Jon Jordan talks to Improbable CEO Herman Narula about why the UK game tech company decided it had to build its own blockchain. Called Somnia, its testnet is now live.

• [2:32] The Improbable genesis story: from Cambridge Uni to building games technology.
• [3:39] Building economies for virtual worlds means you need a blockchain for ownership.
• [4:54] Improbable's first success was The Multiplayer Guys, who worked on CoD, GTA, Fall Guys etc.
• [5:27] The biggest thing Improbable has learned is "the tenacity to pursue the mission".
• [5:44] The Improbable co-founders have been sanctioned by Russia due to their defence work.
• [6:59] The key thing for Improbable's MSquared tech is making the cost of operations so low.
• [8:19] Narula describes Improbable as a "venture builder" - it's a "company of companies".
• [9:56] What does MSquared do? It's a software platform to build large scale virtual worlds.
• [13:32] "We've always bet on the need for human beings to feel relatedness, even in games."
• [14:56] Why did Improbable have to design its own blockchain. Do we need another one?
• [15:32] The crypto space is obsessed with its token price. That's all they optimize for.
• [16:00] Somnia can handle 1 million transactions per second, with sub-second latency.
• [17:19] Improbable has almost a quarter of a billion dollars of cash.
• [19:08] "Pirate Nation's network costs are astronomical. It would save millions of dollars on Somnia."
• [20:55] Our focus isn't getting existing web3 games to move to Somnia, but new games.
• [22:23] The current problem for games is cost of UA and cost of development.
• [23:34] "I couldn't care less what the Somnia token price is. That's not how we make money."
• [25:31] Blockchain games now is like The Hunger Games - people fighting over a small amount of value.
• [27:39] How big a deal will AI agents be in future? How is Improbable using AI for development?
• [28:34] AI agents aren't going to have bank accounts. They're going to have crypto wallets.
• [31:02] In an post-AGI world, "Games are going to become a critical industry for human health."
• [35:17] If you're an EVM app, you change one line of code and move to Somnia.

Jon Jordan and BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jenny Jordan reflect on the week's news.

• [1:05] Ronin-based prediction market Forkast has gone live. Jon is very excited.
• [2:38] It's one of the first non-gaming apps on Ronin as the blockchain has gone permissionless.
• [5:33] How the prediction market works - users buy and sell percentage bids on events.
• [7:02] The CGX token has also gone live. It's used for rewards and future governance.
• [8:30] This isn't gambling. It's skill-based gaming.
• [10:33] You'll also need the CGX token in order to create predictions in future.
• [12:00] Why predictions markets can generate useful information.
• [13:56] Jon spoke to Daryl from B3 on the podcast - B3 is a gaming L3 from ex-Coinbase execs.
• [14:56] The spark of inspiration for B3.
• [17:14] B3 is attempting to build an ecosystem including revenue share between games.
• [20:25] B3 successfully launched its token last week. Price is up 60%.
• [21:20] Indian company SuperGaming has signed up to bring its web2 games to web3 using B3.

Jon Jordan and BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jenny Jordan chew through the week's news.

• [0:23] Sky Mavis has announced a new $10 million grants program for developers on Ronin.
• [3:22] Is the ease of onboarding users to web3 games still a big issue?
• [7:08] Mobile basketball game Rumble Kong League is migrating to Ronin.
• [9:50] What will be most interesting about Ronin going permissionless is new non-gaming apps.
• [11:55] Axie Infinity added $4 million to its treasury in 2024.
• [15:31] Axie and Pixels believe they can make play-to-earn work as a sustainable business strategy.
• [16:20] Wild Forest demonstrates that pure token airdrops still don't.
• [18:08] Explaining Pixel's 2024 financials.
• [27:34] AI agents doing a live podcast and soon to be playing poker against each other.
• [32:44] Blocklords launched its Elisa Revard AI agent; people tried to win her hand in marriage.
• [36:30] Saga has announced Metropolis, which allows AI agents to launch their own blockchains.
• [38:50] Mighty Bear Games has announced its AlphaGOAT AI agents, dropping 6th February.
• [44:06] What's happening with The Sandbox in 2025?

