For over two decades, first-person shooters have captured gamers’ imaginations by transporting them into adrenaline-fueled worlds where skill, teamwork, and sharp reflexes are put to the ultimate test. 

Franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Counter-Strike have become cultural phenomena based on this competitive, fast-paced format. 

However, behind the flashy graphics and heart-pumping action, issues like cheating, content ownership, and community involvement have persisted over the years. Now, Haven’s Compass brings the promise of a revolution. 

By weaving blockchain’s transparency and decentralisation into AAA-quality environments on Unreal Engine 5.2, Haven’s Compass finally provides the tools for players to directly shape FPS worlds where their participation is truly valued. 

Between community-driven development, player-owned economies, and blockchain’s fraud protection, Haven’s Compass leads the genre’s next paradigm shift – where FPS don’t just immerse, but empower.

What is Haven’s Compass?

In the ever-evolving landscape of gaming, Haven’s Compass stands as a groundbreaking first-person shooter (FPS) game that not only delivers unparalleled graphics and engaging narratives but also pioneers the integration of blockchain technology. 

Developed on Unreal Engine 5.2, this game sets itself apart by combining the immersive experience of gaming with the transparency and security of decentralised technology.

The concept of Haven’s Compass emerged from a collective vision to transform the gaming industry. The development team, composed of individuals from diverse gaming backgrounds, aimed to create a unique gameplay and story experience. 

Haven’s Compass opens up new possibilities by allowing players to actively participate in the development process through blockchain, ensuring a game that is not only entertaining but also community-driven.

Major Differences: Haven’s Compass Vs. Traditional FPS Games

When it comes to first-person shooters, Haven’s Compass is blazing new territory. By integrating groundbreaking blockchain-based features into gorgeous next-generation environments powered by Unreal Engine 5.2, Haven’s Compass addresses persistent issues that have plagued FPS fans for years. 

From cheating and player agency to ownership and community involvement, there are many differences, Haven’s Compass is creating in the gaming sphere.

Table 1: Overview of differences between Haven’s Compass and traditional FPS games.

Blockchain Ensures a Cheating-Resistant Environment

Where cheating runs rampant in titles like Apex Legends and Call of Duty, Haven’s Compass leverages blockchain transparency to ensure legitimate competition. In the world of non-blockchain FPS games, cheating has been a persistent issue. 

Haven’s Compass tackles this problem by implementing a technology that prevents cheating, offering a secure and fair gaming environment. Just as a casino’s ledger prevents card counting, Haven’s Compass provides the same fraud protection for headshots, killing streaks, and ladder rankings – giving confidence to gamers that skill alone determines the outcome.

Blockchain integration ensures that the game’s rules are transparent, immutable, and enforced, setting it apart from traditional FPS games where cheating can undermine the integrity of the gaming experience.

Community-Focused Development

One of the major distinctions lies in the community-centric approach of blockchain-based games. In Haven’s Compass, players who hold stakes in the game have the power to vote on new features and developments. 

In the same vein, popular traditional games’ community forums and subreddits feature endless suggestions from gamers to improve their favourite titles, only to be ignored. There are very few game developers that listen to their users and implement changes accordingly. 

Instead, Haven’s Compass implements community-driven development through blockchain-based voting to give users more influence. The decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) model empowers players, making them co-creators and contributors to the game’s evolution.

True Ownership and In-Game Assets

Haven’s Compass allows players to truly own their in-game assets through blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This is a stark departure from traditional FPS games where in-game items are usually the property of the game developer. 

And as virtual assets become more prevalent across social platforms and games, the issue of digital ownership persists. But, Haven’s Compass team rectified this at an early stage of the game’s development and brought a solution. 

The game utilises NFT technology to let players truly own items, weapons, skins, and accessories – allowing them to trade goods through player-driven markets.

The decentralised marketplace for buying, selling, and trading in-game assets fosters a player-driven economy. This provides a level of ownership and agency rarely seen in non-blockchain games.

Unreal Engine 5.2: A Technological Marvel

Haven’s Compass’s decision to adopt Unreal Engine 5.2 underscores its commitment to delivering cutting-edge graphics and performance. 

Unreal Engine 5.2, developed by Epic Games, represents the latest iteration of a game engine renowned for pushing the boundaries of what is visually and technically achievable in gaming.

