GTA 6 crypto rumors, Dr Who/Sandbox, Thai tourist NFTs review – Cointelegraph Magazine

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 as soon as once more surfaced, sparking hypothesis amongst followers.

Posts shared on Twitter counsel that GTA 6 shall be a play-to-earn sport and that in-game gadgets akin to vehicles and weapons shall be NFTs.

GTA creators Rockstar Video games are but to weigh in on whether or not there’s any reality to those claims, however there appears to be little strong proof backing the rumors.

The corporate cracked down on using crypto in GTA in November final yr and despatched stop and desist letters to firms operating public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to a number of sport makers that had constructed their video games on the platform.

Provided that GTA 5, launched in 2015, has offered over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in income, it appears unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the profitable method of the franchise, the newest instalment of which is anticipated subsequent yr or in 2025.

In fact, there may very well be a crypto aspect however not essentially the one crypto bros need. Recreation Rant means that it’s extra seemingly for Rockstar Video games to make use of crypto because the butt of its in-game jokes.

Physician Who, High Gear be part of The Sandbox

Sci-fi collection Physician Who and British motoring present High Gear, each fashionable BBC franchises, will enter the metaverse by way of The Sandbox after saying a collaboration with the digital world platform.

In partnership with Web3 firm Actuality+, is ready to launch the area later this yr.

Nicki Sheard, President Manufacturers & Licensing, BBC Studios believes that whereas the metaverse continues to be in its infancy, it could form how we eat and expertise leisure sooner or later.

“I’m wanting ahead to seeing how followers work together with our manufacturers on this area. This challenge types a part of BBC Studios broader bold plans to develop our manufacturers into new classes, with revolutionary expertise and platforms forming an integral a part of this,” she mentioned.

BBC Studios, which is a industrial manufacturing firm beneath the BBC umbrella, will be part of 400 different leisure manufacturers that The Sandbox has labored with together with Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, The Strolling Useless and Adidas.

STEPN integrates Apple Pay for its NFTs

Transfer-to-earn app STEPN is making it simpler to purchase NFTs for its sport by including an in-app Apple Pay cost possibility.

Customers will be capable to purchase SPARK credit utilizing fiat, with ten spark credit being equal to 1 USDC, which may then be used to buy the NFTs.

“It eliminates the necessity to join a separate crypto pockets and streamlines the cost course of, making it simpler than ever for our group to entry our choices,” mentioned STEPN on Medium.

The catch is that buying sneakers with fiat shall be extra pricey, which STEPN attributes to the “taxation” on every in-app buy.

Onboarding has lengthy been a problem for wider adoption of Web3 video games, and STEPN just isn’t an exception. Its onboarding course of is cumbersome and customers have to purchase the sneaker NFTs — understanding which one is greatest for you is a process and a half itself — from a third-party market and switch it into the in-wallet app.

However the firm might have extra within the works on the subject of making onboarding simpler.

“Our integration with Apple Pay is just the start of our imaginative and prescient to make Web3 expertise accessible to all,” it added.

Battle of Titans dev competitors again for second season

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

Launched on Sunday, dev groups from over 60 Web3 firms together with Immutable, Starknet and Fantom will compete in a completely on-chain Mario Kart-Type sport.

Every automobile is a brilliant contract that have to be programmed to get to the top of the monitor whereas factoring in attacking and defending towards different gamers utilizing bananas, shells and shields.

The primary version of the sport in January included groups from Ledger, Polygon, NEAR, Yield Guild Video games and extra, with a dev group from Uniswap rising because the winners.

The brand new season may even add a group part the place viewers will be capable to vote for his or her favorite group.

Captain Tsubasa Web3 sport debuts governance token

Captain Tsubasa — Rivals, a soccer sport primarily based on the favored manga Captain Tsubasa, has launched a governance token.

Web3 firms Thirdverse Group and BLOCKSMITH&Co debuted the sport in January 2023. Gamers can prepare characters from the manga and play towards one another in matches.

Recreation producer Shun Fujiyoshi, who presently heads BLOCKSMITH&Co, mentioned that varied mechanisms are in place to keep up the worth of utility tokens.

