https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/web3-gamer-ubisoft-sega-steam-ai-troubles-super-mario-crypto/

Valve allows AI content on Steam

Game developers can use AI-generated content in games listed on Steam. But only if it isn’t generated using copyright-infringing content.

That’s the official line from Valve, the creators of game publishing platform Steam, which it made in response to a June Reddit post that’s been making the rounds about a developer who had his game rejected by Steam for using AI.

Developer Artoonu, who specializes in creating NSFW games (think furries and hentai), said the company asked him to “affirmatively confirm that you own the rights to all of the IP used in the data set that trained the AI to create the assets in your game” for it to be accepted, which is an impossible ask.

Valve, it seems, is worried about the legal implications of hosting AI-generated content. And perhaps they should be. Artists are furious about the fact that AI image generators are trained on their work. ChatGPT pulls massive amounts of data from the web, much of which is copyrighted. Recordings of voice artists from years ago have been dug up and are being used by companies to train AI voice models without their explicit consent.

Valve spokesperson Kaci Boyle told Gizmodo this week that the introduction of AI was making it harder to show that a developer has sufficient IP rights when they use AI to create assets, including images, text, and music.

“In particular, there is some legal uncertainty relating to data used to train AI models. It is the developer’s responsibility to make sure they have the appropriate rights to ship their game,” Boyle said.

AI is a double-edged sword. For its detractors, it is robbing artists of rights and work. For its proponents, it is bringing them a whole new suite of creative tools. Artoonu said AI brought his “creativity was at an all-time high.”

“There were almost no limits to what kind of story I can write. I could generate almost every background I imagined and its wobbliness added a charm to it which I loved. Additionally, my efficiency doubled or was even better. I could focus on characters and dialogue instead of drawing,” he said.

Gods Unchained, My Pet Hooligan launch on Epic Games Store

Immutable’s trading card game Gods Unchained and AMGI’s My Pet Hooligan are the latest Web3 games to join the Epic Games Store.

Launched in 2019, Gods Unchained is a Magic: The Gathering-esque card game where each card is an NFT. Its executive producer Daniel Paez said in a statement that it was hard to overestimate the significance of the game launching on one of the largest PC gaming platforms in the world. Epic Games has over 230 million users.

“We are extremely excited to present our game to a completely new and truly massive audience of traditional PC gamers and TCG enthusiasts. It is a natural continuation of our journey and makes good on our promise to our community to continue to bring Gods Unchained to a new and diverse player base,” he said.

Meanwhile in the rabbit-themed metaverse where the big bad is basically Mark Zuckerberg… My Pet Hooligan finally announced it had been approved by Epic on June 28. It had pushed back its original launch date as it went through the approval process for shipping through the store.

The two games will join other Web3 games that have put content on Epic that include Star Atlas and Gala Games’ Grit.

Ubisoft’s first Web3 game

A little-known Japanese blockchain company is mopping up when it comes to collaborations with gaming giants.

Oasys, a gaming-focused chain whose founders include higher-ups from the likes of Bandai Namco and PlayStation, is working on Web3 games based on IP from Ubisoft and Sega.

Ubisoft is planning to launch its first Web3 game built on the chain. Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles will be a player-versus-player tactical role-playing game.

The announcement comes after Ubisoft has found some success in the NFT space with its Rabbids NFTs and collaborations with The Sandbox. However, it also canceled a rumored NFT arena battler dubbed Project Q in January this year.

An old Sega arcade game, Sangokushi Taisen will also be getting a makeover on Oasys courtesy of blockchain gaming company Double Jump Tokyo. It’s currently under development and is expected to come out by the end of this year.

Super Mario crypto-stealing malware

A popular fan-made Super Mario game installer wants to steal your crypto, warns a report from Cyble Research & Intelligence Labs.

Cyber criminals are distributing a modified version of the installer for Super Mario 3: Mario Forever containing malicious software through social media and forums.

The installer includes XMR Miner, a program that mines privacy-focused coin Monero and Umbral Stealer, which steals information from a victim’s machine including browser-stored logins and credentials, cryptocurrency wallet keys and session tokens.

Umbral Stealer is particularly good at allowing criminals to compromise social media and gaming accounts such as Telegram, Discord, Roblox and Minecraft. It can also screenshot and access webcam footage.

