Super Bowl in ‘NFL Rivals’, ‘GTA 6’ Crypto Chatter

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

NFL Rivals launches: Mythical Games kick-started a Super Bowl promotion on Thursday for its NFT mobile football game NFL Rivals. The two-week promotion brings 30 new player cards of different rarities—from this year’s Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles—that players can earn via packs or campaigns.

In addition to the new cards, the promotion will offer a variety of ways for users to earn rewards—including via Hero Events, where users can choose between two star offensive or defensive players to compete.

Plus, users will be able earn rewards based on what is happening in the real Super Bowl game. Players will have the opportunity to play live events tied to real moments in the game, and also wager in-app items like coins and gems on outcomes like the coin toss or the final score.

GTA 6 crypto server: Popular Kick streamer Adin Ross said he plans to create a crypto-infused custom server for Grand Theft Auto 6 with gaming influencer and FaZe Clan CEO and co-founder Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson, once the eagerly awaited game hits shelves. However, this has a high probability of being banned right off the bat.

This is because Rockstar Games banned the usage of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in GTA Online servers back in 2022. The ruling resulted in many fan-made GTA Online servers being forced to shut down—including rapper Lil Durk’s server, after the operators claimed to have been contacted by the legal counsel of Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive.

This is why it appears unlikely that Ross and Banks will be able to boot up a GTA 6 crypto server. But things can change—the once crypto-skeptic Donald Trump launched a meme coin this year, after all.

StepMania on Telegram: Remember Stepn? Telegram has its own version now. StepMania is now available via the messaging app as a new move-to-earn fitness game, which aims to transform daily step counts into digital rewards for players—with a future token launch on The Open Network (TON) planned.

For now, players are earning in-game coins and raffle tickets that can be entered into draws for real-world prizes, like iPhones and PlayStation 5 consoles. But a representative for the game confirmed to Decrypt that the developers are committed to launching a token sometime in the future.

ICYMI

• Ethereum trading card game Gods Unchained launched a battle pass ahead of its “Fallen Age” expansion release.
• Kuroro Wilds started its play-to-airdrop campaign ahead of its token launch on Ethereum gaming network Ronin.
• Crypto trading card game What Is This Sorcery set up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of physical cards. It’s now more than 200% funded.

• Base’s B3 gaming network is launching its token on Monday, February 10.
• Gaming tokens had a rough week, with major players like IMX, GALA, and SAND down bad early last week.
• Telegram game TapSwap has dumped TON, opting to launch its token on BNB Chain instead.

• MMO real-time strategy game Pulsar launched its token on Avalanche on Wednesday.
• Game developer Hello Monster announced a play-to-airdrop campaign for its Wonder Wars mobile game
• Play-to-earn party game Forgotten Playland announced that it will launch on the Epic Games story on March 27
• Nouns DAO–backed action-adventure game Nounishpunk released a gameplay demo trailer.

• Cozy mobile game Fishing Frenzy unveiled its “Founders Collection,” a series of 888 NFTs.
• Polygon mobile roguelite RPG Call of the Voyd is now available to play on the App Store and Google Play.
• The metaverse is back! And this time, it’s just an AI-powered strip club—this link is obviously not safe for work.
• Arena of Faith launched on Ronin as a League of Legends-style multiplayer online battle arena game.

• Kalos, the co-founder of Parallel, posted an in-depth social media post explaining the latest updates to the trading card game.
• Iconic video game Doom can now be played in the Google search bar, the latest in a long line of weird places it’s been played—including on Bitcoin and Dogecoin
• Trading card game Parallel is now available to collect and play via Base’s B3 gaming arcade, Bsmnt.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward