Azra Games moves one step closer to launch and Project O invites you to play.

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Welcome back to another week of Gaming Crypto! I’m Kostas and this week we examine Azra Games’ reveal, Project O’s recent tournaments and the FIFA Rivals launch.

UnGodly, is the official title of Azra Games’ RPG

Azra Games is known as one of the most experienced and well-funded teams in web3 gaming, having raised $25M in '22 and '23 and featuring many seasoned professionals led by Mark Otero, who launched the most successful Star Wars game to date during his time at EA. On top of that, they raised approximately $43M more in the summer of '24, a time when funding in web3 had already begun to dry up. But not much was known about what they were building—something that is now changing. UnGodly is the name of their RPG, unveiled last month (previously codenamed Project Legends), and it now seems closer than ever. The rhetoric around it is what caught my eye.

"The first true 4th Generation RPG"

And what does that mean exactly? Well the team was more than thorough in explaining it as early as 2023, when it piqued my interest for the first time.

As Mark Otero himself explains,
"4th generation RPGs reject the artificial limitations that defined their predecessors."

"They deliver console-quality experiences that work seamlessly across mobile and PC platforms. Real-time strategic combat that's intuitive on touch but deep enough for hardcore players. Our Affinity System creates emotional bonds between players and characters that evolve based on genuine interaction, not scripted events."

Mobile, PC, and console all in one. Easy to enter yet difficult to master. Not scripted events (AI or even AGI involved perhaps?).

Some additional remarks that they made in the past can be summarized as follows:

• Open Worlds: Smartphones can now support players wandering around large spaces and interacting with the 3D world of a game like in console games.

• Over-the-Shoulder Camera View: Instead of viewing game characters in an isometric view, players can now follow them around, creating immersion.

• Real-Time Battles: No longer limited to turn-based attacks, but can occur in real-time, in line with RPGs on console and PC.

• PvE over PvP: The majority of players prefer PvE (player vs. environment), but PvP (player vs. player) combat was at the core of previous generations' RPGs as a monetization driver. Their focus is to enhance the gaming experience for all players, shifting away from the pay-to-win stigmas of previous generations.

Intrigued yet?

Project O invites new players

Project O is looking to take another shot at the genre with what they describe as a High-Stakes Card Battler. At the core of that Card Battler, gamers will discover limited-edition upgradeable cards. And while we can only guess whether Project O will be more successful than its predecessors, the latest playtests seem quite hopeful.

TCGs used to be the No. 1 sought-after genre in web3 gaming, fighting constantly for that top spot with MMORPGs. But many launches and years later, a successful TCG with a sustained player base is yet to be found, with Parallel coming the closest.

If you are an avid TCG gamer or you want to find out whether Project O has a chance to be the first truly successful card game, like me, you should join their Discord and simply say you want to participate in the playtests they are constantly running in a tournament format.

FIFA Rivals' Launches – Runs into Player Contract Issues

FIFA Rivals from Mythical Games launched last week on the mobile stores, and one thing is on every gamer's mind that downloaded it: Player Contracts.

Most of the initial bugs were ironed out,  but the large issue at hand wasn't technical or gameplay-related. It was the game economy.

Every footballer that you get has a contract with your team for 20-30 matches, depending on the rarity. After those matches are played, you need to renew a player's contract. But every time you renew a contract, the next renewal becomes more expensive. If, for example, the first renewal costs 130 in-game cash, the second costs 180, the third 250, and so on. After the fourth or fifth renewal, you can no longer sustain your team even if you win every game, complete all the tasks, and open all the packs. To put it simply, the contract cost is continuous and only increases.

The consequence of this mechanic is that every player was forced to play with players of the lowest rarity, which they could swap out constantly without the need for a renewal. The unfortunate long-term consequence is that once you assemble an NFT player, if you play with them, you immediately bring their value down. A potential buyer will have the same contract costs as you, as they do not reset. Thus, a player with high contract costs immediately becomes less attractive. It will be interesting to see how Mythical adjusts the game economy here to make it more seamless and keep it accessible. 

If the contract cost was stable then the mechanic would potentially be sustainable, although it would remain a great obstacle for players who want to upgrade their team and not only sustain it. Perhaps a footballer that isn’t used could see his contract cost declining until it’s renewed. That way, players would be incentivised to keep a large variety of players and utilise them all..

🎮 More Gaming & Web3 Stories

• 2184 is a new game from FSL, the studio behind Gas Hero and StepN. [Read more here]

• Wildcard has raised $6.5m in fresh funding in a round co-led by Paradigm and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, with $2.5m more expected to close the round this summer. [Read more here]

• MOO.F.O is a new idle space game coming to Sophon, incubated by Anomaly.
  [Read more here]

• V.O.I.D is a new survival arena game. [Read more here]

• Looks like Pudgy Penguins are planning to add more games to its IP [Read more here]

• Avalanche has introduced a Battle Pass that seems to include many different Avalanche games [Read more here]

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