65% plunge in Web3 Games in ’23 but ‘real hits’ coming, M NFL Rivals NFT: Web3 Gamer

65% plunge in Web3 Games in ’23 but ‘real hits’ coming, $26M NFL Rivals NFT: Web3 Gamer

Published

2 years ago

November 22, 2023

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As the year winds down, every gaming company and its dog are dropping year-in-review reports.

A recent report from blockchain gaming accelerator Game7 suggests that many game developers had an enforced nap instead of pumping out new games.

This year, just 223 Web3 games were launched which is a 65% drop from the 640 games launched in 2022, and even more distant from the 811 games launched in 2021.

So what’s the deal with the sudden nosedive in output?

Well, the optimistic answer is Rome wasn’t built in a day.

It seems to be what Immutable co-founder and president Robbie Ferguson believes…that many great Web3 gaming hits are on the way… but patience is required.

Speaking to Magazine, Ferguson says there has been a significant surge of money into Web3 games lately, and developers are focusing on crafting standout hits:

“The last year has been really interesting, Web3 gaming has had such an influx of investment, it’s just the time-lag of the production of games until we start seeing hits…roughly $15 billion US has been invested in Web3 gaming over the past 3 years.”

Similarly, Stefanidis also mentions the amount of cash flowing in the Web3 gaming scene, even though new money from retail is yet to flow back into the overall crypto markets.

“The appetite has significantly increased. Projects are minting out and raising money again. I think the belief in Web3 has continued to grow, even in the bear market,” Stefanidis says.

But in 2024, the real hits won’t just be tossing money around to keep players hooked, at least according to Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games.

Blowfish Studios announce early access to Phantom Galaxies

The team behind new sci-fi action RPG game Phantom Galaxies described the gaming space as “challenging and unpredictable” when it announced early access to the game.

Are the developers fessing up to a little bit of market jitters as they roll out the new game?

Thank you, Rangers ?

As our Early Access journey unfolds, we want to extend a massive thank you to our team of talented Rangers. Their tireless efforts behind the scenes continue to be the backbone of our success ✨

The gaming space can be challenging and unpredictable, but… https://t.co/F8QMTvKRYw

— Phantom Galaxies (@the_phantom_g) November 17, 2023

It’s probably unnecessary as the title has garnered considerable attention online, already clocking up over 100,000 followers on the X platform, aka Twitter.

Published by Blowfish Studios, a subsidiary of Web3 giant Animoca Brands, Phantom Galaxies is available for free on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Set in the aftermath of an interstellar war the game unfolds as the Commonwealth and the Union come together to establish the Ranger Squadron – an outfit of skilled mecha pilots who guard human colonies on the outer edges of space.

[embedded content]

Players join the squadron as an “ensign” — a junior ranked officer — controlling a transforming Starlighter fighting against pirate factions and aliens.

According to an official blog post, an official governance token called Astrafer can be used to splash on credits, Ores, and U-Cubes for upgrading the Starfighter.

There are three ranger tracks available in the game. The first two, Standard and Advanced, hook every player up with rewards after hitting certain levels. But here’s the bummer – Astrafer isn’t part of the rewards for these two tracks unfortunately.

Disney’s Web3 platform ‘irrelevant’

Disney has decided to dip its toes in non-fungible tokens (NFT), after tossing its metaverse plans out the window earlier this year along with 50 jobs.

In a partnership with blockchain and metaverse firm Dapper Labs, it has created an NFT platform that will offer iconic cartoon characters from the past century on the marketplace, dubbed Disney Pinnacle.

Be the first to chase, collect and trade digital pins featuring characters you love. Only on Disney Pinnacle. ?

Join the waitlist at https://t.co/VCeadWRHTU! ? pic.twitter.com/GQa084CkW4

— DisneyPinnacle (@DisneyPinnacle) November 14, 2023

The platform will also include icons from Pixar as well as heroes and villains from the Star Wars galaxy, styled as collectible and tradable digital pins.

But…is this buzz around mega-billion dollar companies jumping into the Web3 scene still a thing?

Ilja Moisejevs, co-founder of Solana NFT marketplace Tensor, believes it really isn’t worth the fuss:

“Not sure if it’s an unpopular opinion – but Disney, Nike, Sbux, the next Web2 brand getting into Web3… …is irrelevant. It’s like worrying if Walmart will start using the web in 1999. Sure they will, eventually, who cares – 99% of web’s value capture was done by web-native startups.”