Jon Jordan talks to Mystic Moose CEO Mike Levine about the forthcoming launch of auto chess battler game Mojo Melee, as well as its wider Planet Mojo ecosystem.

Jon Jordan talks to Daiki Moriyama and Ryo Matsubara from  Oasys about how the gaming blockchain is leveraging the growing interesting in web3 from Japanese game companies ranging from Sega and Square Enix to Gumi and Bandai Namco. 

Jon Jordan talks to Magic Eden's chief gaming officer Chris Akhavan about his journey into blockchain gaming and how he hopes Magic Eden will accelerate market adoption. 

We start the year in style as Jon Jordan talks to Animoca Brands' chairman Yat Siu about the aftermath of 2022's crypto crash and where the blockchain game sector goes next as we head into 2023. 

Jon Jordan discusses what happened in the blockchain game sector during 2022 with David Amor (Playmint) and Will Luton (Village Studio)

Jon Jordan talks to Immutable's game director Derek Lau about its mobile squad-RPG Guild of Guardians, which is currently in alpha testing, prior to its 2023 launch.

Jon Jordan talks to Random Games' CTO Wyeth Ridgway about Unioverse, its project to create a "Roblox for triple-A devs" via tools, royalty-free game assets ... and blockchain!

Jon Jordan talks to NFT OG Alex 'Sillytuna' Amsel about what's going on with creator royalties, as well as his two ongoing projects -- game Clodhoppers and NFT remix project Soulcast. 

Jon Jordan talks to David Kim about the rebranding of WAX Studios to Tyranno Studios and its games Blockchain Brawlers and the forthcoming Music Mogul.

Jon Jordan talks to ex-Kolibri Games co-founder Oliver Loeffler about his new web3 project Angry Dynomites Lab, which has just minted the second of its four elemental dynos NFTs.

In episode 188, Jon Jordan talks to The Sandbox's Sebastien Borget about what happened in 2024 and what's planned for 2025.

• [2:49] "The metaverse is far from dead". The Sandbox Alpha 4 had over 580,000 players.
• [4:25] No matter the market, people see that The Sandbox is building and launching."
• [5:35] "We will have four seasons in 2025. Alpha 5 is already in production."
• [7:20] A criticism of seasons is it means The Sandbox is stop-start. There's no flywheel.
• [10:20] "We are in alpha now but in 2025 we expect to go into beta."
• [13:10] RE: UGC, The Sandbox is following a similar approach to Fortnite and its UEFN program.
• [14:00] The mobile client didn't come out in 2024 so what's happening there?
• [15:30] Part of our new strategy is the Voxel Games Program - standalone games including mobile.
• [18:01] We have two announced games and over 100 applications for the program.
• [21:45] Will you release The Sandbox PC client through stores like Epic Games Store?
• [23:22] "The success of the metaverse requires the product, the content and the ecosystem."
• [26:32] "Our vision has always been to empower the creators."
• [29:18] How do AI agents fit into The Sandbox's vision?

Jon Jordan talks to Muumiopappa - aka Mika Timonnen, the NFT director at Azerion - about what happened when NFTs were introduced into the long-running online community Habbo (originally Habbo Hotel) and what's happening next.

Jon Jordan talks to Irrevelant Labs' CEO Rahul Sood about MechaFightClub, the Solana-based game that will pit AI-driven robotic chickens from the future (in the form of dynamic NFTs) against each other -- first in the Cockpit and then in the global Cocktagon tournament, something labelled as "The Metaverse's Craziest Battle Arena".

Apologises for the choppy video, but great content (as ever from) Sky Mavis' co-founder Jeff 'Jiho' Zirlin talking about the future of Axie Infinity, 

• both in terms of the new F2P mobile game Axie Infinity: Origins, 
• the new token reward system, 
• the forthcoming Land game alpha, 
• the esports strategy 
• and the growing pains of being the co-founder of a fast-growing startup -- Sky Mavis is now 175 people, and still hiring. 