Key Technical Advancements –

• Nanite Virtualized Geometry: Unreal Engine 5 introduces Nanite virtualized geometry, a groundbreaking technology that allows for the rendering of geometric detail at an unprecedented level. This means that in Haven’s Compass, intricate details, whether on characters, weapons, or the post-apocalyptic environment, can be realised with exceptional precision and clarity.
• Lumen Global Illumination: Lumen, another feature of Unreal Engine 5.2, brings dynamic global illumination to the game. This technology enables real-time, fully dynamic lighting that reacts realistically to changes in the environment, creating a more immersive and visually striking world in Haven’s Compass.
• World Partition: Haven’s Compass benefits from the World Partition feature of Unreal Engine 5.2, which enables the creation of expansive and detailed game worlds. The engine intelligently loads only the portions of the game world that are relevant to the player’s immediate surroundings, optimising performance without compromising on visual quality.
• Chaos Physics and Chaos Destruction: Unreal Engine 5.2 introduces Chaos Physics and Chaos Destruction, offering a level of realism in terms of object dynamics and destruction. This means that in Haven’s Compass, the physics of in-game elements, as well as the destructibility of the environment, are handled with a level of sophistication that contributes to both realism and gameplay dynamics.

In contrast, many traditional FPS games do not universally adopt Unreal Engine 5.2 or may even opt for older engine versions. The diversity of game engines in the industry introduces variations in performance capabilities, graphical features, and optimisation levels. 

Some traditional FPS games may utilise proprietary engines, while others might rely on earlier iterations of widely used engines.

Seamless Cross-Game Compatibility

In traditional FPS franchises like Call of Duty, assets and progress are locked to each individual game. 

For example, the rare golden gun skin that Jen, a competitive player, earned by reaching Prestige 10 in Call of Duty: Black Ops is useless in the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare release. She has to start her unlock progression completely from scratch.

However, Haven’s Compass utilises blockchain technology to enable true cross-game compatibility between titles in its FPS universe. As Jen progresses through various Haven’s Compass releases over time, reaching milestone ranks, collecting rare cosmetic items, and unlocking powerful weapons, these assets are securely recorded on the blockchain ledger. 

This allows seamless transfer of her hard-earned progress into the latest Haven’s Compass game on launch day. Therefore, for Jen and players like her who devote endless hours competing in FPS games, this cross-compatibility is game-changing.

Ultimately, players no longer face a wipe of their beloved items and progression with each new game. Blockchain allows Haven’s Compass to transcend this limitation, providing persistent player ownership across expanding FPS universes.

Player Empowerment Beyond Ownership

In conventional FPS games, players are passive consumers with little influence over the game’s direction. They may purchase character skins, weapon upgrades, or other digital assets offered to them for each title released by the developer. 

However, the extent of a player’s impact is choosing whether to buy the latest content pack – they cannot shape the underlying creative vision.

Haven’s Compass completely rewrites this power dynamic by actively involving the player base in development decisions. Through innovative features like Dev DAO Voting, users can directly participate in polls to determine new narratives, graphics upgrades, expansions in level design, and other future content. 

The voices of those most invested in the FPS experience help mould the franchise’s evolution versus a centralised authority dictating unilaterally.

Further, earning and staking Haven’s Compass tokens unlocks additional voting influence, incentivising engaged participation among top community contributors. Between open polls and currency-boosted votes, casual players and power users alike now have a seat at the table. 

With true ownership of NFT assets traded securely on the blockchain, players can both influence development and retain the rewards of their efforts over time.

By sharing creative control and economic upside with players, Haven’s Compass prioritises keeping their loyal base invested literally and figuratively. 

This active participation flies in stark contrast to conventional FPS titles that offer no direct feedback channels and reset player progress with each sequel release. 

But as an innovative, community-driven FPS secured on the blockchain, Haven’s Compass promises to push the boundaries of player empowerment far beyond the constraints of traditional gaming.

The introduction of blockchain into the gaming industry has opened up numerous opportunities for gamers to play and earn. With the gaming market expected to exceed the $286 billion mark before 2027, Stradall, a nascent blockchain and NFT-based card game, is working to deliver an enthralling, immersive, and immensely rewarding platform that will drive the industry forward.

Stradall is the pioneer card game that allows gamers like yourself to buy, own, sell, trade, and manage multiple officially licensed cards that feature some of the most luxurious and reputable cars.

