Grand Theft Auto VI crypto rumors
Rumors that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will incorporate cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens have as soon as once more surfaced, sparking hypothesis amongst followers.
Posts shared on Twitter recommend that GTA 6 might be a play-to-earn recreation and that in-game objects comparable to vehicles and weapons might be NFTs.
GTA creator Rockstar Games is but to weigh in on whether or not there’s any reality to those claims, however there appears to be little stable proof backing the rumors.
The firm cracked down on the usage of crypto in GTA in November final yr and despatched stop and desist letters to firms working public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to a number of recreation makers that had constructed their video games on the platform.
A Lambo from GTA 5. (Steam/Rockstar Games)
Given that GTA 5 has offered over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in income since its 2015 launch, it appears unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the profitable system of the franchise, the most recent installment of which is predicted subsequent yr or in 2025.
Of course, there may very well be a crypto aspect, however not essentially the one crypto bros need. Game Rant means that it’s extra possible for Rockstar Games to make use of crypto because the butt of its in-game jokes.
Doctor Who, Top Gear be part of The Sandbox
Sci-fi collection Doctor Who and British motoring present Top Gear, each fashionable BBC franchises, will enter the metaverse by way of The Sandbox after saying a collaboration with the digital world platform.
The partnership with Web3 firm Reality+ is ready to launch the house later this yr.
Nicki Sheard, the president of manufacturers and licensing with BBC Studios, believes that whereas the metaverse remains to be in its infancy, it might form how we devour and expertise leisure sooner or later.
Jodie Whittaker because the Doctor within the hit sci-fi collection Doctor Who. (BBC)
“I’m wanting ahead to seeing how followers work together with our manufacturers on this house. This venture kinds a part of BBC Studios’ broader formidable plans to develop our manufacturers into new classes, with modern expertise and platforms forming an integral a part of this,” she mentioned.
BBC Studios, which is a business manufacturing firm underneath the BBC umbrella, will be part of 400 different leisure manufacturers that The Sandbox has labored with, together with Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, The Walking Dead and Adidas.
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STEPN integrates Apple Pay for its NFTs
Move-to-earn app STEPN is making it simpler to purchase NFTs for its recreation by including an in-app Apple Pay cost possibility.
Users will have the ability to purchase SPARK credit utilizing fiat, with ten spark credit being equal to 1 USDC, which may then be used to buy the NFTs.
“It eliminates the necessity to join a separate crypto pockets and streamlines the cost course of, making it simpler than ever for our neighborhood to entry our choices,” STEPN mentioned on Medium.
STEPN customers will have the ability to pay with Apple Pay. (STEPN)
The catch is that buying sneakers with fiat might be extra pricey, which STEPN attributes to the “taxation” on every in-app buy.
Onboarding has lengthy been a problem for the broader adoption of Web3 video games, and STEPN is just not an exception. Its onboarding course of is cumbersome, and customers have to purchase the sneaker NFTs — understanding which one is greatest for you is a activity and a half itself — from a market and switch it into the in-wallet app.
But the corporate may have extra within the works in relation to making onboarding simpler.
“Our integration with Apple Pay is only the start of our imaginative and prescient to make Web3 expertise accessible to all,” it added.
Battle of Titans dev competitors again for second season
MatchboxDAO is bringing its Battle of Titans Web3 racing recreation again for a second season this week.
Beginning on June 4, dev groups from over 60 Web3 firms, together with Immutable, Starknet and Fantom, will compete in a totally on-chain Mario Kart-style recreation.
The Polygon dev workforce’s automobile. (MatchboxDAO)
Each automobile is a brilliant contract that have to be programmed to get to the tip of the monitor whereas factoring in attacking and defending towards different gamers utilizing bananas, shells and shields.
The first version of the sport in January included groups from Ledger, Polygon, Near, Yield Guild Games and extra, with a dev workforce from Uniswap rising because the winners.
The new season will even add a neighborhood part the place viewers will have the ability to vote for his or her favourite workforce.
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Captain Tsubasa Web3 recreation debuts governance token
Captain Tsubasa — Rivals, a soccer recreation primarily based on the favored manga Captain Tsubasa, has launched a governance token.
Web3 firms Thirdverse Group and BLOCKSMITH&Co debuted the sport in January. Players can practice characters from the manga and play towards one another in matches.
Game producer Shun Fujiyoshi, who at present heads BLOCKSMITH&Co, mentioned that varied mechanisms are in place to keep up the worth of utility tokens.
