Welcome back to your weekly PlayToEarn newsletter where we share the latest news, announcements, and opinions from the world of blockchain and web3 gaming!

The traditional gaming world was rocked recently when Steam officially clarified their license policy, explaining that players don’t actually own games. Instead, they are only paying the $59.99 (or whatever) in order to receive permission to play the game!

Needless to say, this does not sit well with many gamers. The fact that they could lose or be denied access to their ‘purchased’ games feels like a cyberpunk dystopia where nobody owns anything except for the giant Evil Corps of the world. Sadly, this part of the Steam license agreement isn’t actually new. This is how Steam has always worked! It’s just that now, California requires them to notify you that you are just ‘leasing’ the game and you don’t actually own it.

Wasn’t digital distribution supposed to free up the end-user? Because it seems like it has just become a way for corporations to once again screw over the regular folk. Epic Games was quick to fire back at Steam, letting everyone know that all players can download game installers for purchases on their platform.

Luckily, in web3 gaming, you don’t have that problem because most games are free to play. And for those that are gated by NFT ownership, you are always free to sell the NFT to another player.

So speaking of web3 gaming, let’s take a look at some of the top stories from this past week.

Here are our hot topics at PlayToEarn this week for web3 and blockchain gaming.

Play and Earn with Off the Grid 🔫

Off the Grid continues to turn heads with their team-based, third-person, Call of Duty style, extraction, battle royale shooter. Their simultaneous launch across PS5, Xbox, and PC system for open early access playtest brought streamers from around the world to their game.

After initially topping the charts, the hype has died down a little bit. And some accuse Gunzilla Games (Off the Grid’s developer) of paying well-known streamers / influencers to talk about the game. But it’s not as if that is an unusual tactic these days. And they seem to have certainly succeeded in getting attention on their game, which is the ultimate goal here anyway.

And while Off the Grid may not be topping all of the charts, it is still exceedingly popular (dominating our own charts for most viewed articles) and the team is already preparing an update to improve performance, fix bugs, and even make a couple of small balance changes.

And best of all, even though Off the Grid is officially in an early access state, players will get to keep all items they find in-game, forever!

Off the Grid is free to play and you can learn everything you need to know to get started with our Gamer’s Guide to Off the Grid.

Pudgy Penguins are here to stay 🐧

At one time, the Pudgy Penguins were nearly a dead project. But an enthusiastic collector made a bold move, buying out the rights to the collection from the original owner and beginning a campaign that has seen plush toys sold in Walmart and other stores, a growing selection of merchandise, and now even a TCG in development!

With a floor price of over 9 ETH and a crazy amount of trading volume (over 100 ETH per day), Pudgy Penguins has set a standard for how to make your NFT collection provide real world value!

Their TCG game, The Vibe, will debut at Comic Con this weekend and will feature both physical and digital versions of the cards.

Latest Play to Earn and Play to Airdrop News🪂

Several new playtests kicks off this week. Here are a few of the play and earn opportunities available to you right now!

Moving Money: Funding, Tokenomics, and other related stories from web3 gaming 💰

It was a good week for fundraising, NFT sales, and web3 gaming in general.

Other News Stories in Web3 Gaming This Week ⬆️

And finally, here are a few of the other top web3 gaming stories from this week.

Of course that’s not all! Be sure to visit our website, follow us on Twitter, and join our Discord chat for all of the latest in web3 and blockchain gaming!

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