First launched in 2004, Mario Forever is an unofficial game based on the Nintendo franchise with nearly 17 million downloads through CNET alone. Fan-made versions of Super Mario are popular on PC as almost all of the official 24 original Super Mario games, as well as its spinoffs, remakes and remasters, are only available on Nintendo’s own platforms.

Games are an ideal method for getting users to unwittingly install malware on their computers. The large file size and general trust of game installers make it less likely for malware to be detected, while the large number of gamers provide ample targets. But there are ways to protect yourself by only downloading games from official sources, being careful when downloading mods and using a password manager instead of saving passwords in your browser.

And if some dodgy site is offering something too good to be true such as a game that hasn’t been released yet, maybe don’t believe it.

Hot Take: Paradise Tycoon

My initial plan for this fortnight’s hot take was Yuga Labs’ HV-MTL (see below in “Other Stuff”) but the limited access version doesn’t seem to be available yet and for some bizarre reason I just couldn’t bring myself to pay more than $1,000 for a game. Shocker, I know.

So instead I’ve taken a look at a cute little island game from Finland called Paradise Tycoon.

As the team behind it notes on Medium, “Finland is not only known for being the Happiest Country In The World, for its saunas, Santa Claus and Nokia, but also for the thriving games industry.” The home of Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, the country generates around $3 billion in gaming revenue a year.

Paradise Tycoon’s maker, Empires Not Vampires was founded in 2017 and focused on idle tycoon games before pivoting to blockchain with this newest release. It may be Web3, but Paradise Tycoon will still be familiar and not intimidating to those more familiar with Web2 games.

Set on a tropical island – beware the sharks in the water that will eat and kill you – its white paper dubs it a “balanced interplay between collecting resources, crafting, trading, building, questing and social interaction.”

The company claims the game has seen more than 200,000 downloads since Paradise Tycoon launched on Android and browsers.

Part of why it may have fared well compared to other launches is that the onboarding is easy. You can set up without connecting a wallet – you don’t even need an email address – but the option is there if you want to. This beats many NFT games out there that demand not just your wallet and email but quite often the rights to your first child and an itemized list of everything you had for dinner last month.

Combine the ease of onboarding with adorable artwork – the characters are extremely cute – and it makes for a nice introduction to what the team has to offer. Sure, the crafting process could be less laborious and it’d be nice to have more character customization but it’s a small price to pay for a playable game, which is still a rarity in Web3.

Other Stuff

— Yuga Labs has launched another game that isn’t the long-awaited Otherside metaverse. HV-MTL (pronounced “heavy metal) Forge is a token-gated competitive crafting game. A limited version will be available to non-NFT holders. “Think of it like Tamagotchi meets Homescapes meets some kind of popularity contest,” said Spencer Tucker, the chief gaming officer at Yuga Labs.

— Heroes of Mavia launched its beta on July 1. The MMO strategy game by Skrice Studios is based on the fantasy island of Mavia and players can build bases and engage in battles.

— Web3 gaming studio Mythical Games raised $37 million in a series C extension round following a raise of $150 million in November 2021. Participants in the latest raise include Animoca Brands, a16z and ARK Invest. It plans to raise an additional $20-30 million later this year.

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The post Super Mario: Crypto Thief, SEGA blockchain game, AI games rights fight — Web3 Gamer appeared first on Cointelegraph Magazine.

https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/web3-gamer-apple-gaming-sec-hates-metaverse-tokens-logan-paul-trolled-on-steam/

Gaming on Macs to suck less

Is Apple’s reign as the worst platform for gaming coming to an end?

Amidst all the hype about their long-rumored VR/AR headset, slated for release in early 2024 (queueing outside the Apple Store starts in October), it’s not the only signal that Apple might finally be sorting out its subpar gaming offering. It’s also releasing software that will make it easier to play Windows games on Mac.

Gaming on a Mac really sucks. Lots of games – particularly indie and early release ones – are not compatible. Keyboard mapping can be funky. To this day I have been unable to attach special tackles to my fishing rod (no, that is not innuendo) on the Mac edition of Stardew Valley.

With VR games, it’s even worse. If you want to spend hours watching YouTube videos, you can get most VR headsets to somewhat work with a Mac. But right now the only one that is really officially compatible seems to be the HTC Vive.

The downside of an Apple-native product is it comes with an Apple price tag: a hefty $3,499. It’s hard to justify that much money for exploring the empty, laggy metaverse when you could spend a few months travelling and seeing some of the coolest places in the actual world for the same price.

