This Week In Gaming | Yuga Labs Acquires Improbable’s Unreal Platform, Animoca Bets on IPO and Utility Tokens, Parallel Extends Open Beta Season 22, and OVERTAKE Addresses TAKE Token Selloff

Web3 Game Development

Animoca’s Pro-IPO Bet: Yat Siu Says Regulation and Utility Tokens Will Reshape Crypto Read More

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu says 2025 exposed crypto’s overreliance on political narratives, as Trump-era tariffs, higher-for-longer rates and a collapsed memecoin cycle drained liquidity and burned retail investors. Rather than saving the market, the “Trump trade” was mispriced, forcing the industry to confront reality. Looking ahead, Siu argues 2026 will mark a shift toward compliance, institutional participation and tokens with real utility. Animoca’s planned reverse-merger IPO aims to offer public investors an “altcoin proxy” as US regulation clarifies through bills like the Clarity and GENIUS Acts. With clearer rules, Siu expects companies to embrace tokenization, real-world assets and utility-driven tokens, signaling crypto’s transition from speculation to sustainable use cases.

Yuga Labs Acquires Improbable’s Unreal Engine Platform to Boost Otherside Development Read More

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has acquired Improbable’s Unreal Engine-based creation platform and onboarded its engineering and development team, according to a post by BAYC co-founder Garga.eth. As part of the deal, Yuga Labs also secured a perpetual license with Improbable for the high-concurrency technology powering its metaverse project, Otherside. While financial terms were not disclosed, the acquisition is expected to significantly enhance Otherside’s technical capabilities.

Parallel Extends Open Beta Season 22, Delays Season 23 Battle Pass Rollover Read More

Sci-fi NFT trading card game Parallel has announced that Open Beta Season 22 will continue through the New Year, with the Battle Pass rollover for Season 23 rescheduled to Thursday, Jan. 8, rather than Jan. 1, 2026. The update was shared by the Parallel team as a scheduling reminder for players. Parallel is a science-fiction themed trading card game (TCG) that leverages NFTs to give players true ownership of their cards and in-game assets, which can be used to build decks and play within its online and mobile game clients currently under development.

YGG Promotes Wildcard’s Inaugural Daily Tournament With $5K Prize Pool Read More

Yield Guild Games (YGG) has promoted Wildcard’s first-ever Daily Tournament, highlighting a $5,000 prize pool and a limited submission window of roughly 12 hours for players to post their best scores. The tournament is officially hosted by Wildcard, with the announcement originating from the game’s official channels. According to the post, creators from esports organization Team Liquid will also participate, giving players the opportunity to compete against well-known figures. The promotion reflects YGG’s role in amplifying competitive gaming events within the Web3 ecosystem and encouraging its community to engage with partner titles.

Portal Merges With BLIFE Protocol to Expand Web3 Gaming Infrastructure Read More

Web3 gaming platform Portal has announced a merger with BLIFE Protocol, backed by Animoca Brands and G-20, marking a major milestone in its strategy to build a unified Web3 gaming ecosystem. The merger aims to strengthen Portal’s role as the connective layer between games, players and developers across fragmented platforms. Portal said its mission remains unchanged: enabling interoperability, simplifying access and empowering both players and builders at scale. Powered by its native token $PORTAL, the platform seeks to provide seamless game distribution and cross-platform mobility, with the long-term goal of supporting a more connected gaming experience for up to one billion players worldwide.

OVERTAKE Says TAKE Token Drop Linked to Derivatives Liquidations, Not Security Breach Read More

OVERTAKE, a peer-to-peer gaming asset trading platform built on Sui, said the sharp decline in its TAKE token price was likely caused by large-scale liquidations in the derivatives market. In a statement, the team emphasized that the incident was not related to any security breach or hacking activity, adding that all foundation- and team-controlled wallets remain secure. OVERTAKE said it is reviewing the situation in detail and will provide an official update once the investigation is complete. The platform focuses on enabling secure, low-cost and instant settlement for trading Web2 and Web3 gaming assets using multisignature smart contract escrow.

Airdrop & Free Mints & Launchpad

Parallel TCG Prime League Minor IX Jan 3-4 with $10K Prize Pool Read More

Parallel TCG, a sci-fi trading card game available on Epic Games Store with win-to-earn $PRIME token rewards via the Echelon ecosystem, held its Prime League Minor IX tournament on January 3-4, 2026. Top 64 players from the November ladder competed in single-elimination Day 1 rounds, advancing to Final 4 matches streamed live on Twitch for a $10,000 prize pool and a guaranteed spot in Major III top 16.

Wildcard Daily Tournaments Launch Jan 7-25 with $40K Prize Pool Read More

Wildcard, a 2v2 collectible card action game live on Steam that blends real-time strategy, deck-building, summons, and arena battles with blockchain integration, has announced its full daily tournament system launching January 7 through 25. The series features daily events (up to $2,080 each), weekly tournaments (up to $5,000), and creator cups (up to $2,000 weekly) for a total $40,000 prize pool; entry requires 250+ summons, obtainable through gameplay or codes.

Blockstranding Season 2 Live with $STRAND Airdrop Pre-TGE Read More

Blockstranding, Solana’s first real-time fully on-chain MMORPG powered by the MagicBlock engine and Colosseum competition winner, has its Season 2 play-to-airdrop campaign live now. Players earn StrandPoints through in-game tasks and Yaps via X posts tagging @blockstranding—scored on content quality, engagement, and follower reach—with $STRAND token allocations based on combined totals ahead of the upcoming token generation event; connect Solana wallet and X account at blockstranding.com/earn to participate and view leaderboards.