Welcome to another weekly Play-and-Earn Gaming News Update, where we cover all the important happenings and news events in one place. There are a lot of interesting new updates in the blockchain gaming space as we approach the end of 2022. There’s a lot happening in terms of the metaverse, and serious conversation in the niche is gaining momentum. Looking at the number of developments, we can safely say that the broader metaverse ecosystem is taking shape. However, we can’t predict much about the immediate future of the metaverse. In today’s news edition, we will discuss how brands are taking up metaverse, how people perceive metaverse going mainstream, AI music making its way into metaverse via a new partnership, Epic Games launching a metaverse programming language, and more. We will also talk about what’s new in NFT and blockchain games, especially Infinite Drive Racing and its Aston Martin Vantage Collection.

Infinite Drive: Aston Martin Vantage Collection

The partnership between the Tiny Digital Factory and Aston Martin is one of the most exciting things to happen in NFT gaming this week. This means that a luxury car manufacturer will be joining the blockchain game Infinite Drive Racing. Starting today, Aston Martin NFTs on the Polygon chain will be available to fans to purchase and race in Infinite Drive. A total of 3000 Aston Martin NFT cars will go live on the Magic Eden marketplace today. At the time of writing, we are only 10 hours away from the sale going live. However, only whitelisted players will be able to purchase today. The general sale for the rest will open tomorrow, i.e., December 19.

The developer behind the much-anticipated play-and-earn game Infinite Drive is TDF (Tiny Digital Factory). It is a leading name in top-notch racing and motorsport games. Infinite Drive is a free-to-play game coming to iOS and Android platforms in the first quarter of 2023.

Redeem the Splinterlands Land Token

Splinterlands finally launched its long-awaited game feature this week. The wait is finally over, as landowners can now redeem their land tokens. This happened earlier this week, and the owners put in their claims and got a land deed in return. So, players will finally receive their NFT land plots in Praetoria. The plotting of land will remain in one tract or region, where a tract will host 100 plots and a region 1000. The assignment of plots will follow a set pattern, starting from the upper-left region of the map, i.e., the Pristine Northwest.

Illuvium Launches Overworld’s Private Beta

Illuvium Overworld’s private beta is finally here. This game lets you explore the land, fight battles, gather resources, and collect Illuvial. Fans of Illuvium will be able to try out the main parts of the game for the first time during the private beta. Anyone who has access to the Illuvium Arena Private Beta can also access the Overworld Beta. So, go to the Illuvium Overworld and defeat wild Illuvials in battle to capture them. It is one of the most anticipated games in the Illuvium portfolio.

The GAM3 Awards 2022

We also saw the Gam3 Awards taking place this week, where several Web 3.0 games and developers won titles based on popular opinion. Each category’s winners will share a $10,000 prize pool. The two main contributors to the prize pool are Immutable X and the Blockchain Game Alliance. The winners were based on a popular vote, in which fans were the main participants. So, the more hype a project had, the more votes it garnered. There were a total of 250,000 votes across 16 categories. Examine the winners in some of the categories.

• Game of the Year: Big Time
• Most Anticipated Game: Shrapnel
• Best Graphics: Star Atlas
• Best Mobile Game: Thetan Arena
• Best Card Game: Gods Unchained
• People’s Choice Award: League of Kingdoms
• Game’s Choice Award: The Harvest

The positive side of the Gam3 Awards 2022 is the number of votes that portray the growing size of the blockchain gaming community and people’s interest in blockchain games. But the fact that voting was the only way to choose the winner was a bad thing. In theory, whoever generated the most buzz got to the winning stand. It neglected the elements of quality, technical prowess, and development altogether. In the future, maybe we’ll see more refined game awards.

The Metaverse is gaining traction

The metaverse ecosystem is finally starting to take off, as good things happened all week. At the MetaBeat event, Venture Beat set up a focus group talk with leaders from Adobe 3D and Immersive. The experts shared thoughts on how next-generation 3D design and development is taking shape for the future. The group also talked about why brands need to be in the metaverse and how important it is for them to do well there. The key to metaverse projects is finding the right content at the right time; scalability comes next. So, the focus should stay on quality rather than pushing something too quickly to get ahead in the race.

Epic Games launches Metaverse Programming Language

As most of the metaverse projects are relatively new, we see that a metaverse programming language is coming into play. Recently, Epic Games jumped into the metaverse programming language race by launching Verse. Besides Verse, there are other programming languages like Rust, Mercury, Clarity, Solidity, and Curry. Verse will work on social interaction, an open economy, interoperable content, using operational standards from game engines like Unity, and fast transactions.

AI Music Comes to the Metaverse

Finally, we have DAACI joining hands with Lockwood Publishing, paving the way for AI music in the metaverse. DAACI, which stands for “Definable Aleatoric Artificial Composition Intelligence,” is an AI system that can write, arrange, and orchestrate music on its own. DAACI’s unmatchable skillset in AI music composition will help Lockwood explore better Web3 music. More information on the partnership and its upcoming venture will be released next year. Keep visiting our social media channels and website to get the latest updates.

That is it for today’s weekly edition. Check out our take on Gala Games’ Champions Arena. Or if you like, check our video game review of Apeiron.