Blockchain Gaming World

Pixels goes open source, MapleStory Universe talks Action Modules, and The Sandbox get 12,000 sign-ups for its AI tools.
[00:36] The Sandbox is quickly adding AI game creation tools.
[02:45] The Sandbox reaches 12,000 sign-ups for its Studio tool.
[05:05] YGG launches its first $5,000 Vibecode.game jam with Animoca's Mind AI tools.
[07:30] MapleStory Universe changes its builder strategy, adding Action Modules.
[11:18] Pixels' open source vision.
[12:42] It's initially open-sourcing its frontend.
[14:07] Pixels plans to open source its server too.
[15:00] There will also be an asset-weighted community voting system for governance.

In episode 212, Jon talks to YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon.
[00:48] Casual degen web3 gaming platform YGG Play is shutting down.
[02:17] LOL Land launched well but overall revenue peaked in October 2025 at $3 million.
[03:40][ Why was the crypto liquidation event on 10th October 2025 significant?
[05:00] Why releasing more titles typically doesn't add revenue for crypto games.
[06:19] Why this was a decision based on the market, not on the product.
[07:35] Gabby's lesson is you can't control where liquidity flows to.
[09:59] LOL Land, Waifu Sweeper and the YGG Play platform will run until 31st July.
[11:26] As part of this restructuring, YGG has confirmed around 35 redundancies.
[13:08] YGG will now focus on providing gaming data to AI companies i.e. world model training data.
[14:15] In some way, this is a return of play-to-earn, just not earning in crypto tokens.
[16:04] This data is useful, particularly for robotics and in-game agents.
[18:33] YGG has already been working on this AI P2E with its AI Alerts system.
[19:26] YGG was set up to allow people anywhere in the world can earn from technology.
[21:20] YGG isn't shutting down. The founding team remains and it has 4 years of runway.
[22:53] This doesn't mean web3 gaming is dead. This is just YGG's particular decision.

MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp hackathon has closed with over 430 entries.
[00:22] MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp and the rise of web3 game jams in the AI era.
[02:10] Why Verse8's AI platform made this hackathon easier to enter - over 430 entries.
[02:48] Playing the Vibe Camp games -- many seems high quality.
[03:12] MapleStory’s curation dilemma -- openness vs controlling the IP.
[04:47] Axie Infinity has run the third playtest for Atia’s Legacy this week.
[05:50] Combat was 8x8 bouts, 5 weapons. There was also a paid AXS tournament.
[06:49] Axie Terrariums got an update with more ways of boosting your yield.
[09:17] Terrariums generated $95,753 during its first week.
[12:46] Wemade's founder has sold his 39% stake for around $600 million.
[14:25] Why are Chinese-linked investors buying into Wemade?
[17:38] What does the sale mean for Wemade’s blockchain strategy?
[18:51] Avalon says it will be using Sony's Soneium blockchain (an Ethereum L2).
[22:00] The blockchain will be used for ownership and payments but no wallets or gas.
[24:40] EVE Online and EVE Frontier's Carbon game framework is now fully open source.
[26:50] This is a key part of Fenris' vision for EVE Frontier as an open ecosystem.
[27:20] MapleStory Universe vs EVE Frontier: two different blockchain philosophies.

Jon Jordan talks to Nexpace COO Keith Kim about MapleStory N's first year, and how AI will power the MapleStory Universe ecosystem in 2026.
[01:00] MapleStory N’s first year - $31M revenue, 3.8M accounts, 650K engaged wallets.
[02:10] How the profile was different for MapleStory N to traditional MapleStory gamers.
[02:57] What we have done well is being agile and altering our strategy, adjusting quickly.
[03:25] The pace of updates for MapleStory N is 3-5x faster than for a web2 game.
[04:20] The Winter update - new maps, new bosses - has driven really good numbers.
[05:06] From Feb 2026, MapleStory N started recouping more token value than it emitted.
[05:40] June could be MapleStory N’s highest revenue and biggest NXPC token deflation.
[09:45] In web2, players play for fun. In web3, some players spend as much as $100k a day.
[11:12] Players really try to make money during the first 3 months of any blockchain game.
[13:36] Our goal is to work out how we can add blockchain to make MapleStory more fun.
[14:40] It took 6 months to gain confidence in our direction from the reaction of real fans.
[16:05] When Keith realized the eye-opening power of AI for games.
[17:13] Nexpace has been encouraging the team to build their own games with AI.
[18:55] We're trying to consider the scenarios of how AI changes the game industry.
[19:17] Initially, we were worried that game IP becomes less important in the AI era.
[21:18] You have to let your fans use AI to extend your IP.
[21:58] We hope our MapleStory Universe builders make more money than we do.
[26:05] Some IP holders want to tightly control their brand. We just want to limit AI slop.
[28:20] We need to change our view of what is high-quality content. It's up to the users.
[30:04] This is a very exciting time to be a builder, especially with MapleStory.
[33:38] Professional developers can also build proper businesses on MapleStory IP.

Axie: Terrariums goes live, Fishing Frenzy and Pudgy Party close down.
[00:42] Sky Mavis is rebooting its vision for Axie land NFTs with Terrariums.
[01:25] It builds on the complex learnings of the original Axie land game Homeland.
[02:14] Homeland was an attempt to combine land-based gameplay and NFT staking.
[04:31] It was a surprisingly deep resource-management game but a bad staking system.
[07:10] Sky Mavis removed staking in early 2024, and everyone stopped playing Homeland.
[08:39] Terrariums is the v1 attempt to rebuild a land NFT staking system using the bAXS token.
[10:33] Terrariums will also be the base layer for land gameplay, which will be added over time.
[12:48] Ronin idle mobile/browser game Craft World has announced 60,000 MAUs.
[16:00] Craft World is a full onchain game but very accessible.
[19:53] You can market it to a web2 audience and there's no talk of wallets or gas or tokens.
[23:37] In Craft World, you can't buy your way to top status. Time is a key resource too.
[25:28] Fishing Frenzy is shutting down. In contrast to Craft World, it was a crypto-first cozy game.
[28:05] You can sustain crypto-first games for as long as players think they will get free rewards.
[30:22] Pudgy Party is shutting down as Pudgy Penguins focuses on Pudgy World web portal.
[33:00] Pudgy Party was good but lacked the marketing support required for a social game.
[34:35] Pudgy World is cheaper and easier to operate and market as a platform.