The Lords of Light’ Shutting Down, ‘Eve Frontier’ Trial

It’s tough to keep tabs on the ever-changing crypto gaming space, thanks to the constant flow of news: everything from big game launches and fun degen experiments to token price swings and occasional project collapses. It’s a lot to follow.

Luckily, we’re plugged in at Decrypt‘s GG. We cover the biggest happenings throughout the week, and then this weekly roundup provides a quick way to catch up, as well as find a bunch of other little bits of news from throughout the week.

Top stories

Raini’s big pivot: Raini Studios announced that it will shut down its Avalanche-based NFT card game Raini: The Lords of Light on July 21. The competitive card battler, similar to Hearthstone and available on Epic Games Store, will distribute 2 million RST in token rewards (about $3,800 worth) before closing.

The fantasy-themed game, which incorporated crypto culture references (like Dogecoin and Sam Bankman-Fried) and humor, initially launched NFT cards on Ethereum in 2021 before moving to Avalanche. Despite paying over $1 million in rewards to thousands of players, the studio said that declining player numbers made the game unsustainable to maintain.

Raini Studios will pivot to upcoming action games Lucha Throwdown and Uncaged: The Jon Jones Brawler while implementing a deflationary tokenomics model. The RST token is up 60% over the last week, but remains down nearly 99% from its 2024 peak price.

Eve Frontier trial: CCP Games is offering a 10-day free trial (June 27-July 7) for Eve Frontier, an Ethereum-based MMO spinoff of Eve Online. The space survival game allows players to harvest resources, build bases, and earn Grace points convertible to permanent Eve Points that track a player’s legacy via a leaderboard.

The trial follows the recent launch of New Era Founders Access, which removed the previous NDA restrictions on early players. The game features cycles (or seasons) where short-term progress resets, but long-term rewards persist. Built on Ethereum’s Redstone network, Eve Frontier will use multiple currencies including tradable Eve tokens and in-game-only LUX tokens.

CCP Games raised $40 million in 2023 for this blockchain adaptation, and CCP Community Developer Ben Sisson told Decrypt that players of the original, hardcore space sim Eve Online have shown interest in this new twist on the franchise.

“Overall, the response across the board to Eve Frontier leveraging blockchain in the way that we have, especially as it relates to modding and third-party development, has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Sisson. “It is becoming clearer to gamers that this is the technology that allows us to unlock our vision for the game that they want.”

ICYMI

• Avalanche hero shooter BloodLoop launched on the Epic Games Store last week.
• GameStop raised an additional $450 million that it can use to purchase Bitcoin, pushing the latest total raise to $2.7 billion. The retailer currently holds over $500 million worth of BTC.

• The END token of the Endless Clouds ecosystem, including role-playing game Treeverse, is dropping soon.
• The Sandbox revealed a team-up with Cirque du Soleil to bring its experiences into the metaverse world.

• Axie Infinity is accepting signups for its Atia’s Legacy summer playtest until July 7.
• The developers of crypto game Dogami are looking for a buyer, after previously saying they were exploring options.
• Battle royale shooter Off the Grid got optimizations on Mac to run better on Apple’s chips.

• Sui gaming brand Xociety shared tokenomics details for its XO token.
• Avalanche game Forgotten Kingdom said it has amassed 250K downloads on the Epic Games Store.
• Ethereum card game Gods Unchained rolled out its season 4 battle pass.
• Blockchain chess game Anichess will hold a genesis profile picture NFT mint soon.

Weekend reads