Clever marketing stunt reveals new Axie game
SIDELINED NEWS 163
TLDR :
Wildcard is gone…
Chance raises $3.2M
Axie launches Den of Mysteries
🗞️ NEWS
WILDCARD IS GONE…
Wildcard. Once crypto gaming’s sweetheart, but now just part of another list of failed games. Last week, we were met with the unfortunate news that the game and the Thousands Network are winding down, due to running out of funding and a lack of profitability
The big headline of this story was: “$55M raised and failed, how?” Well…Playful Studios (the studio behind Wildcard) is based in the U.S., and the game has been in development for 6+ years. Additionally, it was developing a streaming platform. With a decent headcount, that makes you burn through your capital quickly
It’s fairly clear where the capital went, but you might question whether what it produced was underwhelming
The state of Wildcard in 2026, again after six years of development, is questionable. On Steam, the game is still in early access and has a “Mixed” rating. Only a few of the negative reviews mention “blockchain”, “crypto”, and/or “NFTs”. Most of the negative reviews actually point out the flaws of the game, including:
The core game loop isn’t fun, the heroes’ role is undefined, a lack of strategic depth, onboarding is broken, a lack of players, etc. (genre blends aren’t easy)
Blaming CT for not supporting the Wildcard, leading to its downfall, is just a flawed argument, because the game wasn’t great in the first place. The game peaked at a 125 CCU in October 2025 during Steam Next Fest
One reviewer commented: "Although there are hints of synergy between heroes and summons here and there, they’re too shallow to meaningfully affect gameplay. Until the hero gameplay and summon gameplay truly merge into one cohesive system, I can’t recommend this.”
Something to highlight that was said in the Discord announcement: “the Wildcard IP, Champions, Summons, game systems, and mechanics remain as a solid foundation for whatever comes next”
While this doesn’t read as a confident statement that something is already in the works, Paul Bettner (co-founder) confirmed: “we are intentionally choosing to not have this be the end of the line for the Wildcard IP itself”
We can only speculate whether this means another game will be built using the IP. But, gauging Paul’s profile, it’s clear his interests are more in AI now
Thousands Network was the platform to realize Wildcard’s vision of making gaming “Just as fun to watch as it is to play”. The streaming platform became the place for the Wildcard Premier League, streams, playtests, exhibition events, etc.
Thousands was announced in October 2024, positioned as the “new streaming platform for web3 esports”. Despite its early traction, it couldn’t attract a meaningful number of viewers, nor could it generate enough revenue to stay afloat or build a fanbase around Wildcard
In hindsight, Thousands seemed a distraction to the development of the game
The shutdown also sheds some light on the underwhelming token launch of the WC token. Wildcard “supported” the DEX-only launch with a couple of posts, but nothing more. It’s obvious now that the studio already knew by then that the end was near, and presumably, this token was only launched due to legal reasons
After the token launch, my impression was that they let WC walk, so THOU (Thousand’s token) could run, because the studio had no stake in WC. Well…
Lastly, I think Wildcard signifies the final nail in the coffin for “big budget crypto gaming”, not for the whole category
There seems to be a recurring pattern in which the best-funded games lead to the biggest disappointments. The big guys always suffer from “scope creep” to try to justify their valuations. They can’t be agile. The burn rates are too high. And in the end, you have a pile of incomplete games with millions of dollars that were sunk into it
CHANCE RAISES $3.2M
In other, more exciting news. Chance announced they raised $3.2M in funding “to build the third place for TCG collectors”. The round was co-led by Makersfund and Hashed, and saw participation from Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, GAM3RGIRL, and Digital Elm
Chance is building a superapp, where TCG collectors can come together:
“The TCG market is massive and still growing. But the biggest gap isn't authenticity or liquidity, it's what happens after the purchase. Collectors don't need another marketplace. They need a place where collecting turns into connecting”
What a TCG superapp means in practice is a platform where users can connect with other collectors through group chats, shared games, and more. What I understand as a more “bottom-of-funnel fandom experience”
With the funding, Chance will build out its inventory (slabs) and vaulting business. Plus, it will build out its gamified product: Chance Predict (their prediction market) and Chance Country Club (the social product)
When I think of a collectible-based prediction market, Throve (the scam) is the first thing that comes to mind. However, unlike Throve, predicting the future price of vintage cards is not something Predict will be about:
“We’re focused on markets that can’t be manipulated, primarily livestream predictions (for example, whether a newly opened Phantasmal Flames booster box contains a Mega Charizard ex)” - Gamesbeat
Furthermore, like any TCG-RWA platform, Chance has a Gacha product (currently in open beta). An experience with “hand-selected cards that collectors actually want to pull” (according to the team)
On this topic, we talked with Andrea (Beezie), who said the following in a Sidelined interview on the importance of inventory management: “When I look at growth, there's a direct correlation to how interesting we are stocking up our claws, what's the inventory that people want at that moment, and then eventually growing categories beyond that”
Currently, Chance’s Gacha is in open beta and has exceeded $100,000 in volume on certain days, and broke $1M in revenue in the first 20 days (600 users - 11,000 packs)