Not sure if unpopular opinion – but Disney, Nike, Sbux, the next web2 brand getting into web3…

…is irrelevant.

It’s like worrying if walmart will start using the web in 1999.

Sure they will, eventually, who cares – 99% of web’s value capture was done by web-native…

— ilmoi | Tensor ⚛️⚡️ (@_ilmoi) November 19, 2023

Hot Take: NFL Rivals

NFL Rivals is a mobile blockchain game, published by Mythical Games in collaboration with the National Football League (NFL).

The gaming crew only recently bid farewell to Ethereum blockchain and jumped ship to Polkadot. They pointed the finger at Ethereum’s sluggish transaction speeds and wallet-draining costs.

Before you roll your eyes at an NFL title, nope, you don’t need to be a sports guru for this one.

Honestly, it’s not really a game that’ll make die-hard sports fans excited. It’s straightforward, and that’s the beauty of it.

I got sucked into the gameplay, and I swear I’ve never seen an NFL match.

If you’re on the hunt for a fresh game to kill time during a delayed flight or keep you entertained when your date’s fashionably late, this is the one.

Better yet, it doesn’t cost you a dime to play on your iPhone or Android.

The tutorial was surprisingly efficient, not like those never-ending ones. It covered throws, kicks and got right into the gameplay without any fuss.

Once you’re in the game, you wear the team manager hat. You assemble your players every game, level up, recruit better players (and ditch the underperformers).

Rivals 2 — You can buy and sell players in NFL Rivals.

Once you hit level four in the game, you unlock the option to buy, sell, and trade individual NFL players as NTFs on Mythical online marketplace.

Jaquan is available for the low, low price of $26M

I took a quick peek at the marketplace, and the big shot collectible is Jaquan Brisker, selling for a massive 100 million MYTH.

That’s around $26 million USD, in case you were wondering.

If you’re not ready to splash that type of cash, no worries – you can grab yourself a bargain with Justin Houston for just 1.5 MYTH, about $0.39 USD.

What I do like about NFL Rivals is that it seamlessly fits into the iPhone screen. Unlike some soccer and tennis games I’ve tried where your thumbs end up covering half the action. Not cool.

Controls? Pretty smooth. Even if you’ve got chubby fingers, this game won’t have you pulling your hair out.

More from the Web3 gaming space

— Popular game studio Avalon has teased its new User-Generated Content (UGC) MMORPG in a 90-second trailer.

— Immutable teams up with Japanese game developer Black Tower Studios, to release Web3 game Arkbound.

— Gaming giant Ubisoft has announced plans to launch an Ethereum non-fungible token (NFT) for its upcoming game Champion Tactics.

— PancakeSwap expands its gaming offerings with the launch of PancakeSwap Gaming Marketplace.

Andrew Fenton

Based in Melbourne, Andrew Fenton is a journalist and editor covering cryptocurrency and blockchain. He has worked as a national entertainment writer for News Corp Australia, on SA Weekend as a film journalist, and at The Melbourne Weekly.

Follow the author @andrewfenton

Politics

US DOJ could still pursue money laundering, sanctions charges against Roman Storm

Published

2 hours ago

August 7, 2025

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US DOJ could still pursue money laundering, sanctions charges against Roman Storm

Roman Storm’s trial verdict leaves the door open for US prosecutors to retry the Tornado Cash developer, attorneys said.

Politics

Diane’s husband was killed by a reckless driver – the wait for justice was almost as painful

Published

2 hours ago

August 7, 2025

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Diane's husband was killed by a reckless driver - the wait for justice was almost as painful

Diane Gall’s husband, Martyn, had been out on a morning bike ride with his friends on their usual route one winter morning in November 2020 – when he was killed by a reckless driver.

Diane and her daughters had to wait almost three years for her husband’s case to be heard in court.

The case was postponed three times, often without warning.

“You just honestly lose faith in the system,” she says.

“You feel there’s a system there that should be there to help and protect victims, to be victims’ voices, but the constant delays really take their toll on individuals and us as a family.”

The first trial date in April 2022 was cancelled on the day and pushed four months later.

