‘Fortnite’ Pumps Solana Coin, ‘Deadrop’ Players Get Refunds

The crypto and NFT 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 catch 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

Fortnite storyline pumps token: The latest season of the hugely popular battle royale Fortntie surrounds a pickle criminal rapper named Big Dill who is on the run following an alleged crypto rug pull, with a fake news anchor claiming that he had “launched a crypto meme coin called Dill Bits.”

Crypto degens had already clicked onto Dill Bits two weeks prior, after it was added as a new form of in-game currency for high-tier loot in Fortnite, and dropped a real (albeit unofficial) version of it via Solana launchpad Pump.fun. Despite no official ties to the game, the token quickly hit a $4.78 million market cap, but fell to just $145,000 as attention waned.

Following Fortnite’s social media video about Big Dill’s crypto shenanigans, the Solana meme coin skyrocketed 4,300% to a market cap of $4.72 million. It has since, however, fallen once again, adding credence to the news anchor’s claim that you should never “take financial advice from a pickle.”

Deadrop users get refunds: Upset players of the discontinued extraction shooter Deadrop have started to claim refunds through their banks. Midnight Society, the game studio behind the shooter, had sold early access passes, including $50 NFTs and multiple non-NFT passes priced between $20 and $30. But users claim that they didn’t fully receive the products they paid for.

Those that bought the $25 Tower Key, which allowed users to play early access, claim that they didn’t receive the promised “Season 0 battle pass” that was expected to be delivered alongside the full game. Buyers of the later Drivers Keys passes say that the items were never available to be used in-game, nor were they ever tradable as promised. Decrypt reviewed evidence that users were successfully getting refunds for their purchases after contacting their banks.

Midnight Society co-founder and creative director Quinn DelHoyo told Decrypt last August that it planned to release the full game in fall of 2025. However, the studio struggled following the dismissal of its co-founder, popular streamer Dr. Disrespect (aka Guy Beahm), due to his alleged inappropriate conversations with a minor. In September, it laid off a “significant” portion of its workforce, then completely shut down in January—crushing the hopes of its dedicated fan base.

Sega franchise on Sui: Parasol, a gaming infrastructure subsidiary of Sui network contributor Mysten Labs, announced on Friday that its soon-to-launch trading card game Code of Joker: Evolutions will launch on the Sui blockchain.

The Code of Joker franchise was originally created for arcades in 2013 by iconic video game company Sega, but was later picked up and licensed by Jokers Inc. that is now attempting to revive the series. This time, however, the game has a crypto twist in that players will own in-game cards via NFTs on the Sui blockchain.

It is worth noting that Sega is not developing Code of Joker: Evolutions itself, it is simply licensing the franchise to a Jokers Inc. While Sega has said that it is willing to license its IPs to explore the crypto gaming industry, it also said that its bigger franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog are not up for grabs until this experimental phase is over.

ICYMI

• Layer-1 blockchain Skale announced its Indie Game Accelerator Program, which will offer $2 million worth of grants.
• A guy cheated on the Robinhood Bitcoin trivia game with AI, winning $1,326. He’s since made the tool open-source.
• Crypto battle royale game My Pet Hooligan announced that it is coming to Xbox.
• Mythical Games, the creators of NFL Rivals, released a trailer for its upcoming soccer game FIFA Rivals game, set to release this summer
• A player broke an AI doctor game by making the patient oink continuously.
• Four Line mini-apps, including Farm Frens and Sleepagotchi Lite, will be expanding to Sony’s Soneium blockchain.
• NFT marketplace OpenSea teased a Ronin collab, suggesting potential support ahead for Ronin token trading.

• The guy that made a flight simulator entirely using AI tools says that he made $87,000 from the game in just 17 days.
• Buzzy crypto battle royale Off the Grid has added solo mode back into the game after a brief testing period last week
• Telegram anime-inspired soccer game Captain Tsubasa Rivals secured $5 million in funding, confirming that it is expanding its mini app marketing to fuel growth.
• Crypto gaming community WolvesDAO released its WOOF token on Avalanche.
• Space Nation Online launched its OIK token on Wednesday, opening airdrop claims for those eligible
• Metaverse platform Decentraland revealed its line-up for its Metaverse Fashion Week, which takes place from April 9 to 12
• Sugartown studio D20 Labs, led by former employees of Zynga, says that major ecosystem expansion announcements are coming soon.
• Holders of SuiPlay0x1 NFTs received exclusive rewards, ahead of the handheld crypto console’s scheduled release later this year
• Ethereum gaming platform Nifty Island shipped a guild wars feature on Monday.
• Seminal play-to-earn game Axie Infinity launched its eighth competitive season on Monday, adding 66 new cards in the process.
• Ethereum NFT trading card game Gods Unchained migrated from Immutable to Immutable zkEVM.
• Abstract role playing game Onchain Heroes added a gacha system—essentially loot boxes that can unlock items.
• Collectible card game Wildcard launched its WC token on Ethereum, while players can sign up for playtesting via Steam
• Web3 gaming studio Sugarverse closed a $1 million funding round and confirmed that its first casual mobile game, Sugar Match, will debut on Tezos layer-2 network Etherlink this summer

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 James Rubin