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Launches

Six One Indie launches publishing label

by admin May 23, 2025

The team behind the Six One Indie Showcase and The Indie Game Awards has launched its own publishing label.

Six One Indie Publishing describes itself as an “integrated, indie-first platform” for developers.

It will offer support in launch strategy, media relations, and showcase integration as well as development support in areas including QA testing and localisation.

“The number of games hitting the market grows by the day, but unfortunately, the people to cover and amplify them seem to dwindle just as fast,” said Six One Indie creative director Mike Towndrow.

“Six One Indie has evolved into an ecosystem that can now offer a unique opportunity to get indies in front of players through fresh, unconventional means.”

Towndrow added: “We’re not building a publishing label for the old industry. We’re building one for the new wave of indie – where passion, connection, and creative control comes first.

“Indies deserve more than a checklist, they deserve a major push backed by authenticity, genuine enthusiasm, and a new approach for an unpredictable industry.”

Six One Indie was founded in 2018, with its first showcase debuting in 2022.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

YGG Launches New Publishing Arm, Debuts First Game ‘LOL Land’

by admin May 23, 2025

In brief

Yield Guild Games has launched a new publishing division, YGG Play, focused on casual, crypto-native titles it dubs “Casual Degen” games.
Its first release, LOL Land, is a browser-based board game that features Pudgy Penguins community characters and offers token-based rewards.
The game has launched exclusively on Pudgy Penguins’ Abstract Chain and has received over 100,000 pre-registrations ahead of release, according to YGG.

After four years of watching Web3 games struggle to find their audience, Yield Guild Games decided the industry had to rethink how it matches players with the kind of games they’re actually in for: lighthearted chaos, in a “casual degen” vibe.

Instead of chasing broad mainstream adoption, the guild protocol launched YGG Play, a new game publishing unit dedicated to games that embrace the degen culture, with LOL Land, a web browser-based game explicitly designed for crypto-native players who live in the proverbial trenches.

“People play casual games on their phones while commuting, waiting in line, or taking a break,” Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG, told Decrypt. “They do it for fun as well as rewards like streaks, badges, or collectibles. And they happily spend a lot of real money on those games.”

Through its years of establishing a foothold with Web3 gamers by pioneering the so-called “play-to-earn” movement from 2020, YGG has learned “what’s fun, what works and what doesn’t,” leading it to develop “some very strong opinions on how to best serve the crypto market,” Dizon explained in a separate statement shared with Decrypt.

The move represents a strategic shift for YGG from investing in Web3 games to creating them directly. Rather than targeting mainstream gamers, the guild is focusing on crypto-native users who trade memecoins, mint NFTs, and engage in speculative activities.

The new game, LOL Land, features four thematic boards, including YGG City, Beach Day, Carnival, and Ice World Wonderland, which showcases Pudgy Penguins IP with playable characters based on community members like Aaron Teng and Rusk0f.

The game offers two distinct gameplay modes. Free play provides unlimited rolls without token rewards, while premium mode requires purchasing rolls to earn points redeemable for YGG tokens from a $10 million prize pool.

The browser-based board game surpassed 100,000 pre-registrations before launching exclusively on Abstract Chain, according to YGG.

For LOL Land, players can “earn YGG tokens and [you] can use them to claim NFTs,” Dizon explained.

The game draws directly from Dizon’s experience in casual games and his experience in Web3 gaming thereafter.

“Before getting into crypto and founding YGG, I was a game developer for a little bit over 20 years,” Dizon shared with Decrypt. “I was making casual games for much of my career.”

Degens over mass market

The publishing strategy deliberately targets crypto enthusiasts rather than attempting to onboard traditional gamers. Dizon argues this approach addresses an underserved market segment larger than hardcore Web3 gaming.

“If you look at people who are trading memecoins, minting NFTs, or trading on exchanges, these are people that you can consider to be possible players under the ‘Casual Degen’ label,” Dizon said.

Asked about how he thinks Web3 games could last, Dizon, who claims to prefer playing single-player RPGs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, told Decrypt it’s a matter of perseverance.

“I do think that Web3 games can have a lasting impact on people,” he said. “It’s hard to make games in general. It’s even harder to make games that have new technology and figure out what the right format is for that technology, for people to use it.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Volatility Shares launches first XRP futures ETF on Nasdaq

by admin May 22, 2025

Volatility Shares has launched the first-ever XRP futures ETF on Nasdaq today, offering investors indirect exposure to XRP through regulated derivatives for the first time.