Interestingly, their GTM has been largely focused on a Web2 audience that lives on Instagram and is reached through gaming/TCG streamers/content creators (most crypto TCG marketplaces start on CT and expand to Web2)
I do question whether their initial cohort consisted of Web2 users, considering the high ARPU, typical of crypto TCG platforms
As someone who opened a lot of packs (correction: watched Raiden open a lot of packs), you can see that Chance is focused on the normies. With an emphasis on consumer onboarding (prioritizing credit card onramps), crisp animations, and thoughtful UI
All these gacha products are about selling an experience after all…
Another feature of the platform is a “collector metagame”, a progression layer (XP system) that goes beyond pack openings, keeping users engaged:
“Every session ends with some form of reward, whether that’s decorative cosmetics, giveaways, or EXP toward unlocks. We layer liveops on top, including bonus EXP windows, club-vs-club races to a chase slab, and “best prediction streak” campaigns tied to Chance Predict.” - Gamesbeat
Lastly, the team itself. Chance was founded by Jun Park and Arvin Dabiri. Jun has an investor background and is still a senior investor at Hashed (explaining leading the round). Arvin is an experienced TCG buyer, seller, and vendor, plus the creator of GoatedPullz, which documents these processes
“The GoatedPullz business has generated $10M in revenue in its first three years of operations at strong margins.” - Gamesbeat
Overall, when it comes to TCG platforms, the focus is always on the gacha product, but there’s no engagement and retention layer beyond that. That’s what Cache is building, and I’m curious to see them ship their social and prediction products
AXIE LAUNCHES DEN OF MYSTERIES
After a clever marketing stunt by Jihoz, Axie Infinity and Onchain Heroes announced their new game called Axie: Den of Mysteries (DoM)
Before getting into the game, I just want to double-tap on the marketing stunt itself. It started with Jihoz posting: “What if I told you that I'm testing a new Axie game? and “As the space has matured, we've been able to "learn" from other teams.” Attached was a video with 30 seconds of gameplay that looked like a copy of Maze of Gains (MoG), but with an Axie theme
Skarly (the founder of OCH and MoG) then posted: “I’ve been a huge fan of jihoz and everything he’s done for crypto gaming with axie/ronin…so its kinda disappointing to see him ripping off mog”.
This was the start of a viral rumor machine that led to hundreds of posts in which people were upset, praising OCH, and/or theory-crafting what this could mean
Personally, I thought they were testing the marketability of the game and would announce that a real game is in the works after gauging the reaction of CT
A day later, we found out that it was a marketing stunt for Axie: DoM: “an onchain turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler on Ronin”, essentially Maze of Gains, but in the theme of Axie
Skarly added his thoughts to the announcement, saying that Axie continues to be an innovative, is the largest crypto gaming IP, and the values are aligned
The goal for this partnership is to onboard new audiences into OCH (starting with MoG), tap into the Ronin player-base, and create a new game for the Axie ecosystem, “which will soon diverge into its own game with the updates we have planned”
After trying both (MoG and DoM), I’d say that the two are too similar as of now. And it would be good to see the Axie version have some innovative mechanics
It would be cool to see more interoperable rewards, like being able to earn DoM keys in Axie: Classic, different game modes (speed runs, BR, etc.), and new mechanics that create more variation between runs
If you’re not familiar with the game mechanics, it works as follows: you buy keys (arcade tokens), enter dungeons (fight enemies and find loot), and win rewards:
The more keys you buy, the bigger your multiplier ($1,000 run by Jihoz)
The deeper floor you reach, the better potential rewards you find
$5,000 of bAXS will be distributed to the top 100 Shard collectors in the first 4 weeks of the game
There’s a double prize pool mechanic:
Weekly prize pool: 60% of the value from the key returns to this pool
Based on a player’s treasury holding (relative to the total pool), they receive a share in USDC
Blessing prize pool: 30% of the value from the key returns to this pool
Blessings can be won by reaching a rare enemy. The pool grows when keys are used, and shrinks when Blessings are won
It’s a simple yet effective risk-to-earn model, in which players have to optimize their runs to capture a share of the prize pool that’s larger than their buy-in. The best marketing for these types of games is the growing prize pool
As the developer (OCH in this case), you monetize (10% game fee) based on key sales (or volume). Not the easiest, because you have to attract significant volume to sustain even a small studio’s run rate, but probably the fairest monetization model in crypto gaming
On this topic, I’m going to keep an eye on the differences between the numbers, like the prize pools of MoG ($56,004) and DoM ($15,429). And compare numbers like volume, users, ARPU, etc.
Note: DoM has only been live for 2 days so far, so W1 is not an accurate representation for that comparison
Overall, it’s good to see a partnership in crypto gaming for once that can move the needle, unlike most of the shallow collaborations revolved around interoperability:
From Luke Barwikowski (Pixels) on this topic: “Pixels actually experimented with interoperability more than almost anyone. It created fun moments. It was good for community vibes. But if I’m being brutally honest: it’s hard to justify as a long-term revenue-positive strategy.”
FLASH NEWS
Reaper Actual raises more funding in a round led by Decasonic
Kamigotchi devs are working on a new onchain game called Asphodel
Pebble Mayhem is actually impersonating an indie game called Pebble Knights
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