This Week in Crypto Gaming: ‘Off the Grid’ Token Launch, GameStop Embraces Bitcoin, SEC Approves Immutable

The landscape of crypto and NFT gaming is increasingly bustling these days, as notable titles begin to launch, token airdrops accumulate, and a seemingly unending array of events unfolds. It’s quite a bit to digest!

Fortunately, Decrypt’s GG has it all covered. If you’re in need of a brief update on the latest happenings in the realm of crypto video games, we’re excited to introduce This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend summary highlights the most significant news from the previous week, along with a selection of additional snippets you may have overlooked. We also feature some original content from our team throughout the week.

Major Updates

SEC Closes Immutable Investigation: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its inquiry into the Ethereum gaming platform Immutable without any enforcement actions, as announced by the company on Tuesday through a blog post.

In October 2024, the SEC served Immutable a Wells Notice due to alleged violations of securities laws concerning the sales of the IMX token. The Commission had also scrutinized claims regarding the token’s backing, specifically questioning a pre-launch investment from Huobi Ventures.

Now that the investigation has wrapped up, Immutable’s CEO Robbie Ferguson stated that the findings indicated “no wrongdoing,” commending his team for their continued efforts despite the concerning Wells Notice. The company also tweeted on X that this marks a “significant win” for Web3 gaming and for “all supporters of digital ownership rights.”

The SEC has recently dismissed most of its pending cases and investigations against crypto entities following President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Off the Grid Mainnet: The popular shooter Off the Grid has been operating on the GUNZ testnet, established as a dedicated Avalanche L1 chain. Recently, it was confirmed that GUNZ will transition to its eagerly awaited mainnet on March 31, coinciding with the launch of the GUN token.

This announcement follows Gunzilla Games Director of Web3 Theodore Agranat’s prediction of a Q1 2025 launch made back in December, emphasizing his intention for the game to be fully featured and polished by then. Meanwhile, a black market for in-game skins has emerged, indicating players’ enthusiasm for the forthcoming crypto integration, which will enable the sale of in-game items for cryptocurrency.

Launch of Forgotten Runiverse: The Ronin-based RPG Forgotten Runiverse went live in early access on Wednesday, allowing players to learn spells and earn rewards while navigating the expansive fantasy world inspired by the Ethereum NFT collection, Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult.

This launch follows three years of development and over 1 million hours of testing, as stated by Ronin Network, which became the game’s new platform after migrating from the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum last year.

Now fully operational after three beta testing phases, Forgotten Runiverse launched its initial major content update, titled Moonlit Wilds, enabling players to access land plots, construct new buildings, craft and mint items, and master up to 32 spells while embarking on various quests.

GameStop Embraces Bitcoin: The video game retailer-turned-meme stock phenomenon GameStop revised its investment policy on Tuesday to classify “certain cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin,” as “approved investment vehicles.” Following this, they announced on X that Bitcoin can now be utilized as a “Treasury Reserve Asset.”

The following day, GameStop divulged plans to raise $1.3 billion via convertible senior notes, aiming to support “general corporate needs, including Bitcoin acquisitions.”

This strategy echoes that of Strategy’s approach, as the firm (previously known as MicroStrategy) has issued billions in convertible senior notes to increase its Bitcoin holdings. GameStop’s new direction comes mere weeks after CEO Ryan Cohen shared a photo on X alongside Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.

In Case You Missed It

• Solana game Star Atlas is partnering with SingularityNET to incorporate AI agents into its realm.
• An FPS game reportedly records every single bullet on-chain via Ethereum layer-2 MegaETH, which its creator admits is merely a “silly experiment.”
• Solana shooter Nyan Heroes has returned with its latest playtest, featuring its most substantial airdrop to date.

• Gunzilla Games, the studio behind Off the Grid, has acquired and revived the iconic magazine Game Informer after its closure last year.
• The mobile strategy game Fableborne has made its return for a closed play test on Ronin.
• Marblex’s Immutable-based mobile game Self-Made Billionaire is slated for an April 7 launch, and is currently available for pre-order on the App Store.

• The developers of trading card game Parallel launched the title for Android in the Philippines on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a phased rollout for the mobile versions.
• The creators of Tokyo Beast, an Immutable-powered game, released a launch trailer.
• The anime-inspired NFT collection Azuki has opened pre-orders for starter decks for its forthcoming trading card game.
• Arbitrum’s game AI Arena launched a competition offering a prize pool of 500,000 NRN (approximately $18,000).
• Crypto MMORPG Treeverse has gone live and commenced its first season.
• KAMIGOTCHI, a crypto pet collection game, has completed a funding round involving 81 participants, revealing that mainnet details will be announced soon.
• Immutable trading card game Gods Unchained has launched its season two battle pass.

GG Spotlight

Here are a few original pieces from our team over the past week that we think you’ll find worthwhile for your weekend reading:

Edited by Andrew Hayward