In the Stradall gaming universe, managers or gamers are entrusted with building garages and composing a group capable of battling in several car races to win special rewards and prizes.

Stradall combines P2E, automobile gaming, and web 3.0 to offer an ownership-based monetization strategy. The cards represent specific automobile brands and their real-life features.

Stradall’s Gameplay

The game was built for gamers to buy and own in-game materials. Each player must acquire a racing card, assemble a team, and subsequently partake in countless races to win prizes.

Players must employ unique schemes and smart approaches to beat other players and clinch beneficial rewards and in-game card upgrades.

It features multiple game modes; designed to meet players’ preferences. The Duel Mode will see two participants race against each other, and the winner takes the rarest card of the opponent. The Race Mode features twenty participants, all expected to pay an entrance fee, and the winner receives the rarest card of the player that finished last. The Grand Prix is an unlimited participants’ event where the winner receives NFTs and Metanol ($MTNL) as a reward.

Stradall’s Currency, $MTNL

$MTNL or Metanol is the component that rewards gamers for their plays. It is a tool for in-game card upgrades, participation in upcoming Global Championships, as well as payments for several game supplies and items. Additionally, $MTNL will serve other purposes such as;

• Players will earn $MTNL when they play and win races regularly
• Players can make payments for minigames and earn more points with $MTNL
• Players will get management and staking rewards in $MTNL for investing in Stradall
• Players can buy NFTs, physical merchandise, and stake tokens using $MTNL

According to the Stradall team, the token presale will officially kick off later this year, followed by multiple exchange listings. As part of Stradall’s vision to build a genuinely rewarding ecosystem, one $Metanol holder will stand a chance of winning the prestigious Alpine A110 Limited Series designed in recognition of Olivier Panis’ 1998 Grand Prix Formula 1 victory. The lucky winner will receive this prize directly from Mr. Panis at any place convenient.

Features of the Cars

As previously mentioned, each card is a vivid depiction of an array of luxurious cars and their real-world features. There are 4 vital characteristics and twenty more in the game code.

The four vital features—Acceleration, Speed, Power, and Torque—are on par with the real-world attributes of the car, ranging from zero to ten. Stradall also introduces four levels of rarity—Unique, Legendary, Rare, and Limited. Each level offers distinct XP bonuses applied to the attributes of the car. The longer you own your car, the more XP bonus you get.

Stradall is made up of experts in various industries actively working to link blockchain gaming, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the automobile space.

While the company does not provide exact revenue figures for each of its games, it does give an update on the milestones of some of its core games, including Maplestory, which for the 2022 update, has a lifetime revenue of more than 4 billion US dollars, up from over 3 billion dollars in lifetime revenue as of 2021.

The report also shows that Korea Maplestory generated its second-highest revenue in history, up slightly from 2021 but still down from 2020’s record-breaking performance fueled by lockdowns.

South Korea remains the largest market for Nexon, making up around 60% of the company’s total revenue for the fiscal year 2022. Nexon’s total revenue in 2022 amounted to ¥353.7 billion (~$2.69 billion), with South Korea making up ¥212.9 billion (~$1.62 billion) of that.

The only two segments that generated a profit for the company in 2022 were South Korea and China, with a net profit of ¥18.47 billion (~$140.5 million) and ¥398 million (~$3 million), respectively.

North America was the market that posted the largest loss for Nexon in 2022, with a loss of ¥2.53 billion (~$19.22 million).

Being released 20 years ago, Maplestory is still one of the largest revenue drivers for Nexon, though not as large as Dungeon&Fighter with a lifetime revenue of more than $20 billion.

As outlined in its investor presentation, Nexon plans to use funds from its core games, including Maplestory, to fund development and marketing of new titles with larger growth opportunities.

Nexon has several titles in its pipeline for 2023, including THE FINALS, ARC Raiders, Warhaven, and VEILED EXPERTS. The company also plans to launch several of its region-exclusive mobile games worldwide this year.

According to the report, Nexon plans to focus on these areas of business going forward:

• FOCUS ON VIRTUAL WORLDS
• PLATFORM EXPANSION
• LEVERAGE OUR OWN IP
• INVEST IN NEW IP AND TECHNOLOGY

As a bid to keep up with the increased focus on metaverse-based gaming and experiences, Nexon released Maplestory Worlds in 2022, a platform that allows users to create custom Maplestory games and experiences. It will be released worldwide in 2023.

