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 will incorporate cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens have as soon as once more surfaced, sparking hypothesis amongst followers.

Posts shared on Twitter counsel that GTA 6 will probably be a play-to-earn sport and that in-game objects reminiscent of automobiles and weapons will probably be NFTs.

GTA creator Rockstar Video games is 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 the usage of crypto in GTA in November final yr and despatched stop and desist letters to corporations working public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to a number of sport makers that had constructed their video games on the platform.

On condition that GTA 5 has offered over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in income since its 2015 launch, it seems unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the profitable method of the franchise, the most recent installment of which is predicted subsequent yr or in 2025.

After all, there might be a crypto aspect, however not essentially the one crypto bros need. Sport Rant means that it’s extra doubtless for Rockstar Video games to make use of crypto because the butt of its in-game jokes.

Physician Who, High Gear be a part of The Sandbox

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

The partnership with Web3 firm Actuality+ is about to launch the house later this yr.

Nicki Sheard, the president of manufacturers and licensing with BBC Studios, believes that whereas the metaverse remains to be in its infancy, it could form how we devour and expertise leisure sooner or later.

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

BBC Studios, which is a industrial manufacturing firm below the BBC umbrella, will be a part of 400 different leisure manufacturers that The Sandbox has labored with, together with Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Gucci, The Strolling Lifeless 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 neighborhood to entry our choices,” STEPN said on Medium.

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

Onboarding has lengthy been a problem for the broader 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 — figuring out which one is greatest for you is a activity and a half itself — from a market and switch it into the in-wallet app.

However the firm may have extra within the works with regards to 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 its Battle of Titans Web3 racing sport again for a second season this week.

Starting on June 4, dev groups from over 60 Web3 corporations, together with Immutable, Starknet and Fantom, will compete in a completely on-chain Mario Kart-style sport.

Every automotive is a great contract that should be programmed to get to the tip of the monitor whereas factoring in attacking and defending in opposition to different gamers utilizing bananas, shells and shields.

The first edition of the game in January included groups from Ledger, Polygon, Close to, Yield Guild Video games and extra, with a dev staff from Uniswap rising because the winners.

The brand new season can even add a neighborhood element the place viewers will be capable to vote for his or her favourite staff.

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 corporations Thirdverse Group and BLOCKSMITH&Co debuted the sport in January. Gamers can practice characters from the manga and play in opposition to one another in matches.

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

“These measures embrace in-game consumption factors and mechanisms to manage worth fluctuations brought on by speculative buying and selling,” he stated 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 further $10M in funding

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

Australia-based Illuvium stated that the brand new funding would give it a snug runway via 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 auto battler Area.

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: Accumulating NFTs for a tiny little bit of Thai hen

On this version, I caught a Web3 mission 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 superb 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 mission it’s piloting. Utilizing an app referred to as YAK, vacationers can verify in at numerous areas 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 data you need to put in to get arrange. Not simply an e-mail, but additionally your cellphone quantity and a one-time passcode.

The app and I disagreed a number of occasions as as to whether I used to be throughout the required radius of the websites I visited. Whereas the MahaNakhon NFT was obtained with out fuss, I one way or the other acquired an NFT for Pattaya Metropolis and Phuket, although I didn’t go to both.

The thought is that you simply “earn” whereas touring by getting reductions relying on what number of NFTs you get. In lots of instances, getting the provide appears to require shopping for one thing else, reminiscent of getting two free items of hen when you spend over 1,000 Thai baht ($29) in a restaurant — a tall order in a rustic the place you possibly can have a pleasant meal for a fifth of that.

In reality, most of the gives didn’t appear to be unique to the NFT app in any respect and have 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 tip of April, so perhaps all the great gives have been gone; I can’t make certain.

However for me, the largest query was the best way to get the NFTs out of the app. They appear to be on a local chain of the Thailand-based cryptocurrency platform Bitkub. So far as I may inform, it required making a Bitkub account to maneuver them, which in flip required a Thai cellphone quantity to obtain the one-time passcode.

General it wanted a little bit of tweaking, however I favored the idea of with the ability to accumulate POAPs for locations I’ve visited as a vacationer. The reductions have been awful however not likely vital: when you truly acquired the NFT akin to the place you visited, amassing for the sake of amassing would have been sufficient.

A revamped, world model could be good, please.

Different stuff

— Gods Unchained unveiled a brand new roadmap on Might 23. Amongst its plans are some for brand new sport modes, a creator program, a delicate launch for cellular 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.

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

— Gaming metaverse Star Atlas launched the most recent 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 incorporated into EA Sports games, in keeping with a June 1 assertion from the corporate. No phrase but on which titles.