The endless legal wrangling over in-game virtual assets

The Sandbox, Decentraland and Axie Infinity’s tokens – SAND, MANA and AXS, respectively – made cameo appearances in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint against crypto exchange Binance, which was filed on June 5.

The complaint against the crypto exchange contains 13 charges, including that Binance sold unregistered securities. The SEC counted SAND, MANA and AXS among such securities – meaning it considers them to be types of investments, not currencies.

Speaking at the Non Fungible Conference (NFC) in Lisbon, Portugal on June 7, The Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget said that his team were aware of the litigation but that they are not themselves subject to any.

“We do not necessarily agree with the characterization that’s been put in that litigation, including the qualification of SAND as a security there,” he said, adding that it would not change the company’s day-to-day business.

Since the announcement, eToro has said it will delist several tokens, including MANA, for US-based customers.

Making in-game currencies securities is a new twist in the mess that is bridging the gap between virtual gaming currencies and real life money.

It’s not a new thing. The debate over the legal status of in-game currencies precedes even the invention of Bitcoin. Second Life got its first millionaire in 2006 and the question of who owes what to who has continued, exacerbated by the fact that many developers and creators already feel they pay large “taxes” to platforms.

Yet previous conversations have mostly been centered around making sure those that sell virtual assets or developer games on platforms are taxed correctly, not about investment and likely because Web2 virtual currencies act more like, well, currencies.

At last check, the US’s IRS doesn’t seem to be too concerned with virtual currencies if they don’t leave a game.

Avalanche wants to help Web2 gaming leaders go Web3

The quest by blockchains to convert gaming companies to the dark side continues with Ava Labs’ launch of Arcad3, a program to help Web2 gaming giants “launch powerful blockchain deployments.”

Ava Labs, which has supported gaming companies in building out more than ten gaming subnets on Avalanche and over 100 Web3 games, will work with teams on game monetisation, marketing, user acquisition, and risk management.

Among the first companies taking part are Tokyo-based firms Gumi and GREE (not to be confused with the Chinese aircon giant, GREE Electrics), as well as Shrapnel, DeFi Kingdoms and Gunz Chain by Gunzilla.

GREE’s Board of Director and SVP, Metaverse, Eiji Araki said that he believed the program would help the company stay ahead on Web3 gaming and develop relationships with the studios who are experimenting in and building the space. It’s currently working on its first Web3 game, Project INCURSION.

“I can’t share any details other than the project code yet, but it will be a breakthrough title that successfully combines our nearly 20 years of mobile game development knowledge with the new essence of Web3,” he added in a statement.

GameStop’s CEO replaced by memestock trading billionaire

So long, Matt Furlong.

The GameStop CEO and former Amazon exec was axed on June 7 following the end of his 24 month contract with the gaming retailer. During that time, he oversaw GameStop’s transition from a primarily brick and mortar retailer into a more internet-focused firm.

Ryan Cohen will replace Furlong. Cohen made his fortune founding online pet supplies retailer Chewy but is perhaps better known for his involvement with memestocks. He successfully rallied people to invest in companies like Bed, Bath and Beyond, and GameStop itself, causing the prices to skyrocket. Critics say he’s pumping and dumping.

He joined the board of GameStop in January 2021, became chairman of the board that same year and owns around 12% of the company.

It seems much of GameStop’s subsequent forays into crypto came from Cohen. In February this year, it inked a deal with Immutable to build out GameStop’s NFT marketplace. It’s due to debut later this year.

Hot take: Crypto-themed games on Steam

Given a lack of interesting Web3 games that have landed on my desk over the past few weeks, let’s talk about non-blockchain based games that are about crypto.

Steam may not allow crypto games but it can do little about trading simulators and Bitcoin mining tycoon RPGs. None are hits. Most seem tongue in cheek.

Take Coin Invaders, for instance, which tells players it must save Bitcoin by destroying altcoins. It’s basically Space Invaders with extra steps, notes one reviewer.

Or perhaps you’ll enjoy Crypto is Dead, in which an attack has crippled the world economy and physical currency has returned. It’s up to you to determine which bills are genuine and which are fake. Gripping stuff.

Then you can choose from the half a dozen-odd mining tycoon simulators which require you to build mining rigs and businesses to cash in on cryptocurrency to varying degrees of complexity. One version even has a simplified edition for kids.

But perhaps the award for most amusing crypto-themed non-crypto game goes to CryptoZoo, which came out this February. I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no: Logan Paul hasn’t yet made good on his promise of reviving the zombie project that earned him a whole series on crypto sleuth Coffeezilla’s YouTube channel.

