcoming game launch. No official release date has yet been announced. 

In terms of the game, it’s described as a top-down roguelite shooter with co-op elements, entailing various weapon skills and challenging dungeons. Currently based on PC, the game will eventually expand to mobile and console platforms too.

In March 2024, Confiction rolled out an early Riftstorm playtest via Steam. It attracted 22,000 players from 110 countries, including over 800 live streamers and content creators.

“When Riftstorm launched its Steam playtest, we knew that this was a truly special title and one that would be a perfect fit for Xai,” commented Ex Populus head of strategy Soby Saqib.

“Blending some of gaming’s greatest hits from Diablo to the original Helldivers, Riftstorm unlocks a brand new co-op shooter for gamers in our ecosystem and will represent one of our next generation flagship titles, with critical support from our team as we transition the game into a web3 framework.”

“With cross-platform play, deep lore, and a thriving community-driven ecosystem, Riftstorm will offer a truly immersive experience. To deliver that vision, we need a technology that is not only scalable but also seamless to the users,” said Confiction Labs CEO Arief Widhiyasa.

“We’re excited to partner with the Xai Foundation to leverage their technology as the first gaming L3 blockchain that’s proven to be the fastest and most scalable EVM gaming chain.”

As for Confiction Labs’ wider vision for collaborative gameplay, it recently unveiled Proof of Exposure, a new system for verifying players. Due to the increasing bot activity in web3 games, it aims to tackle issues such as cheating by distinguishing real players from automated bot accounts.

Discover more via Riftstorm’s official website.

Following on from the news that Laguna Games and the Crypto Unicorns DAO are sunsetting its Unicorn Party game, the US developer has now also shut down Crypto Unicorns‘s core land game.

In terms of the practical impact for players, they’re no longer able to breed or evolve their unicorn NFTs, a main part of the Crypto Unicorns gameplay.

In an official statement following a recent community meeting with CEO Aron Beierschmitt, the reason given for ending land gameplay is that “our current structure has become unsustainable after the recent liquidation event.”

It continues, “To ensure the longevity and success of the Crypto Unicorns ecosystem, we are (…) 

• Reducing team size from 80 to 15,
• Pivoting the core game: The core Crypto Unicorns game will transition into a fully on-chain experience”. 

Exactly what pivoting to a fully onchain experience entails is not yet decided, but the statement says that “we will be able to expose all data to the community, allowing them to build out tools, projects, and interfaces as desired.” Furthermore, Crypto Unicorns will open-source its smart contracts, in the hope of providing an easier process for creators building within its ecosystem.

The team also hopes to launch a war event that will see existing NFTs destroyed to reduce the supply and highlight the value of the most rare items.

Continuing the project in this scaled down format is only possible due to the evolving web3 technology, and notably the migration from Polygon to Xai earlier in 2024.

Moving forward, the team looks to involve the community and DAO more. It also affirms that Rainbow Rumble is already maintained by a second-party studio and the title will continue to explore future opportunities in esports.

Backed by Delphi, Bitkraft, TCG, BACKED, Polygon Ventures, and more, Laguna Games has raised a total of $31 million for Crypto Unicorns. The last public funding round was announced in March 2022.

For those wanting to give feedback and engage in the future of the Crypto Unicorns ecosystem, they can submit their ideas via this Google form.

US-based games outfit The MIX Games has announced its first web3 game deploying to Xai will be Hit-em Up Highrise. 

Ex Populus’ gaming-centric L3 Xai unveiled a collaboration with media/games company Media Indie Exchange in March 2024, with the intention of adding hundreds more indie games to its ecosystem. 

As part of the deal, the first of The MIX’s games to deploy to the Arbitrum-based Xai chain will be retro roguelite brawler Hit-em Up Highrise.

It allows players to personalize their characters with various fashion items, including hats, chains, shoes, and more. This customization system enables users to create distinct in-game styles. Additionally, drip items will offer various buffs like attack damage, speed, and HP, providing upgrade paths for characters. Enemy players within the game will be randomized and unique, keeping gameplay unpredictable.

