Ethereum gaming network Xai will be very busy for the rest of 2024 after launching the Vanguard: Genesis event and seeing a surge in transaction volume.
Key contributors to Xai, a third-level gaming network built on Ethereum, say their goal is to build the next Valve, growing its ecosystem in a similar way to the video game giant’s Steam marketplace and some of its most popular games.
Tobias Batton, co-founder and CEO of Ex Populus, a gaming studio that works closely with the Xai Foundation and is akin to an “experimental company,” explained that the Valve model is their vision for the future of gaming networks. Ex Populus is a gaming studio that works closely with the Xai Foundation and is similar to an “experimental company,” he previously told Decrypt’s GG show.
Just as Valve has its own internal studios developing games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Portal, Xai has Ex Populus working on multiple upcoming games. Meanwhile, Valve provides development tools, and Xai provides similar tools through its partnership with Sequence.
“We think about the Xai ecosystem in a very broad way,” Batton told Decrypt in an interview via Zoom.
While Valve's games are well-loved, the company is probably better known for its market-leading Steam platform. Valve's store already has more than 100,000 games, and Xai only has a few running right now. However, Batton said that by the time the Vanguard: Genesis campaign is over, there will be a healthy library of games to choose from.
The activity almost immediately led to a surge in transactions, with Xai accounting for 41% of all transactions in the Ethereum Scaling Network ecosystem as its volume hit an all-time high, according to L2beat data.
Over the past 30 days, Xai has recorded the most transactions of any Ethereum Layer 2 network, with over 114 million transactions; Coinbase’s Base network ranked second with 83 million transactions over the same time frame.
However, most of the activity has nothing to do with gaming, as users first interacted with the nascent network through a rewards program for the Vanguard: Genesis campaign, which only launched in January this year.
“The event that a lot of people are participating in first is called our Vanguard minting, which is a massive NFT drop event,” Batton explained, adding that a growing number of transactions are coming from Unicorns Bingo, an earn-to-win mobile game. “I think as more content is released during the event, you’ll see a lot of participation in the game.”
This comes on the heels of last year’s Xai Odyssey event, which saw a similar surge in user activity — 500,000 connected wallets generated a total of 5 million transactions per day, with reward distributions worth nearly $200 million at XAI’s February price peak.
Vanguard: Genesis will run until November, helping to launch a dozen new games on Xai, but that’s not all that’s coming to the network – other games will be coming through Xai’s partnership with The MIX and other possible launches. In addition to this new set of games, the event will also offer new quests, achievements, and rewards for the community to enjoy.
“We view this as an ecosystem-wide event,” Batton told Decrypt. “We can build up this giant potential curve and then plug different game launches into that potential.”
Crypto Unicorns completed its migration from Ethereum sidechain Polygon to the third-level Arbitrum-based gaming network late Tuesday, marking the start of the launch. The series, one of the crypto industry’s most stalwart gaming brands, offered an earning airdrop campaign (Unicorns Bingo) during the migration.
While Crypto Unicorns is already well known, Batton highlighted a lesser-known project, The Lost Glitches, as one of his most anticipated launches.
“I encourage you to check out their Twitter account and their press. Oh my god, it’s amazing,” Batton said. “It’s probably the most beautiful card game I’ve ever seen, which is amazing because Parallel looks amazing, too. But I think The Lost Glitches takes it a step further.”
In addition to these games, Batton also expressed excitement about Final Form, a card-driven auto-battler that his Ex Populus studio is developing. In addition to these, there are several other games planned to be released through the event, some of which remain unannounced at the time of writing.
Going back to the Valve comparison, Batton sees the Vanguard: Genesis event as being similar to the annual Steam Summer Sale, which has become a reliable event for players. As such, this won't be a one-off sale. Instead, the plan is to have "two or three" seasons per year, as he calls them.
"Each season there will be a group of games that we promote," Batton said. "I think the focus will probably be on new game releases. But we're also happy to bring back games from previous seasons that are doing retention campaigns, especially if they have new content to offer."
That’s the long-term vision. For now, the team is eyeing Vanguard: Genesis, which Batton hopes will provide Xai with a must-play game and help the network live up to the promise that came with its massive hype and valuable token drop earlier this year.
"Our focus is: Let's go out and find the best AAA production-quality games. Let's find six or so that are going to be big in 2024," he said.