Instead the task of creating a CryptoZoo game was taken up by Rye Bread Games, who describes him or herself on Steam as a trader who makes games for fun.

According to its deck, CryptoZoo is “…the best CryptoZoo on the market… the best of its kind… the best there ever will be…”

It may not involve NFTs, but at least players are getting their long-awaited chance to breed animals in scientifically impossible pairings.

Other Stuff

– Heroes of Mavia will release the first phase of its Beta game for Land NFT owners on June 30. The larger community will be able to play the game in the second phase from Sept 1 to Oct 31.

– Amazon’s Prime Gaming partnerships with Web3 companies continue. It’s gearing up for another deal with Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party whereby Prime members will be able to claim exclusive bundles for use in the game.

– Ahead of the expected launch of Otherside: Legends of the Mara this summer, Yuga Labs is ramping up the merch machine with KodaPendants for holders of Otherside Kodas and Vessels. The pendants are the first “relic” in the Otherside Relics by Gucci collection.

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The post Web3 Gamer: Apple to fix gaming? SEC hates Metaverse, Logan Paul trolled on Steam appeared first on Cointelegraph Magazine.

https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/web3-gamer-gta-6-crypto-doctor-who-in-the-sandbox-thai-tourist-nfts-review/

Grand Theft Auto VI crypto rumors

Rumors that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) will incorporate cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have once again surfaced, sparking speculation among fans.

Posts shared on Twitter suggest that GTA 6 will be a play-to-earn game and that in-game items such as cars and weapons will be NFTs.

GTA creators Rockstar Games are yet to weigh in on whether there’s any truth to these claims, but there seems to be little solid evidence backing the rumors.

The company cracked down on the use of crypto in GTA in November last year and sent cease and desist letters to companies running public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to several game makers that had built their games on the platform.

Given that GTA 5, released in 2015, has sold over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in revenue, it seems unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the successful formula of the franchise, the latest instalment of which is expected next year or in 2025.

Of course, there could be a crypto element but not necessarily the one crypto bros want. Game Rant suggests that it is more likely for Rockstar Games to use crypto as the butt of its in-game jokes.

Doctor Who, Top Gear join The Sandbox

Sci-fi series Doctor Who and British motoring show Top Gear, both popular BBC franchises, will enter the metaverse via The Sandbox after announcing a collaboration with the virtual world platform.

In partnership with Web3 company Reality+, is set to launch the space later this year.

Nicki Sheard, President Brands & Licensing, BBC Studios believes that while the metaverse is still in its infancy, it may shape how we consume and experience entertainment in the future.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how fans interact with our brands in this space. This project forms part of BBC Studios broader ambitious plans to grow our brands into new categories, with innovative technology and platforms forming an integral part of this,” she said.

BBC Studios, which is a commercial production company under the BBC umbrella, will join 400 other entertainment brands that The Sandbox has worked with including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, The Walking Dead and Adidas.

STEPN integrates Apple Pay for its NFTs

Move-to-earn app STEPN is making it easier to buy NFTs for its game by adding an in-app Apple Pay payment option.

Users will be able to buy SPARK credits using fiat, with ten spark credits being equivalent to 1 USDC, which can then be used to purchase the NFTs.

“It eliminates the need to connect a separate crypto wallet and streamlines the payment process, making it easier than ever for our community to access our offerings,” said STEPN on Medium.

The catch is that purchasing sneakers with fiat will be more costly, which STEPN attributes to the “taxation” on each in-app purchase.

Onboarding has long been a challenge for wider adoption of Web3 games, and STEPN is not an exception. Its onboarding process is cumbersome and users have to buy the sneaker NFTs — working out which one is best for you is a task and a half itself — from a third-party marketplace and transfer it into the in-wallet app.

But the company could have more in the works when it comes to making onboarding easier.

“Our integration with Apple Pay is just the beginning of our vision to make Web3 technology accessible to all,” it added.

Battle of Titans dev competition back for second season

MatchboxDAO is bringing back its Battle of Titans Web3 racing game back for a second season this week.

Launched on Sunday, dev teams from over 60 Web3 companies including Immutable, Starknet and Fantom will compete in a fully on-chain Mario Kart-Style game.

Each car is a smart contract that must be programmed to get to the end of the track while factoring in attacking and defending against other players using bananas, shells and shields.

