18 April 2025 | Weekly news roundup

Jon Jordan and BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jenny Jordan talk through the week's news including: [2:10] A year ago, Immutable launched The Main Quest. People have been collecting gems ever since. [3:45] However, it wasn't clear what the purpose or value of these gems was. [4:10] Main Quest has been renamed Perpetual Rewards. You can earn more gems by playing games. [5:05] Your wallet has to be verified by phone number and social login. [5:34] You buy one key per wallet for 500 gems that drops random rewards, mainly IMX tokens. [6:51] In the first week, I got an epic key, which dropped around $30 of IMX. [8:00] This week, the total prize pool was $230,000-worth of IMX. It drops to $90,000 next week. [9:08] The top wallet in week 1 won around $9,000 of IMX. [10:26] How effective will this system be in terms of engaging players in Immutable games? [11:49] It is part of a wider trend to target rewards to your most committed players c.f. Pixels. [13:16] Immortal Rising 2 has seen a 91% decline in DAUWs since its IMT token launch. [14:52] Treasure and Aavegotchi have both announced they are shutting down their L3s. [17:07] Companies launched L3s in 2024 because they could sell new tokens to investors. [17:50] But these chains cost money to operate and their games didn't have (m)any users. [19:35]Treasure said its chain cost $450,000 a year to operate. [23:48] An investor has tweeted Off The Grid has +200,000 MAUs and +$14M in annual runrate. [27:09] Jon is conflicted about Off The Grid; "I want it to work but there's a lack of transparency". [32:34] KGeN has announced it's setting up its MENA HQ in Bahrain. [36:20] Shrapnel announced more details of its Chinese expansion including a separate marketplace. [37:12] It has gained a rare license allowing Chinese players can spend fiat money to buy NFTs. [38:28] Chinese players will be playing in the same servers as all other players, however.