Jon Jordan talks to chief strategy officer Ben Cousens about how Zebedee's use of Bitcoin's Lightning Network is opening up new, more collaborative business models for games (and players), ranging from ad-share micropayments in hypercasual mobile games to MMORGPs and shooters. 

Jon Jordan talks to Mythical Games' chief creative officer Jamie Jackson about how he got into the industry (anyone else remember Colin McRae Rally 2?), his move into blockchain gaming with Blankos Block Party, and what's next with NFL Rivals and Nitro Nations: World Tour.

Jon Jordan talks to Mighty Bear Games CEO Simon Davis about its forthcoming battle royale web3 game Mighty Action Heroes, which is the first title in the MightyNet interoperable gaming universe. 

Jon Jordan talks to Darewise's Vincent Marty about its forthcoming open world MMOG Life Beyond, which is entering its first playable alpha. 

Jon Jordan talks to Splinterlands' CEO Jesse Reich about recent changes to the TCG's reward structure -- to better reward NFT ownership and skilled play -- and new imminent features including the launch of validator nodes, as well as discussing new games including a licensed sports game and a collaboration with Warners Music.  

Jon Jordan talks to US developer Core Loop's co-founders Dan Chou and Vincenzo Alagna about their previous experience in web2 F2P mobile gaming and how that led them to start Core Loop to make MMORPG Eternal World Online, which is currently in development, aiming for a closed Alpha in summer 2022.

Apologies for my audio quality in this episode ... Jon Jordan talks to GAMEE CEO Bozena Rezab about why it decide to take its traditional mobile game platform and add blockchain -- launching it as ARC8, which is now live with 12 games, its GMEE token on Polygon and G-Bot NFTs. And how GAMEE plans to make ARC8 more decentralized over time with third party developers launching their own games with the platform.  

More at https://www.gamee.com/arc8

Jon Jordan and BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jenny Jordan chew through the week's news.

• [0:57] In 2024, Limit Break released its ERC721C standard for enforcing NFT creator royalties.
• [4:55] This level of centralization wasn't controversial with NFTs because the issue was existential.
• [5:44] Feature include the ability to set maximum and minimum prices for NFTs.
• [6:23] ERC20 tokens are different to NFTs: will people accept such features for ERC20 tokens?
• [7:30] Another example is tokens that can't be traded outside of the game application.
• [10:41] Limit Break's DigiDaigaku game will hopefully demonstrate how these features work.
• [15:00] iCandy has raised $4 million for its forthcoming ZKcandy gaming L2 blockchain.
• [16:39] Whatever happened to Laguna Game's Crypto Unicorns?
• [22:44] What is Laguna Labs' new fully onchain game Neo Olympus?
• [25:52] Fully onchain football simulator Soccerverse has gone live.
• [30:45] Planet Mojo launched its WorldWide Agents AI agent token.
• [33:15] What's the point of AI agents?
• [36:51] What went wrong with Xterio's XTER token airdrop?

Jon Jordan talks to Neon Machine's head of studio Don Norbury about its moddable, competitive FPS Shrapnel, which is launching on the Avalanche blockchain. 

Jon Jordan talks to Şekip Can Gökalp (CEO, Coda Games) about Infinite Arcade, the first platform to bring the hypercasual mobile sector into blockchain by using NFTs as a paid entry ticket for earning in-game tokens.

Jon Jordan talks to Koh Kim (ex-Google Play, beauty products entrepreneur, Panzerdogs advisor etc) about all things blockchain games, including why she decided to formally rejoin the industry as head of ecosystem at Mysten Labs.

Jon Jordan talks to Faraway Games CEO Alex Paley about Mini Royale: Nations, the first live multiplayer game using the Solana blockchain. The browser-based shooter currently enables the use of NFT avatars, with deeper social features backed by its two tokens planned later in 2022. 