“These measures embody in-game consumption factors and mechanisms to regulate worth fluctuations attributable to speculative buying and selling,” he mentioned in an announcement.
Created in 1981 by Yoichi Takahashi, 70 million copies of the unique Captain Tsubasa manga have been offered in Japan alone. It has been translated into over 20 languages.
Illuvium raises further $10M in funding
Crypto enterprise agency Framework Ventures has invested $10 million in gaming studio Illuvium, which might be used to speed up the event of the Illuvium Universe.
Australia-based Illuvium mentioned that the brand new funding would give it a cushty runway by way of the launch of the open beta and past.
It is planning an upcoming open beta that includes its metropolis builder Zero, open-world monster hunter Overworld and auto battler Arena.
The firm beforehand raised $5m in a Framework Ventures-backed seed spherical in March 2021. It additionally made $72 million throughout an NFT land sale in June final yr.
Hot take: Collecting NFTs for a tiny little bit of Thai rooster
In this version, I caught a Web3 venture within the wild.
Queueing for tickets to go up the MahaNakhon, Thailand’s tallest skyscraper, a poster off to 1 facet subsequent to a espresso advert and emergency defibrillator caught my consideration: Amazing Thailand NFTs season 2. Travel to earn wonderful expat NFTs.
NFT advert in Bangkok, Thailand. (Callan Quinn)
Easily persuaded, I downloaded the app.
In mid-April this yr, the Tourism Administration of Thailand (TAT) launched the second spherical of NFTs for an NFT tourism venture it’s piloting. Using an app known as YAK, vacationers can test in at varied areas across the nation and, in return, obtain a journey NFT.
PokemonGo for backpackers and passport stamp addicts sounds interesting. The actuality is a little more irritating.
Crypto folks received’t like how a lot private information it’s a must to put in to get arrange. Not simply an e-mail, but in addition your telephone quantity and a one-time passcode.
The app and I disagreed a number of occasions as as to if I used to be inside the required radius of the websites I visited. While the MahaNakhon NFT was obtained with out fuss, I someway acquired an NFT for Pattaya City and Phuket, though I didn’t go to both.
Amazing Thailand NFT. (Amazing Thailand/YAK App)
The concept is that you simply “earn” whereas touring by getting reductions relying on what number of NFTs you get. In many instances, getting the provide appears to require shopping for one thing else, comparable to getting two free items of rooster in the event you spend over 1,000 Thai baht ($29) in a restaurant — a tall order in a rustic the place you may have a pleasant meal for a fifth of that.
In truth, most of the affords didn’t appear to be unique to the NFT app in any respect and had been relevant with out the app.
Now, apparently — although it didn’t say so on the poster — the sport was solely presupposed to run till the tip of April, so possibly all the nice affords had been gone; I can’t make sure.
But for me, the largest query was get the NFTs out of the app. They appear to be on a local chain of the Thailand-based cryptocurrency platform Bitkub. As far as I may inform, it required making a Bitkub account to maneuver them, which in flip required a Thai telephone quantity to obtain the one-time passcode.
Overall it wanted a little bit of tweaking, however I favored the idea of having the ability to accumulate POAPs for locations I’ve visited as a vacationer. The reductions had been awful however not likely needed: in the event you really bought the NFT akin to the place you visited, accumulating for the sake of accumulating would have been sufficient.
A revamped, world model can be good, please.
Other stuff
— Gods Unchained unveiled a brand new roadmap on May 23. Among its plans are some for brand spanking new recreation modes, a creator program, a comfortable launch for cellular and new card units.
— Blockchain gaming platform Gala Games will launch a Web3 poker platform with PokerGO, with a beta slated for launch in June.
— Game retailer GameCease will distribute Telos-based video games on its upcoming Web3 gaming launchpad GameCease Playr.
— Gaming metaverse Star Atlas launched the most recent model of its showroom on June 1 with new flyable ships, single-player floor racing and an up to date dogfighting enviornment.
— Web3 recreation writer Fenix Games is teaming up with platform Immutable to assist recreation studios by “curating, advising and publishing best-in-class dwell companies to Immutable’s ecosystem of video games.”
— Nike’s NFTs will begin being included into EA Sports video games, in response to a June 1 assertion from the corporate. No phrase but on which titles.
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Callan Quinn
Callan Quinn is a British freelance journalist overlaying crypto and tech. She has labored as a enterprise journalist in China, the UK, Somaliland and the republic of Georgia. Previously, she was additionally an NFTs, gaming and metaverse reporter at The Block.