The day before the new date, the family were told it wasn’t going ahead due to the barristers’ strike.

It was moved to November 2022, then postponed again, before eventually being heard in June the following year.

“You’re building yourself up for all these dates, preparing yourself for what you’re going to hear, reliving everything that has happened, and it’s retraumatising,” says Diane.

‘Radical’ reform needed

Diane’s wait for justice gives us an insight into what thousands of victims and their families are battling every day in a court system cracking under the weight of a record-high backlog.

There are 76,957 cases waiting to be heard in Crown Courts across England and Wales, as of the end of March 2025.

To relieve pressure on the system, an independent review by Sir Brian Leveson last month made a number of recommendations – including creating a new division of the Crown Court known as an intermediate court, made up of a judge and two magistrates, and allowing defendants to choose to be tried by judge alone.

He said only “radical” reform would have an impact.

But according to exclusive data collected for Sky News by the Law Society, there is strong scepticism among the industry about some proposed plans.

Before the review was published, we asked 545 criminal lawyers about the idea of a new tier to the Crown Court – 60% of them told us a type of Intermediate Court was unlikely to reduce the backlog.

“It’s moving a problem from one place to another, like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s not going to do anything,” says Stuart Nolan, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee.

“I think the problem with it is lack of resources or lack of will to give the proper resources.

“You can say we need more staff, but they’re not just any staff, they are people with experience and training, and that doesn’t come quickly or cheap.”

Instead, the lawyers told us creating an additional court would harm the quality of justice.

Chloe Jay, senior partner at Shentons Solicitors, agrees the quality of justice will be impacted by a new court division that could sit without a jury for some offences.

She says: “The beauty of the Crown Court is that you have two separate bodies, one deciding the facts and one deciding law.

“So the jury doesn’t hear the legal arguments about what evidence should be excluded, whether something should be considered as part of the trial, and that’s what really gives you that really good, sound quality of justice, because you haven’t got one person making all the decisions together.

“Potentially in an intermediate court, that is what will happen. The same three people will hear those legal arguments and make the finding of guilt or innocence.”

The most striking finding from the survey is that 73% of criminal lawyers surveyed are worried about offences no longer sitting in front of a jury.

Casey Jenkins, president of London Criminal Court Solicitors’ Association, says this could create unconscious bias.

“There’s a real risk that people from minority backgrounds are negatively impacted by having a trial by a judge and not a jury of their peers who may have the same or similar social background to them,” she says.

“A jury trial is protection against professional judicial decisions by the state. It’s a fundamental right that can be invoked.”

Instead of moving some offences to a new Crown Court tier, our survey suggests criminal lawyers would be more in favour of moving cases to the magistrates instead.

Under the Leveson proposals, trials for offences such as dangerous driving, possessing an offensive weapon and theft could be moved out of the Crown Courts.

‘Catastrophic consequences’

Richard Atkinson, president of the Law Society, says fixing the system will only work with fair funding.

“It’s as important as the NHS, it’s as important as the education system,” he says. “If it crumbles, there will be catastrophic consequences.”

Ms Jenkins agrees that for too long the system has been allowed to fail.

“Everyone deserves justice, this is just not the answer,” she says.

“It’s just the wrong solution to a problem that was caused by chronic, long-term under-investment in the criminal justice system, which is a vital public service.

“The only way to ensure that there’s timely and fair justice for everybody is to invest in all parts of the system from the bottom up: local services, probation, restorative justice, more funding for lawyers so we can give early advice, more funding for the police so that cases are better prepared.”

Government vows ‘bold and ambitious reform’

In response to Sky News’ findings, the minister for courts and legal services, Sarah Sackman KC MP, told Sky News: “We inherited a record and rising court backlog, leaving many victims facing unacceptable delays to see justice done.

“We’ve already boosted funding in our courts system, but the only way out of this crisis is bold and ambitious reform. That is why we are carefully considering Sir Brian’s bold recommendations for long-term change.

“I won’t hesitate to do whatever needs to be done for the benefit of victims.”

The driver that killed Diane’s husband was eventually convicted. She wants those making decisions about the court system to remember those impacted the most in every case.

Every victim and every family.

“You do just feel like a cog in a big wheel that’s out of your control,” she says. “Because you know justice delayed is justice denied.”