📺 Are you not entertained?

GM, frens. It’s Thursday. We’re almost to the weekend and we’re feeling great about it.

The top gaming tokens are up slightly in the past day, but still down anywhere from 5% to 15% in the past week.

If there’s a game you’re playing you think I should know about, let me know!

— Kate Irwin

P.S. Let me know how you’re liking The Drop! Send me an email at [email protected].

🎬 Studio Chain is coming

A new Arbitrum-based blockchain called Studio Chain is launching to explore what crypto can do in the entertainment sector.

Karrat Foundation worked with Arbitrum Foundation on the project. Karrat Foundation is behind the KARRAT token used by AMGI Studios’ battle royale game My Pet Hooligan, which the team says has seen over 500,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store so far in early access. KARRAT will also become the native token for Studio Chain, and My Pet Hooligan will launch on Studio Chain.

Quick sidenote: A couple years ago, I got to check out AMGI’s studio in California where My Pet Hooligan is being made IRL. The team was incredibly passionate not only about their video game and their quirky rabbit-based IP, but also about their plans for animated films. They’re next door to Hollywood, after all.

Studio Chain ties into that vision. 

Abitrum Orbit is tech that lets others launch their own chains, and they’re all connected to create “a universe of chains.” Arbitrum One, on the other hand, is the main Arbitrum chain that’s an EVM-compatible L2 on Ethereum, using optimistic rollups to reduce network costs. So Studio Chain will be its own chain within the Arbitrum network of chains.

"By leveraging Arbitrum's powerful infrastructure, we're able to create gaming experiences that were previously impossible," said Luke Paglia, COO and cofounder of AMGI Studios, in a statement. "My Pet Hooligan is just the beginning — this collaboration enables seamless in-game asset ownership, true player-driven interactive extensions, and enhanced interoperability that will transform how audiences engage with entertainment."

In the statement, an unnamed Karrat Foundation rep hinted that the chain could change how “entertainment IP is created and distributed.”

This is ambitious for sure, though we don’t really know more specifics on their plans just yet. 

Studio Chain will have to compete with the many existing gaming chains out there, like Ronin, Sui, Immutable, and Abstract, as well as chains that launched to just support one game. 

Off The Grid from Gunzilla Games is an ambitious game with its own chain, Gunz, using Avalanche and has seen 4.9 million monthly active wallets since. MapleStory’s upcoming crypto version is also planning to launch its own Avalanche chain, too.

Gala has touted its crypto-powered film vision for years, but we haven’t seen that take off (Gala launched a FILM token last year, and that’s down 93% from its all-time high). 

Ultimately, we haven’t seen any major blockchain film or television projects skyrocket into the mainstream yet. Recently, niche plays have been making a splash, like The Normal Mfer, an animated short that heavily references meme culture, crypto culture, and the Mfers NFT collection.

More broadly, it seems we’re still in this era of crypto where projects want to launch their own chains. We saw 104 gaming-related networks announced last year, according to data from crypto gaming platform Game7. 

Starting a dedicated chain can give studios more control and independence, but I don’t know whether all of these chains will have significant staying power long-term. 

I think it mostly depends on whether these games get enough consistent players — and revenue — to keep the lights on.

💰 SKALE creates $2M accelerator for indie games

Layer-1 blockchain SKALE wants to see more solo indie game devs get funding and succeed in the crypto gaming space, so they’re launching a $2 million fund called the Indie Game Accelerator Program to help devs do just that.

Yeah, I know. $2 million isn’t much in crypto these days. In gaming, it can be even tougher, with “AAA” games typically costing over $50 million. 

But some indie devs can make a lot with a little, as we know because of “Web2” indie games like Hades, Hollow Knight, and even Stardew Valley (yep, it started out indie).

Indie games can cost anywhere from less than $10,000 to $1 million to make, so a range of titles could potentially be supported with this program. The accelerator offers SKL tokens with milestone-based distributions, access to VCs and angel investors, token launch guidance, marketing, and other benefits if accepted.

Solo devs, indie studios, and crypto-curious Web2 game projects are welcome to apply.

Are indie games the future of blockchain gaming? I think they’ll play a bigger part than expected. Last year, over 90% of the blockchain games that actually got launched were indie games:

🖥️ ICYMI: Livestreamer survives home invasion

The OnlyFans and livestreaming star known as Amouranth, along with her husband Nick, have shared more details this week about the home invasion that rattled them earlier this month. On March 2, three robbers attempted to violently steal their cryptocurrency by rushing into their home, pistol-whipping Amouranth, and demanding access to her crypto. She had to get stitches at the hospital because of the attack.

In a released video clip that has not yet been verified by law enforcement, you can hear one of the attackers yelling: “Where’s the f***ing crypto!?”

Thankfully, the attackers failed because the couple was able to use one of their own guns to fend them off, according to the couple as well as reports from multiple news outlets and the Houston police. Nick also shared that he was able to put on his bulletproof vest during the attack.

How did the attackers know they had crypto? Months ago, Amouranth posted screenshots of a Coinbase account showing over 211 BTC and 22.9 ETH in it, which combined was worth over $20 million at the time. I won’t link that full post because it’s NSFW (you can go find that on your own!) but here’s the Coinbase screenshot she posted:

If this all sounds crazier than fiction to you — well, I agree. It’s horrible, and scary. Please stay safe, frens.

• SuiPlay0x1 Mythic and Exalted NFT holders just got some Starble (STBL) tokens. STBL can be used to “unlock in-game items and NFTs” in Pebble City, a new social casino game on Sui. Some are claiming they didn’t get more than a few dollars, though.

• SocialFi app The Arena is planning to launch livestreaming with tipping, a DEX, another app, additional social features, and more “shortly,” The Arena CEO Jason Desimone shared today. Looks like Abstract is getting more competition.

• Ronin NFTs are coming to OpenSea. The NFT marketplace shared the news by posting an image of a ship with the Ronin “R” on its sail on Twitter on Wednesday. Now, we can see that Ronin’s been added to the site’s list of chains, too.

I saw this on OpenSea and am slightly obsessed with these creepy-but-beautiful NFTs from the Exit Vectors collection. They were generated by an AI named Keke.

The collection presents an array of 500 different Ethereum NFTs, which all have a touch of surrealism, the psychedelic, or the uncanny and pull from a range of different art styles.

Some of them look like oil paintings straight out of a museum. I won’t be buying one, though. A bit too pricey, and the NFT market has seriously cooled off.

This one is “When Glass Beings Collide,” the priciest piece in the collection. It’s listed at 60 ETH, which is about $113,000. IDK if it will actually sell for that, though.