“These measures embody in-game consumption factors and mechanisms to regulate value fluctuations brought on by speculative buying and selling,” he mentioned in a press release.

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

Illuvium raises extra $10M in funding

Crypto enterprise agency Framework Ventures has invested $10 million in gaming studio Illuvium, which shall be used to speed up the event of the Illuvium Universe.

Australia-based Illuvium mentioned that the brand new funding would give them a snug runway by the launch of the open beta and past.

It’s planning an upcoming open beta that includes its metropolis builder Zero, open-world monster hunter Overworld and autobattler Enviornment.

The corporate beforehand raised $5m in a Framework Ventures-backed seed spherical in March 2021. It additionally made $72 million throughout an NFT land sale in June final yr.

Sizzling take: Gathering NFTs for a tiny little bit of Thai rooster

This version I caught a Web3 challenge within the wild.

Queueing for tickets to go up the MahaNakhon, Thailand’s tallest skyscraper, a poster off to at least one aspect subsequent to a espresso advert and emergency defibrillator caught my consideration: Wonderful Thailand NFTs season 2. Journey to earn wonderful expat NFTs.

Simply persuaded, I downloaded the app.

In mid-April this yr the Tourism Administration of Thailand (TAT) launched the second spherical of NFTs for an NFT tourism challenge it’s piloting. Utilizing an app known as YAK, vacationers can examine in at varied places across the nation and in return obtain a journey NFT.

PokemonGo for backpackers and passport stamp addicts sounds interesting. The fact is a little more irritating.

Crypto people received’t like how a lot private information you need to put in to get arrange. Not simply an e mail, but in addition your telephone quantity and a one time passcode.

The app and I disagreed a number of instances as as to if I used to be throughout the required radius of the websites I visited. Whereas the MahaNakhon NFT was obtained with out fuss, I by some means acquired an NFT for Pattaya Metropolis and Phuket, despite the fact that I didn’t go to both.

The concept is that you just “earn” whereas travelling by getting reductions relying on what number of NFTs you get. In lots of instances, getting the supply appears to require shopping for one thing else akin to getting two free items of rooster should you spend over 1,000 Thai baht ($29) in a restaurant — a tall order in a rustic the place you may have a pleasant meal for a fifth of that.

In actual fact, lots of the presents didn’t appear to be unique to the NFT app in any respect and had been relevant with out the app.

Now, apparently — although it didn’t say so on the poster — the sport was solely alleged to run till the top of April so perhaps all the great presents had been gone, I can’t ensure.

However for me the most important query was learn how to get the NFTs out of the app. They appear to be on a local chain of Thailand-based cryptocurrency platform Bitkub. So far as I might inform, it required creating Bitkub account to maneuver them, which in flip required a Thai telephone quantity to obtain the one time passcode.

Total it wanted a little bit of tweaking however I preferred the idea of having the ability to gather POAPs for locations I’ve visited as a vacationer. The reductions had been awful however not likely crucial: should you truly acquired the NFT comparable to the place you visited, gathering for the sake of gathering would have been sufficient.

A revamped, world model could be good please.

Different stuff

— Gods Unchained unveiled a brand new roadmap on Could 23. Amongst its plans are some for brand spanking new sport modes, a creator program, a comfortable launch for cell and new card units.

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

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

— Gaming metaverse Star Atlas launched the newest model of its showroom on June 1 with new flyable ships, single-player floor racing and an up to date dogfighting enviornment.

— Web3 sport writer Fenix Video games is teaming up with platform Immutable to assist sport studios by “curating, advising and publishing best-in-class dwell companies to Immutable’s ecosystem of video games.”

— Nike’s NFTs will begin being included into EA Sports activities video games, in keeping with a June 1 assertion from the corporate. No phrase but on which titles.

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Callan Quinn

Callan Quinn is a British freelance journalist overlaying crypto and tech. She has labored as a enterprise journalist in China, the UK, Somaliland and the republic of Georgia. Beforehand, she was additionally an NFTs, gaming and metaverse reporter at The Block.