If you’re a frequent viewer of gaming content or even general YouTube content like vlogs, chances are that you’ve seen an ad or two for RAID: Shadow Legends.

Those who have played the game know that one can easily spend a lot of money on the game if they wish to keep progressing at a fast pace and want to attempt to take on the hardest content and strongest players.

So, how much money does RAID: Shadow Legends generate with both its large player base and heavy monetization? Quite a bit.

In their annual financial report for the fiscal year 2022, Aristocrat Leisure Limited, the company that owns the developer and publisher Plarium and thus RAID: Shadow Legends, reported $630.3 million in bookings from its RPG and strategy games, which includes RAID: Shadow Legends.

Bookings is a figure that encompasses the financial commitment a player makes to a game, such as subscription-based products that are provided over a period of time but also include one-time purchases.

The annual report does not give exact figures for each game but rather their RPG and strategy segment combined, which includes these games:

• RAID: Shadow Legends
• Vikings: War of Clans
• Mech Arena: Robot Showdown

Aristocrat Leisure may include additional titles in this segment, but as they only mention these games in the segment in the report, we can assume that they make up the vast majority of the bookings generated.

We can estimate the bookings generated from RAID: Shadow Legends based on the numbers reported by Aristocrat Leisure by using data from SensorTower.

By combining the estimated revenues for the three games, we can assume that RAID: Shadow Legends makes up around 77% of Aristocrat Leisure’s bookings from RPG and strategy games. This is calculated based on $10M (RAID), $2M (Mech Arena), and $1M (Vikings) monthly estimated revenues.

From these calculations, we can estimate that RAID: Shadow Legends generated $485.3 million in bookings for Aristocrat Leisure in 2022.

The $630.3 million in bookings from RPG and strategy games in 2022 is down slightly from 2021, where the figure was $632.6 million, a decrease of about 0.36%. As Aristocrat Leisure reports:

This was mainly due to a decline in revenues from RAID: Shadow Legends as this world-class title moves into profit mode

Aristocrat Leisure Limited

This statement suggests that the company plans to slow down on user acquisition and let sales from the existing player base of RAID: Shadow Legends roll into profit rather than marketing for new players.

The total bookings for Aristocrat Leisure Limited’s Pixel United, the video game branch of the group, was $1.826 billion in 2022. The largest contributing segment of games was social casino games, with $953 million in bookings, followed by RPG and strategy games and casual games, with $630.3 million and $242.8 million in bookings.

Combined revenue from all Aristocrat Leisure Limited’s branches totaled 5.6 billion Australian Dollars in 2022 (3.88 billion US Dollars), with Pixel United accounting for 46.5%.

Everyone active in the live streaming world is surely aware of the latest dissatisfaction shown by Tyler “Trainwrecks” Niknam towards the video game streaming platform Twitch.

Now, the whole saga seems to take another step, as Trainwrecks introduced a “better alternative to streamers” known as Kick.com.

This is a new live-streaming platform that seems to take the market by storm thanks to its unique approach to revenue sharing with all content creators. Kick.com aims to offer unique benefits to everyone active in the live-streaming world, so let’s see what the fuss is all about.

Table of contents

• Why is Niknam Leaving Twitch?
• What are the New Features of Kick.com?

Why is Niknam Leaving Twitch?

There are a couple of reasons why Trainwrecks decided to go against Twitch. The first one is connected to the new gambling-related prohibitions introduced by the streaming platform just in September 2022. Under those, streaming online casino games is no longer allowed on the platform.

This was a major blow to streamers who knew how popular streaming casino gaming became. Plenty of non-streamers were also enraged by this, as they liked the idea of watching their favourite streamers place big money bets on casino games.

Twitch explains that this move is to make sure that players are protected against problem gambling, but Niknam is not quite sure. He says that the fact he signed a big gambling contract is the main reason why Twitch goes after him with the new regulation.

Niknam was not the only one surprised at Twitch’s new policy. The general public was caught equally off-guard. Everyone seems to make the same point – Twitch didn’t pay too much attention to gambling in recent years, so why the change now?

Now, moving on to the second reason why Trainwrecks decided to go against Twitch. At the end of the day, it all comes down to money, and according to Niknam, live streamers on Twitch suffer big pay cuts.