“This is a perfect example of how indie games can thrive with the support of blockchain technology. With customizable cosmetics and unique, randomized enemies, Hit-em Up Highrise offers a fresh and engaging experience for players. This launch marks the beginning of a new era for indie gaming on Xai,” said The MIX Games CEO Justin Woodward.

No date has yet been revealed for the official launch of Hit-em Up Highrise.

Stay up-to-date on the game via Xai’s X account and website.

Elon Musk appears to be considering whether his Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing company, Tesla, should invest $5 billion in his artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI.

On July 24, Musk polled his followers about the potential investment, with early results showing support for the move. However, Musk clarified that the poll was only exploratory and any decision would need board and shareholder approval.

Musk said:

“Board approval and shareholders vote are needed, so this is just to test the waters.”

As of press time, more than 500,000 people had participated in the poll, with around 69% voting in favor of the move.

Meanwhile, this poll has raised concerns about Musk diverting Tesla’s resources to other ventures. Yet, during Tesla’s July 23 earnings call, Musk dismissed these worries. He emphasized that xAI could advance Tesla’s self-driving capabilities and aid in developing a new data center. Musk also mentioned opportunities to integrate xAI’s chatbot, Grok, with Tesla’s software.

However, if the investment gets approved, it would substantially increase xAI’s valuation to more than $24 billion. The move would also provide the AI startup adequate funding to compete with leaders like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic in the generative AI field.

Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings unchanged

In a parallel development, the earnings call also revealed that Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings remained unchanged for the eighth consecutive quarter, with no purchases or sales between April and June 2024.

The report shows the firm held $184 million of digital assets as of June 30. However, Bitcoin Treasuries data pegs Tesla as the world’s third-largest Bitcoin holder, behind MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital. The EV manufacturer holds 9,720 Bitcoin, valued at about $640 million at press time.

Tesla began its Bitcoin journey in February 2021 by purchasing $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. In the second quarter of 2022, it sold over 30,000 Bitcoin for $936 million. Since then, Tesla has remained silent about its Bitcoin holdings despite community calls for more purchases.

Mentioned in this article

Blockchain games won’t flourish as long as their underlying infrastructure can’t facilitate their growth. At least this notion is what motivated web3 gaming company Ex Populus to build gaming-centric chain Xai, which is an L3 built on Arbitrum. In addition to its infrastructure, Ex Populus is also busy making games, including upcoming fully onchain deck builder Final Form.

We thought it a good time to check in with founder and CEO Tobias Batton.

When networks aren’t designed with a priority on gaming, they severely limit what can be built, leaving players with games that are just okay and not great.

Tobias Batton, Ex Populus

BlockchainGamer: With plenty of existing web3 infrastructure already, why did you think the industry needed an additional gaming L3 chain?

Batton: Web3 infrastructure at present isn’t designed to allow web3 games to grow, which is what drove the creation of Xai. When we started to look for a network for our games at Ex Populus, it became clear that none of the options on the market were optimized for gaming or have the processing speeds needed to make incredibly ambitious projects possible.

That’s when we set out to create a truly purpose built network for gaming and believe we’ve created the only true gaming option on the market.

In what way is Xai different from other gaming rollups?

For starters, we’re the fastest network building on Ethereum out of all of the other gaming rollups. This allows us to process more onchain and makes high throughput operations like gaming much more efficient on Xai. On top of this, we’re redefining the way that gamers interact with web3 games through innovations like wallet abstraction, improving the user experience for newcomers.

Our team prides itself on truly supporting developers as they build on Xai and giving them the tools they need to succeed with programs like our Tokenomics Bootcamp. This is in contrast to other gaming chains that will promise developers the world but not provide real support to bring games to their platform.

Why did you choose to leverage Arbitrum?