Jon Jordan talks to DMarket CEO Vlad Panchenko about why STALKER 2's rejection of NFTs (which would have launched on DMarket) is irrelevant to the overall growth of blockchain gaming. By the end of 2022, Vlad expects to have 100 games live with NFTs on the marketplace. 

Jon Jordan talks to Admix CEO Sam Huber about how it's launched advertising into the metaverse (auctioning NFTs in Somnium Space) in a way that allows creators to make money, and how this process will eventually invert the whole advertising business, with NFTs turning intrusive advertising into valuable brand engagement (valuable for brands and users). 

Jon Jordan talks to Jean-Paul Faraj about Influence, an ambitious space game, which is being built on Ethereum; indeed various NFTs are already live with tokens and missions to follow soon. Find out more at https://www.influenceth.io/

Jon Jordan has a lovely chat about the future of blockchain games with his old chums Will Luton (Department of Play) and David Amor (Playmint), who have also made the jump from gaming to blockchain games. 

Jon Jordan talks to games industry data head and consultant SuperJoost about blockchain gaming; notably about how it fits into the ongoing digital goods revolution of the past 10 years, and the immediate challenges that need to be overcome. Get Joost's insightful email via Substack. 

Jon Jordan talks to CEO John Linden about how Mythical Games is taking blockchain games mainstream, both with internal titles such as Blankos Block Party and its own Mythical platform, which allows traditional PC, console and mobile developers to get up and running on blockchain in an easy, accessible and regulatory-secure manner.  

Jon Jordan talks to Laguna Labs' CEO Aron Beierschmitt about leaving behind debut game Crypto Unicorns and moving to new project Neo Olympus, which is a fully onchain game using the MUD engine and running on the B3 blockchain, with assets on Ethereum and Base.

• [2:45] What happened to Crypto Unicorns?
• [4:02] 2024 was a rough year. We went from +90 people to 10. But the DAO still exists.
• [5:27] "I accept all the blame for the failure. But I'm optimist about the path forward."
• [9:08] What was the spark of inspiration for Neo Olympus?
• [11:10] Why Aron is bullish on fully onchain games.
• [12:05] "Crypto Unicorns would still be around today if it was fully onchain."
• [13:15] Why did you choose B3 as the blockchain for Neo Olympus?
• [14:12] Neo Olympus will be cross-platform: playable from Arbitrum, from Abstract, from Ronin.
• [15:20] Most of the Neo Olympus' NFTs will be minted on Base.
• [18:57] The DN404 standard is "memecoins meets NFTs".
• [25:49] There's no investor or team allocation for the Olympus token.
• [28:39] "Time-based token vesting is silly."
• [31:15] What did your investors think about this approach?
• [34:20] How do you hope to scale Neo Olympus as fully onchain games can be complex?
• [35:27] Neo Olympus' gameplay is map-based tactics - Fire Emblem with titans.
• [37:22] We're building the game on Lattice's MUD engine.

Jon Jordan talks to Skybound's Dan Murray and The Sandbox's Sebastian Borget about the companies' partnership which will see The Walking Dead hosting experiences within The Sandbox blockchain metaverse, as well as allowing players to own and trade The Walking Dead characters and items as NFTs. The first NFT sales starts Thursday 26 August at 1pm UTC. Find out more at The Sandbox's Medium. 

Jon Jordan talks to Guild of Guardians game director Derek Lau about the mobile RPG, which is currently in development at Immutable and going through various NFT pre-sales, as it prepares for a Q2 2022 alpha launch. Check out more detail at https://www.guildofguardians.com/

Jon Jordan talks to Horizon Blockchain Games co-founder and chief storyteller Michael Sanders about Skyweaver, its F2P TCG, which will mint aesthetic collectibles NFTs as a reward for in-game success, with trading happening on a token-style DEX, and Sequence, its suite of blockchain game tools. NB Horizon is hiring

Jon Jordan talks to Chief about how he got into blockchain gaming with Axie Infinity, how he's promoting Axie as an esports with his team Axiegg, and the launch of physical/digital merc outfit E1337. 

Jon Jordan talks to Michael Wagner about Star Atlas, the space exploration and combat game currently in development on the Solana blockchain. 