The first edition of the game in January included teams from Ledger, Polygon, NEAR, Yield Guild Games and more, with a dev team from Uniswap emerging as the winners.

The new season will also add a community component where viewers will be able to vote for their favourite team.

Captain Tsubasa Web3 game debuts governance token

Captain Tsubasa — Rivals, a football game based on the popular manga Captain Tsubasa, has launched a governance token.

Web3 companies Thirdverse Group and BLOCKSMITH&Co debuted the game in January 2023. Players can train characters from the manga and play against each other in matches.

Game producer Shun Fujiyoshi, who currently heads BLOCKSMITH&Co, said that various mechanisms are in place to maintain the value of utility tokens.

“These measures include in-game consumption points and mechanisms to control price fluctuations caused by speculative trading,” he said in a statement.

Created in 1981 by Yoichi Takahashi, 70 million copies of the original Captain Tsubasa manga have been sold in Japan alone. It has been translated into over 20 languages.

Illuvium raises additional $10M in funding

Crypto venture firm Framework Ventures has invested $10 million in gaming studio Illuvium, which will be used to accelerate the development of the Illuvium Universe.

Australia-based Illuvium said that the new funding would give them a comfortable runway through the launch of the open beta and beyond.

It is planning an upcoming open beta featuring its city builder Zero, open-world monster hunter Overworld and autobattler Arena.

The company previously raised $5m in a Framework Ventures-backed seed round in March 2021. It also made $72 million during an NFT land sale in June last year.

Hot take: Collecting NFTs for a tiny bit of Thai chicken

This edition I caught a Web3 project in the wild.

Queueing for tickets to go up the MahaNakhon, Thailand’s tallest skyscraper, a poster off to one side next to a coffee advert and emergency defibrillator caught my attention: Amazing Thailand NFTs season 2. Travel to earn amazing expat NFTs.

Easily persuaded, I downloaded the app.

In mid-April this year the Tourism Administration of Thailand (TAT) launched the second round of NFTs for an NFT tourism project it’s piloting. Using an app called YAK, tourists can check in at various locations around the country and in return receive a travel NFT.

PokemonGo for backpackers and passport stamp addicts sounds appealing. The reality is a bit more frustrating.

Crypto folk won’t like how much personal info you have to put in to get set up. Not just an email, but also your phone number and a one time passcode.

The app and I disagreed several times as to whether I was within the required radius of the sites I visited. While the MahaNakhon NFT was obtained without fuss, I somehow acquired an NFT for Pattaya City and Phuket, even though I didn’t go to either.

The idea is that you “earn” while travelling by getting discounts depending on how many NFTs you get. In many cases, getting the offer seems to require buying something else such as getting two free pieces of chicken if you spend over 1,000 Thai baht ($29) in a restaurant — a tall order in a country where you can have a nice meal for a fifth of that.

In fact, many of the offers didn’t seem to be exclusive to the NFT app at all and were applicable without the app.

Now, apparently — though it didn’t say so on the poster — the game was only supposed to run until the end of April so maybe all the good offers were gone, I can’t be sure.

But for me the biggest question was how to get the NFTs out of the app. They seem to be on a native chain of Thailand-based cryptocurrency platform Bitkub. As far as I could tell, it required creating Bitkub account to move them, which in turn required a Thai phone number to receive the one time passcode.

Overall it needed a bit of tweaking but I liked the concept of being able to collect POAPs for places I’ve visited as a tourist. The discounts were lousy but not really necessary: if you actually got the NFT corresponding to the place you visited, collecting for the sake of collecting would have been enough.

A revamped, global version would be nice please.

Other stuff

— Gods Unchained unveiled a new roadmap on May 23. Among its plans are some for new game modes, a creator program, a soft launch for mobile and new card sets.

— Blockchain gaming platform Gala Games will launch a Web3 poker platform with PokerGO, with a beta slated for release in June 2023.

— Game retailer GameStop will distribute Telos-based games on its upcoming Web3 gaming launchpad GameStop Playr.

— Gaming metaverse Star Atlas launched the latest version of its showroom on June 1 with new flyable ships, single-player ground racing and an updated dogfighting arena.

— Web3 game publisher Fenix Games is teaming up with platform Immutable to help game studios by “curating, advising and publishing best-in-class live services to Immutable’s ecosystem of games.”

— Nike’s NFTs will start being incorporated into EA Sports games, according to a June 1 statement from the company. No word yet on which titles.

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