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 recommend that GTA 6 can be a play-to-earn recreation and that in-game gadgets corresponding to vehicles and weapons can be NFTs.

GTA creator Rockstar Games is but to weigh in on whether or not there’s any fact to those claims, however there appears to be little strong proof backing the rumors.

The firm cracked down on using crypto in GTA in November final yr and despatched stop and desist letters to corporations operating public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to a number of recreation makers that had constructed their video games on the platform.

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

Of course, there may very well be a crypto aspect, however not essentially the one crypto bros need. Game Rant means that it’s extra doubtless for Rockstar Games to make use of crypto because the butt of its in-game jokes.

Doctor Who, Top Gear be a part of The Sandbox

Sci-fi sequence Doctor Who and British motoring present Top Gear, each common BBC franchises, will enter the metaverse by way of The Sandbox after saying a collaboration with the digital world platform.

The partnership with Web3 firm Reality+ is about to launch the area 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 might form how we eat and expertise leisure sooner or later.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how fans interact with our brands in this space. This project forms part of BBC Studios’ broader ambitious plans to grow our brands into new categories, with innovative technology and platforms forming an integral part of this,” she stated.

BBC Studios, which is a industrial manufacturing firm beneath 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 Walking Dead and Adidas.

STEPN integrates Apple Pay for its NFTs

Move-to-earn app STEPN is making it simpler to purchase NFTs for its recreation by including an in-app Apple Pay fee possibility.

Users will have the ability 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 need to connect a separate crypto wallet and streamlines the payment process, making it easier than ever for our community to access our offerings,” STEPN stated on Medium.

The catch is that buying sneakers with fiat can 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 isn’t an exception. Its onboarding course of is cumbersome, and customers have to purchase the sneaker NFTs — understanding which one is greatest for you is a job and a half itself — from a market and switch it into the in-wallet app.

But the corporate might have extra within the works on the subject of making onboarding simpler.

“Our integration with Apple Pay is just the beginning of our vision to make Web3 technology accessible to all,” it added.

Battle of Titans dev competitors again for second season

MatchboxDAO is bringing its Battle of Titans Web3 racing recreation again for a second season this week.

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

Each automobile is a brilliant contract that should be programmed to get to the top of the monitor whereas factoring in attacking and defending towards different gamers utilizing bananas, shells and shields.

The first version of the sport in January included groups from Ledger, Polygon, Near, Yield Guild Games and extra, with a dev group from Uniswap rising because the winners.

The new season can even add a group element the place viewers will have the ability to vote for his or her favourite group.

Captain Tsubasa Web3 recreation debuts governance token

Captain Tsubasa — Rivals, a soccer recreation 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. Players can prepare characters from the manga and play towards one another in matches.

Game 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 include in-game consumption points and mechanisms to control price fluctuations caused by speculative trading,” he stated in an announcement.

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 can be used to speed up the event of the Illuvium Universe.

Australia-based Illuvium stated that the brand new funding would give it a cushty runway by means of the launch of the open beta and past.

It is planning an upcoming open beta that includes its metropolis builder Zero, open-world monster hunter Overworld and auto battler Arena.

The firm 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.

Hot take: Collecting NFTs for a tiny little bit of Thai rooster

In this version, I caught a Web3 challenge within the wild.

Queueing for tickets to go up the MahaNakhon, Thailand’s tallest skyscraper, a poster off to 1 facet subsequent to a espresso advert and emergency defibrillator caught my consideration: Amazing Thailand NFTs season 2. Travel to earn wonderful expat NFTs.

(*6*)

Easily 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 challenge it’s piloting. Using 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 actuality is a little more irritating.

Crypto people gained’t like how a lot private data it’s important to put in to get arrange. Not simply an e mail, but in addition your telephone quantity and a one-time passcode.

The app and I disagreed a number of occasions as as to if I used to be inside the required radius of the websites I visited. While the MahaNakhon NFT was obtained with out fuss, I one way or the other acquired an NFT for Pattaya City and Phuket, though 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 many circumstances, getting the provide appears to require shopping for one thing else, corresponding to getting two free items of rooster for those who 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 truth, most of the affords 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 speculated to run till the top of April, so possibly all the great affords have been gone; I can’t ensure.

But for me, the most important query was the right way to get the NFTs out of the app. They appear to be on a local chain of the Thailand-based cryptocurrency platform Bitkub. As far as I might inform, it required making a Bitkub account to maneuver them, which in flip required a Thai telephone quantity to obtain the one-time passcode.

Overall it wanted a little bit of tweaking, however I appreciated the idea of having the ability to gather POAPs for locations I’ve visited as a tourist. The reductions have been awful however not likely obligatory: for those who really obtained the NFT comparable to the place you visited, amassing for the sake of amassing would have been sufficient.

A revamped, world model can be good, please.

Other stuff

— Gods Unchained unveiled a brand new roadmap on May 23. Among its plans are some for brand spanking new recreation modes, a creator program, a gentle launch for cellular and new card units.

— Blockchain gaming platform Gala Games will launch a Web3 poker platform with PokerGO, with a beta slated for launch in June.

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

— Gaming metaverse Star Atlas launched the newest model of its showroom on June 1 with new flyable ships, single-player floor racing and an up to date dogfighting enviornment.

— Web3 recreation writer Fenix Games is teaming up with platform Immutable to assist recreation studios by “curating, advising and publishing best-in-class live services to Immutable’s ecosystem of games.”

— Nike’s NFTs will begin being included into EA Sports video games, in accordance with a June 1 assertion from the corporate. No phrase but on which titles.