Jon Jordan talks to Animoca Brands' chairman Yat Siu about its $88,888,888 "meme VC raise" and its plans to aggressive deploy this new capital to take blockchain gaming truly mass market for the first time in 2021. 

Jon Jordan talks to Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson about how he got into crypto, why Immutable decided to built Immutable X, its own L2 scaling solution for Ethereum, and why he thinks Immutable X will take Gods Unchained to 500,000 players in 2021.  Find out more at https://market.x.immutable.com/

Jon Jordan talks to CEO Michael Weiksner about Pocketful of Quarter's vision to create a universal currency that will work in all games. More at https://pocketfulofquarters.com/

Jon Jordan talks to Kieran and Aaron Warwick about ILLUVIUM, their new blockchain game, which mixes elements of Pokemon and Teamfight Tactics with DeFi and DAOs. Find out more details at https://www.illuvium.io/

Jon Jordan talks to Gabby Dizon about Yield Guild, a guild of gamers who play blockchain games to earn real-world and crypto value, which is evolving into a key element of the sector as it allows crypto-rich individuals to pool their NFTs, hence allowing gamers to borrow those NFTs to earn yield, as well as enabling these gamers to eventually become owners - owning a stake in the organisation through governance tokens. 

Jon Jordan and BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jenny Jordan discuss all the news from 2024.

• [2:16] The success of Pixels was an ongoing trend in 2024; but it wasn't always about DAUWs.
• [2:35] Heroes of Mavia was the first big game and token launch of 2024 but it didn't scale.
• [4:10] In 2024, we saw a lot of blockchain games launching through app stores but no big hits.
• [6:10] Browser vs app stores and PC gaming stores remains a key business decision.
• [8:44] A lot of meme-y game coins such as MON, PORTAL, CARV, XAI launched in Q1.
• [11:30] There was a lot of news about chain migration - so many new L2 and L3 chains.
• [13:00] In Q2, there was a big change in sentiment with game token prices tanking.
• [14:11] The rise of KOLs, who encouraged retail crypto to invest in new tokens with often bad results.
• [16:05] The rise of Telegram and TON as a strong marketing channel for blockchain games.
• [17:46] Another nascent year for Immutable: Guild of Guardians was not a success.
• [22:17] But in Immutable's defence... 4 million Immutable Passport wallet sign-ups.
• [28:28] In Q3, the issue of bots became a problem esp. in respect to airdrops and token rewards.
• [30:09] What are you trying to do with your blockchain game when it comes to giving out value?
• [32:04] Does it matter if bots or AI agents are paying $10 to play your game?
• [32:30] The other thing in Q3 was the start of successful games on Ronin - Wild Forest, Lumiterra etc.
• [34:56] Pretty much every game launched on Ronin has got +100,000 DAUWs in testing.
• [37:19] Should we view console game Off The Grid as a success?
• [44:22] Whatever happened to The Sandbox?
• [45:25] CCP Game's EVE Frontier is now in closed alpha testing.
• [46:59] What's significant is these projects are very serious about the value of blockchain in games.
• [49:45] More generally, the US presidential election was the clear pivot point for crypto in 2024.
• [52:51] Investment into the sector was down on 2023 but around $1 billion.

Jon Jordan talks to Salad CEO Bob Miles about his vision to his vision to building a community of gamers who convert their idle PC resources into rewards. Check it out at https://www.salad.io/

This podcast is sponsored by DeFi-NFT mash-up Aavegotchi --- Jon Jordan talks to Craig Russo from Polyient Games about the rise of game NFTs as an investment asset, building out a platform to kickstart this movement, and why Polyient acquired the banking infrastructure of forthcoming game Mirandus for $800,000; the highest price yet paid for an NFT.

Jon Jordan talks to Animoca Brands' CEO Robby Young about the rise of F1 Delta Time in 2020 - which generated +$2 million in NFT sales, including the most expensive NFT to-date - and well as the failure of the wider games industry to embrace blockchain.