With our vision for Xai, we needed to make sure we had technology that could sustain the scalability of a proper gaming network, and work with a team that shared our ambitious outlook on what web3 gaming can provide for the industry. Offchain Labs and Arbitrum fit that bill and we worked collaboratively with their team to develop Xai as a Layer 3 in its Arbitrum Orbit network. As we’ve grown into a standalone chain, their team has remained supportive and we’re thrilled with the partnership we’ve been able to forge for the benefits of both parties.

Is it more important for such ecosystems to have a large number of games or a few high volume games?

It’s definitely important for ecosystems to have multiple games available for their players and to have a healthy schedule of new releases. With that said, it’s less about having high volume games and more about having developers who are making engaging and fun experiences that happen to be built on, or incorporate, web3 technology.

The volume and player numbers will follow if the game makes players want to keep coming back, with consistent content releases to keep it fresh. That’s a lot of what we are seeing with games like Helldivers right now. It’s a fantastic game with a great design, but there’s not enough content to keep players around long term. That’s what makes games great and what will drive the volume numbers behind flagship titles.

Why do you think web3 gaming isn’t mass market yet?

There’s multiple factors but the lack of purpose built infrastructure is definitely a leading cause. When networks aren’t designed with a priority on gaming, they severely limit what can be built, leaving players with games that are just okay and not great. On top of this, there still hasn’t been that “wow” moment for a blockchain game that naturally brings a traditional gaming playerbase into the web3 gaming ecosystem. The evolution of gaming has always been on the back of a breakout experience in a new market. Web3 will be no different.

With the advancement of infrastructure in our space, combined with real developers and studios that have been grinding for years on a tried and true gaming experience, it feels like the market-moving game is likely around the corner.

How will Xai contribute to the mainstream adoption of blockchain?

The easiest way to bring about mainstream adoption is to just build great games, which is what is driving our Vanguard: Genesis campaign. We’re also continuing to push the capabilities of our network, having led all ETH-based blockchains in transactions per second over the last few weeks. As mentioned, in order to have great games there has to be great infrastructure – Xai is proving to be the chain to support those games and we’re confident that we’ll be at the center of mainstream adoption for blockchain-based games.

Can you tell us more about where your own games – Final Form, LAMOverse, and others – are currently up to?

Final Form is next to be released, and we are very excited about the project.  The game is fully onchain while also boasting AAA production values. This opens a world of possibilities for composability and modability, while also improving security. 

From everything we have seen, we believe Final Form is the most ambitious fully on chain game in the industry and we believe it has the potential to put a big dent in how the industry makes and publishes games.

There are examples of developers being too ambitious and spreading out too thinly in trying to combine both game making and infrastructure. Do you see any risks in this regard?

There is definitely a learning curve for developers moving from web2 to web3, so there can be issues that arise in the development process. This is where the support of the chain comes in, helping to fast track developers onto the platform and get them leveraging web3 capabilities without hassle. The goal is to have developers focused on the actual building of the game, while allowing the chain itself to provide the infrastructure needed for the title to be successful.

If you entered the web3 gaming space as a developer today, would your priorities be different in any way?

Traditional game developers entering the web3 gaming space should educate themselves on the discipline of tokenomics. When done correctly, tokenomics open a world of possibilities for traditional gamers.  Games can be truly free to play, with no need for a premium price, or paid in-game items.  You are in essence designing your own municipality, with its own economic levers and dials. It’s an amazing new world.

Discover more via Xai’s official website and X account.

Back when it launched in early 2022, Crypto Unicorns was a posterchild for the whole Polygon gaming ecosystem but the breed, battle and collection title has now completed its migration to Arbitrum L3 Xai.

Crucially, support for Xai means that users no longer have to deal with Crypto Unicorns’ own infrastructure, which resulted in much friction as you had to bridge assets to and from the Polygon mainnet.