According to a SEC filing dated May 21, Volatility Shares, a U.S. firm specializing in innovative ETFs —including leveraged and futures-based products tied to crypto, is launching the first-ever Ripple (XRP) futures exchange-traded fund today, May 22. The new product, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker $XRPI, is the first ETF of its kind to offer indirect exposure to XRP through futures contracts.

The ETF, part of the Volatility Shares Trust, will invest at least 80% of its net assets in XRP-linked instruments, including futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, via a subsidiary based in the Cayman Islands. In addition to the standard product, Volatility Shares also plans to introduce a leveraged 2x XRP futures ETF, aimed at delivering twice the daily performance of XRP futures.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, called the 1x XRP futures fund a “market first” in a post on X, noting that its debut follows the successful launch of a 2x XRP futures ETF by Teucrium in April. That leveraged fund has already amassed $120 million in assets under management and sees daily trading volumes around $35 million, an encouraging signal for demand.

The rollout of these XRP-related financial products comes amid broader speculation that the SEC could approve spot XRP ETFs by the end of this year. Several firms, including Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, and Bitwise, are vying to launch spot-based XRP funds, which would hold XRP directly rather than rely on derivatives.

According to Polymarket, traders are placing the probability of a spot XRP ETF being approved in 2025 at 83%. Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, echoed that sentiment, stating, “I simply don’t see this SEC not approving a spot XRP ETF.

2x leveraged XRP ETF is *currently* live & trading…

I simply don’t see this SEC not approving spot XRP ETF.

And sooner, rather than later.

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) April 16, 2025

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

AMD launches Radeon AI Pro R9700 to challenge Nvidia’s AI market dominance

by admin May 21, 2025

AMD has been busy at Computex 2025, where the chipmaker unveiled the exciting Radeon RX 9060 XT and the Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series. To cap off its series of announcements, AMD is thrilled to introduce the Radeon AI Pro R9700, a PCIe 5.0 graphics card designed specifically for professional and workstation users.

RDNA 4 is an architecture geared towards gaming, but that doesn’t mean AMD can’t apply it to professional-grade graphics cards. For instance, RDNA 3 saw the mainstream Radeon RX 7000 series successfully coexisting with the Radeon Pro W7000 series. The same situation will occur with RDNA 4. AMD has already unveiled four RDNA 4-powered gaming graphics cards, yet the Radeon AI Pro R9700 is the first RDNA 4 professional graphics card to enter the market. The new workstation graphics card aims to replace the RDNA 3-powered Radeon Pro W7800, which has been faithfully catering to consumers since 2023.

The Radeon AI Pro R9700 utilizes the Navi 48 silicon. It’s currently the largest RDNA 4 silicon to date, with a die size of 357 mm² and home to 53.9 billion transistors. Navi 48 is also found in the Radeon RX 9070 series. It’s a substantially smaller silicon than the last-generation Navi 31 silicon, which is 529 mm² with 57.7 billion transistors. It’s nothing short of impressive that Navi 48 is roughly 33% smaller but still has 93% of the transistors of Navi 31.

AMD Radeon AI Pro R9700 Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Graphics Card

Radeon AI Pro R9700

Radeon Pro W7800

Architecture

Navi 48

Navi 31

Process Technology

TSMC N4P

TSMC N5 / N6

Transistors (Billion)

53.9

57.7

Die size (mm²)

357

529

SMs / CUs

GPU Shaders (ALUs)

4,096

4,480

Tensor / AI Cores

128

140

Ray Tracing Cores

Boost Clock (MHz)

2,525

VRAM Speed (Gbps)

VRAM (GB)

32 / 48

VRAM Bus Width

256-bit / 384-bit

L2 / Infinity Cache (MB)

64 ⁄ 96

Render Output Units

128

Texture Mapping Units

256

280

TFLOPS FP32 (Boost)

45.3

TFLOPS FP16 (INT4/FP4 TOPS)

90.5

Bandwidth (GB/s)

576 / 864

TBP (watts)

300

260 / 281

Launch Date

July 2025

April 2023

Launch Price

$2,499 / ?

