Games to Watch Monthly

Play to Earn Games to Watch in December

The final month of 2023 is upon us. And what a ride it has been this year! With a near steady stream of game releases and updates, and a crypto market that seems to be in an uptrend, things are looking good for a resurgence of web3 gaming! But growing pains may still shake some developers out of the market. Let’s take a look at a few games we plan to watch in December!

Positive sentiment in the crypto markets. Increased partnerships between web2 and web3 game developers. Game releases. New builds, Improved graphics. For the most part, things seem to be headed in a positive direction in web3 gaming. There are still occasional hiccups such as delayed launches, major server issues, or even internal strife, but overall, the web3 gaming space continues to grow and expand!

Here are a few projects that we think you should keep an eye on over this coming month!

Mocaverse

It seems like Animoca Brands has their hand it almost every web3 gaming project these days. And as their reach grows, so does the Mocaverse!

Animoca Brands has already been providing value to holders of Mocas, but now they want to extend that to all gamers through their Moca ID program – basically, a one-stop shop for game identity and rewards distribution! Getting your own unique Moca ID is free, and don’t be surprised to see additional announcements about the IDs and the Mocaverse in the coming weeks!

With whitelist opportunities, airdrops, special events, and exclusive leaderboards, Moca ownership is becoming increasingly popular, with the floor price reaching 2.5 ETH for these founder-level, PFP NFTs!

Don’t sleep on the Mocaverse, because it is just going to keep growing!

Mocaverse banner
the Mocaverse already covers a wide variety of projects

Phantom Galaxies

Phantom Galaxies launched into an early access release a couple of weeks ago, and the initial reaction was not positive. Major server issues resulted in a poor experience for most players.

Phantom Galaxies has released an update since then, with some bug fixes and additional server improvements. And they have additional updates in the works. But the question is, can the team fix these issues quickly enough to regain the hype and momentum they had going into the early access release? Or has the poor first impression chased away players for good?

Now certainly, Phantom Galaxies is not the only game to have launch issues. World of Warcraft, one of the biggest multiplayer games ever, was a huge mess for many weeks after launch. But, I feel that web3 games have a higher standard to meet because there is a much smaller starting playerbase, and many web2 gamers view web3 games as nothing but poorly crafted ponzi schemes. So, whether fair or not, web3-enabled games need to work extra hard to make sure everything is perfect before putting it in out for judgment to the larger gaming community.

I loved what Phantom Galaxies had done during their alpha and beta tests. Hopefully they will be able to recover from this rough launch!

Phantom Galaxies screenshot

Gala Games

I’m putting Gala Games on this list for the second month in a row, and pretty much for the same reasons — slow delivery, low playerbase, and lack of games with long-term fun. But, with a more positive reception from their Last Expedition release, and a major shift of their NFT system onto the GalaChain, Gala Games may have hit a significant turning point in their games ecosystem.

They still need to work on making the games more fun and attracting players, and they also really need a player to player marketplace on GalaChain. But if they can accomplish those goals, Gala is in a position to solidify themselves as one of the top web3 gaming companies!

Gala Games banner

Champions Tactics

Ubisoft initially rocked the boat with their announcement of an in-development, web3 enabled game called Champions Tactics. Now, on top of that, they have partnered with Immutable to help onboard players, and are also working with Animoca Brands, one of the biggest names in web3 gaming!

We still haven’t gotten many details from the team about the game itself. But with a newly opened, game-specific Discord server, I would not be surprised if we start seeing more information and screenshots from this increasingly anticipated game! And with a big name like Ubisoft behind the project, you can bet that there will be plenty of eyes watching to see how this web3 experiment works out!

Champions Tactics is planning a free mint for their Warlords NFTs sometime in the near future, so it might be a good time to hook yourself up to their social accounts and watch for more details on the mint!

Champions Tactics banner

The Sandbox

After years of development, The Sandbox is finally fully open to user created experiences! Anyone with a land plot can build, create, and publish their own experience, including custom made assets! And in fact, even if you don’t own land plot, you can still create an experience page for your visions, adding a trailer, game details, and more!

The floodgates are now open and I look forward to seeing what sort of crazy, innovative ideas users publish in The Sandbox!

And that’s not all…

Of course this is not all that will be happening with web3 gaming this month. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and visit our website regularly to keep up with all of the latest web3 gaming news!

Phil Hall has been a gaming enthusiast since birth and a crypto enthusiast since 2017. He enjoys new discoveries and sharing those with others via blogging and photography. You can follow him on Twitter or read his other articles on Medium.