The Xai migration has also resulted in the launch of a new native marketplace, gas-free transactions as well as various reward campaigns, both in the new CU tokens – effectively a reissued version of the old RBW token – and the underlying XAI token.

“Launching Crypto Unicorns on Xai is a game-changer for our community,” commented Aron Beierchmitt, CEO of Crypto Unicorns’ developer Laguna Games.

“With faster, gas-free transactions, a new marketplace, and enhanced features, the player experience is significantly improved. By combining these advancements with hyper deflationary tokenomics, we are setting the stage for a stable and sustainable in-game economy. Two years of bear-market-building is finally coming to fruition!”

Next up comes Crypto Unicorns’ play-to-airdrop campaign, which will launch on Monday 1st July and run for two months. Xai is including the game in its own Vanguard rewards campaign too.

Players will be able to earn Xai rewards logging in and completing tasks, while Shadowcorn NFT owners will receive additional Xai rewards by minting minions in the Shadow Forge, a feature in which they can harvest resources, craft rituals, and mint minions to improve their standing on the leaderboard. They will also have access to future Shadowcorn vs Unicorn game loops.

You can find out more and play the game via the Crypto Unicorns‘ website.

The Xai Foundation, has announced Xai Vanguard: Genesis, an event entailing quests, player rewards, and new game releases on Arbitrum-based L3 Xai.

Deployed on Xai mainnet, the Vanguard campaign is a sequel to the Xai Odyssey testnet campaign, which resulted in over 500,000 new wallet sign-ups and 5 million transactions.

Starting June 10th and running into November, the event includes partner games such as Crypto Unicorns, Final Form and Lost Glitches. During its initial month, quests from other blockchain technology partners will also be featured, offering additional ways for players to score points on the designated Xai Vanguard: Genesis leaderboard. 

In order to incentivise web3 game developers, the Vanguard event will also feature a series of builder quests through which studio’s can score points on the leaderboard and earn their own set of rewards, including recently announced Sequence-powered Xai Builder, and more. 

“The launch of Xai Vanguard: Genesis marks a significant milestone for the Xai ecosystem,” commented Xai core contributor Soby. 

“By bringing together a diverse range of game partners and leveraging our robust infrastructure, we create an unparalleled gaming experience that will drive innovation and engagement in the blockchain gaming space. We are excited to see the creativity and passion of our community unfold.”

At the back of its partnership with Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, Horizon has now announced Xai Builder, an all-in-one solution integration its Sequence technology with Arbitrum L3 Xai.

The partnership offers Xai developers and content creators Sequence’s comprehensive web3 tooling and infrastructure kit to build web3 apps and games. 

One of the early builders on Xai is game developer Ex Populus. Its overarching mission is to make web3 technology smoother by abstracting away its complex processes. To that end, by tapping into Xai Builder, developers get access to features such as

• Wallets solutions including embedded wallets, and social and email signups and logins. 
• Web3 marketplaces.
• NFT collections solutions.
• Debit and credit card payment systems.
• An Indexer, which enables developers and players to visualize game items and rewards including price history and metadata.
• Gas sponsorship and transaction API, including batched transactions.
• Game analytics tools.
• Game engine SDKs.

Another developer building on Xai due to its gasless transactions is Laguna Games, which has started the process of migrating its flagship title Crypto Unicorns and other games from Polygon to Xai.

“By offering a user-friendly developer console with integrated features like gas fee elimination and familiar sign-up processes, Xai Builder removes significant barriers to entry for studios exploring web3 integration,” added The Arbitrum Foundation’s Elias Abi Daoud.

“Game developers face a number of challenges, from technology and solutions to build the best games to distribution and publishing support. With Xai Builder and our partnership with Xai, game devs have everything they need: the world’s leading web3 games development platform and the world’s leading AAA chain and go-to-market support,” added Sequence head of strategy and partnerships Sam Barberie.

Discover more by visiting Xai Builder, and stay up-to-date on Xai and Sequence via X.