CryptoKitties Hit Telegram, ‘X Empire’ Flip-Flop, and ‘Moonray’ Goes Mobile

The crypto gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

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

CryptoKitties return: Classic Ethereum NFT project CryptoKitties has returned as a Telegram crypto game. This is the first official product launch under the IP since the original 2017 NFT collection. It serves as a “sneak peek” into the collections’ relaunch on Flow.

Telegram gaming exploded in popularity this year, tempting Dapper Labs—the collection’s creator—to jump in on the craze. CryptoKitties: All The Zen tasks you with tapping and rubbing an egg as you upgrade and unlock various in-game cats, and in-game progress will later unlock CryptoKitties-related airdrops on the Flow network with the collection’s relaunch on the horizon.

X Empire ends, then returns: Elon Musk-themed Telegram game X Empire ended its mining phase on Monday, as expected, ahead of its airdrop. This was supposed to be the final step before the token launch, but then the plans changed. The tap-to-earn game launched a new mini-season called the “Chill Phase” for players to fight for more tokens before the airdrop in “the second half of October.”

Rewards earned from the initial mining phase will not be affected as they have already been calculated and allocated. Instead, an additional 5% of the total token supply—another 34.5 billion X tokens—has been assigned to a new rewards campaign set to last only a couple of weeks before the token airdrop.

Moonray auto-battler: The makers of Ethereum action game Moonray have announced a mobile auto-battler set to release in early 2025 to complement its flagship battle arena game. The spinoff game will be set in the same “post-human” world as the original, using the same assets, and will let Moonray token holders unlock special content and rewards.

Also known as “auto chess,” the strategy genre sees gamers place characters on a board, and they’ll automatically fight the opposition. Riot’s Teamfight Tactics is the most popular example, but Moonray’s entry into the genre claims to have “more in-depth resource management and counter play,” as well as Web3 integration.

ICYMI

• Ubisoft will launch a mint of 10,000 NFTs on Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum for its upcoming game, Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E.
• Telegram game Rocky Rabbit returned with new rewards after its airdrop on The Open Network (TON).
• Ethereum card battler Gods Unchained revealed its Tower of Dread expansion.
• Tap-to-earn games Hamster Kombat and Catizen saw their tokens plummet in price after their respective airdrops.
• Strategy game Shardbound will enter open beta on the Epic Games Store on October 9.

• The makers of trading card game Parallel announced key dates for its upcoming Aftermath expansion.
• Animoca Brands and Motorverse teamed up to launch Lamborghini’s hub for Web3 engagement, “Fast ForWorld.”
• Mocaverse partnered with Square Enix’s game Symbiogenesis to help accelerate user onboarding.
• Polkadot airdropped 10 million MYTH tokens ($2 million) in total to over 450,000 wallets.
• NFT collection Pudgy Penguins released a physical arcade game across the U.S.

• Music-based Telegram game Enkor: Tap to the Beat launched with music from Deadmau5’s music label.
• The Telegram crypto game revival of Flappy Bird launched an endless “OG mode.”

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