5 Biggest Names in NFT Gaming Every New Web3 Gamer Needs to Be Aware Of
Some of the 5 biggest names in NFT gaming that every new NFT gamer needs to be aware of include Animoca Brands, Gala Games, Sky Mavis, and more.
If you’re a new crypto gamer, then there are some names in the industry you may need to be aware of in order to have a general understanding of this nascent space and its community. The 5 biggest names in NFT gaming every new Web3 gamer needs to be aware of include Animoca Brands, Gala Games, a16z crypto, Sky Mavis, and The Sandbox.
Animoca Brands – is the leading investor of blockchain gaming. They’re kind of everywhere in this industry. As you explore the diverse range of play-to-earn games, it’s likely that you’ll see them among the list of investors for a particular project, at least in most of the higher-quality ones. Next to being a prominent investor and advocate of digital property rights through the use of NFTs in gaming for an open metaverse, the venture capital also has its own subsidiaries working on innovative blockchain games, such as Darewise on Life Beyond, and Blowfish Studios on Phantom Galaxies, among others. You can check out their projects here.
Gala Games – is one of the most popular blockchain gaming ecosystems currently around. The startup was founded by the co-founder of Zynga, Eric Schiermeyer, and has attracted various different studios to date who are building a variety of different crypto games, including 22cans, a studio founded by the creator of the Fable franchsie, Peter Molyneux, who is currently working on a business sim called Legacy. One of the games on Gala, a roguelite third-person shooter called Superior, is actually available on Steam too, while Dragon Strike is a traditional puzzle RPG that has recently been integrated into Gala, giving players the option to turn their characters into NFTs if they want to. You can check out all live and in-development titles of this growing ecosystem here.
a16z crypto – Next to Animoca, a16z is also a significant investor in crypto gaming, with their crypto division consisting of a portfolio of a diverse range of companies making Web3 games, as well as investing in startups that contribute to the future of NFT gaming. They’ve backed gaming-friendly blockchains such as Solana and Avalanche, while supporting notable names working on quality projects, such as Plai Labs, Azra Games, CCP Games (the makers of EVE: Online), and more.
Sky Mavis – is the Web3 studio behind one of the most well-known play-to-earn games around, Axie Infinity. They’ve come quite a way since the Axie craze of 2021, introducing more fast-paced card gameplay while creating their own Ronin Network, an ecosystem housing games based on the Axie universe, but also ones not related as well.
The Sandbox – is one of the largest gaming metaverses around, and home to a huge number of renowned brands, with some of the partners including Ubisoft, Square Enix, Atari, The Walking Dead, Tony Hawk, Snoop Dogg, Cut the Rope developer ZeptoLab, and many more. This metaverse sports a voxel art style and comes with its own game engine that requires no coding skills to build games or experiences in. They also have their own software for creating NFTs called VoxEdit, which allows not only for modeling assets, but also supports rigging and animating as well. Users can own LAND NFTs in this metaverse that will be used to create games in for others to jump into for free or by paying an entry fee. Those who don’t want to purchase a location but want to build a game in this metaverse in the future will be able to rent an area out. Overall, once things get running, The Sandbox looks set to become the ultimate blockchain-based gaming platform to hang out in and explore the expansive, diverse world while potentially earning the ecosystem’s native token, $SAND, in the process.
Of course, there are many more companies you’ll want to learn about, and leaving some out of the list doesn’t mean they’re not as big as the ones on it, but hopefully this gives you a decent starting point from which you can spring from and enjoy diving into the early era of blockchain gaming.