He is asking one simple question – Twitch has record viewership, sponsorships and profitability, so why streamers don’t get a bigger piece of the cake? This fact has been the topic of discussion for many years and lead to a large controversy in the world of streaming.

Twitch has a revenue split of 50-50, which is significantly lower than other platforms, such as YouTube, which has a 70-30 revenue split. Moreover, there are no marketing activities in place to help live streamers promote themselves, so it is difficult for them to succeed on the platform.

Another platform – Facebook Gaming has built-in outreach and additional promotional features that make it arguably the most accessible medium to share content.

Twitch seems like the worst live-streaming platform in Niknam’s eyes, but yet, it is the most profitable one. Hence, he believes it is only a matter of time before a new platform takes over.

What are the New Features of Kick.com?

All recent developments led to Niknam issuing a long statement on Twitlonger explaining what novelties would Kick.com bring.

So, some of the benefits that Kick.com looks to introduce are:

• 95-5 revenue split
• Live streamers will get to keep 100% of all donations
• Same-day withdrawals
• No unexplained bans, which is often the practice on Twitch
• Allowing ethical gambling is just one part of the new and better Terms of Service
• Live streamers will get a steady income based on how watched they are

Finally, Niknam finishes his statement by saying that people need to be patient with Kick. The platform is still in its early stages, so bugs and issues are normal at this stage.

The website should come out in its full version in the coming weeks. It is still early days, but the signs look more than promising right now, and time will tell whether Kick.com will live up to its expectations.

The Diablo IV Limited Collector’s Box comes with a variety Diablo themed goodies, including:

• The Candle of Creation
• An Occult Mouse Pad
• The Cloth Map of Sanctuary
• The Pin of the Horadrim
• The Diablo IV Collector’s Edition Art Book – which has over 300 pages of Sanctuary and its heroes’ concept art
• Two fine art prints – Matted, with a size of 18.54″ x 10.79″

You have to act fast as there are only limited quantities available for preorder. The actual Diablo IV Collector’s Box will ship on or before June 30, 2023, and will cost $96.66.

Roblox said the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro and British pound took a toll on its business. It estimates a reduction of 4 to 5% due to this.

Roblox had 56.7 million daily active users, which is up 15% year-over-year. Those users spent 3.9 billion hours engaged with the platform, which was up 10% year-over-year. Roblox estimated its revenue was between $190 million and $193 million, up 1-3% year-over-year.

Another stat that caused Roblox stock to tumble was the average bookings per active user was between $3.92 and $3.97, which was down 7-9% year-over-year.

While users were up, they typically spent less on in-game items. It will be interesting to see what the next Roblox Key Metrics report shows. Hopefully, this isn’t the start of a new trend.

The group is set to debut its designs on December 8. There will be two episodes released in addition to the teaser. Episode 1 releases on December 8th, and episode 2 releases on December 13.

You can watch the teaser below.

BLACKPINK is a K-pop band from South Korea. They are known worldwide, even hitting number 1 on Billboard’s World Digital Songs chart.

The first episode is already out, where the group participates in a series of Maplestory design challenges.

You can find out more on their official site.

Overall, GPU shipments decreased by 10.3% from the last quarter. AMD shipments were down 47.6%, NVIDIA’s shipments decreased by 19.7% and Intel’s rose by 4.7%. AMD saw its overall market share drop by 8.5%, NVIDIA’s decreased by 1.87%, and Intel (a newcomer to the dedicated GPU space) saw its market share rise by 10.3%.

While a drop was expected, it decreased by a wider than-anticipated margin. Some of it can be explained by the shutdown of crypto mining, distribution, and manufacturing issues, as well as the anticipation of a new generation of AMD graphics cards.

Q3 is normally the biggest quarter for GPUs, so this trend may continue into Q4. With decreased shipments, companies may offer sales to entice people to buy their latest cards. The best time to buy a gaming GPU may be upon us.

You can play through 21 different holes with your friends in local play or compete against other players in Survival Golf. Up to 8 players can participate in Survival Golf, and the player who makes the most strokes each round is eliminated.

Golf joins a variety of other sports on Nintendo Switch Sports. The game lets you play soccer, volleyball, bowling, tennis, badminton, and now golf. You use the Joy-Con controllers to play each sport. Allowing you to get moving and truly enjoy the feel of each sport.

Golf is available now as a free update on the Nintendo Switch.