Eyeball Games Unveils Pool Masters Mobile Collab With How to Train Your Dragon

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🎱 Eyeball Games Unveils Pool Masters Mobile Collab With How to Train your Dragon

Singapore-based Eyeball Games said it has teamed up with Universal Products & Experiences for a limited-time integration inspired by How to Train Your Dragon.

Key Points:

• Eyeball Games is founded by the creators of 8 Ball Pool, a smash hit title from Tencent-owned Miniclip that’s clocked over 1 billion downloads across iOS and Android. 

• The studio has raised $3.3 million from investors including White Star Capital (a fund backed by gaming giant Ubisoft) and prominent angels such as King co-founder Sebastian Knutsson.

• Digital assets that Eyeball Games offers are a collection of pool cues that include limited-edition items with unique attributes to elevate style and skill. Assets transact in a marketplace where players can buy or sell cues.

• Eyeball Games looks to leverage a strategic partnership with How to Train your Dragon alongside competitive leagues.

Gaming Crypto Take:

• It’s exciting to see founders from a massive success story in 8 Ball Pool install digital collectibles. They’re just another name on the list of reputable companies experimenting with Web3 integration.

• Many game developers have used digital collectibles as the product, and not a feature of games. We’d assume the developers at Eyeball Games will look to do the inverse at NFL Rivals. 

• Using excitement around a mainstream partnership with a title like How to Train your Dragon is also a promising strategy, but it won’t guarantee a home-run. Similar Web3 titles have attached to strong IPs like The Walking Dead Empires, who last month only saw 170 players two years after its launch.

🟣 Sequence Rebrands from Horizon & Acquires Light

Horizon Blockchain Games is now Sequence. The business that created the popular blockchain game Skyweaver have now rebranded, reflecting the company’s strategic chain to a developer platform.

Key Points:

• Sequence is now the unified identity for Horizon’s ecosystem, streamlining branding around its widely used developer platform.

• The company acquired Light, a chain abstraction firm, to simplify cross-chain development across Ethereum L1s, L2s, and L3s.

• Light's founder, Shun Kakinoki, joins Sequence as Head of Cross-Chain to enhance tooling for devs building in fragmented blockchain environments.

• With features like account abstraction and real-time indexing, Sequence aims to let devs build once and deploy everywhere.

Gaming Crypto Take:

• Sequence was extremely early to blockchain gaming, and had to build many of the features they needed as developers themselves. They then made some of these features a service/platform, where they have found a business model fit. 

• Gaming broadly, but more specifically blockcahin gaming, is going through a tough period. It’s no surprise that Sequence have closed the faucet which would see them creating new blockchain games, as their developer and platform plays prove more lucrative.

• Given their blockchain, tech and gaming experience, Sequence is positioned to become THE market leader in this space.

🏴‍☠️ Treasure Downsizes, moves away from game publishing and Treasure Chain

Key Points:

• Treasure DAO cut 15% of staff and saw co-founder Karel Vuong step away.

• All game publishing operations and grants to developers are proposed to end immediately.

• The zkSync-based Treasure Chain, launched in Dec 2024, is being scrapped amid financial concerns. Clearly, this is a drastic pivot just months after the project was released.

• Focus moving forward will be on four products: its marketplace, Bridgeworld, Smolworld, and an AI agent framework.

Gaming Crypto Take:

• This is a huge retreat from Treasure’s original multi-game vision. They are downscaling to survive through financial turmoil. We’d have to assume companies like Treasure Chain are preparing for a more volatile economy and are looking to de-risk by closing some new ventures.

• Betting on AI agents over publishing shows the DAO believes future value lies in protocol-level tools, not content.

• The departure of The Beacon hints at ecosystem instability that could impact developer trust moving forward.

• Treasure Chain closing just months after launching is quite a shock. Trust in leadership has eroded, thus the departure of co-founder Vuong. There is still a story to be told here however, about why their new infrastructure layer itself is shutting down, as it could have provided respite to their treasury if it saw success. 

• Nearly all chains are overly exposed to their native token. When it goes down, it causes double the problems for the host company. Treasure’s $MAGIC token is down 90%+ in the last 12 months.