AMD, being AMD as usual, didn’t reveal the Radeon AI Pro R9700’s entire specifications. However, the chipmaker did boast about the graphics card’s 128 AI accelerators, meaning it’s leveraging the full Navi 48 silicon. That means the Radeon AI Pro R9700 is rocking 4,096 SPs, 9% fewer than the Radeon Pro W7800. It also correlates to the former having 9% less AI accelerators. In the Radeon AI Pro R9700 ‘s defense, the CUs are RDNA 4, and the AI accelerators are second generation.

Regarding FP16 performance, the Radeon AI Pro R9700 peaks at 96 TFLOPS, 6% faster than the Radeon Pro W7800. AMD rates the graphics card with a 1,531 TOPS of AI performance.

AMD claims the Radeon AI Pro R9700 offers 2X improved performance over the Radeon Pro W7800 in DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B. For some strange reason, AMD compared the Radeon AI Pro R9700 to the GeForce RTX 5080. Tested in a few large AI models, the Radeon AI Pro R9700 delivered up to 5X higher performance than the RTX 5080.

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(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)

The Radeon AI Pro R9700 is equipped with 32GB of GDDR6 memory. AMD has not disclosed the specifications regarding the speed of the memory chips or the width of the memory interface. Given that the Radeon Pro W7800 features 18 Gbps GDDR6, it is reasonable to conclude that the Radeon AI Pro R9700 should utilize memory chips with superior speed.

With 32GB of onboard memory, the Radeon AI Pro R9700 can tackle most AI models. It has the capacity of the Radeon Pro W7800, but not as much as the 48GB variant. The Radeon AI Pro R9700’s typical blower-type design will enable users to rock up to four of them inside a single system, such as AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper platform, which has good multi-GPU support. With four of them, users will have access to 128GB, more than enough for heavy models that exceed 100GB of VRAM usage.

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(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)(Image credit: AMD)

The Radeon AI Pro R9700 has a 300W TBP (Total Board Power). It’s 15% greater than the Radeon Pro W7800 32GB and 7% higher than the Radeon Pro W7800 48GB. Similar to most workstation-grade graphics cards, the Radeon AI Pro R9700 has the power connector at the rear. However, AMD has not indicated the type of power connector it employs, and it’s not visible in the provided renders. Considering the 300W rating, we would anticipate it to require two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The Radeon AI Pro R9700 renders illustrate the graphics card featuring four DisplayPort outputs. Since it utilizes the RDNA 4 architecture, these outputs should conform to the 2.1a standard.

AMD has announced that the Radeon AI Pro R9700 will launch in July, but it has not revealed pricing details. In contrast, the Radeon Pro W7800 debuted at $2,499 two years ago and has maintained most of its value, currently priced at $2,399. We will soon learn the price of the Radeon AI Pro R9700 as its launch approaches in just a couple of months. AMD anticipates a healthy supply of the Radeon AI Pro R9700 from its partners, including ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, and Yeston.

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May 21, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Google Launches SynthID Detector to Catch Cheaters in the Act

by admin May 21, 2025

In brief

Google’s SynthID embeds traceable marks in all of Google’s AI tools.
The tool flags AI-generated image content using invisible watermarks across media.
It also helps helps identify AI-made text, and video as concerns over cheating grows.

With deepfakes, misinformation, and AI-assisted cheating spreading online and in classrooms, Google DeepMind unveiled SynthID Detector on Tuesday. This new tool scans images, audio, video, and text for invisible watermarks embedded by Google’s growing suite of AI models.

Designed to work across multiple formats in one place, SynthID Detector aims to bring greater transparency by identifying AI-generated content created by Google’s AI, including the audio AIs NotebookLM, Lyria, and image generator Imagen, and highlighting the portions most likely to be watermarked.

“For text, SynthID looks at which words are going to be generated next, and changes the probability for suitable word choices that wouldn’t affect the overall text quality and utility,” Google said in a demo presentation.

“If a passage contains more instances of preferred word choices, SynthID will detect that it’s watermarked,” it added.

SynthID adjusts the probability scores of word choices during text generation, embedding an invisible watermark that doesn’t affect the meaning or readability of the output. This watermark can later be used to identify content produced by Google’s Gemini app or web tools.

Google first introduced SynthID watermarking in August 2023 as a tool to detect AI-generated images. With the launch of SynthID Detector, Google expanded this functionality to include audio, video, and text.

Currently, SynthID Detector is available in limited release and has a waitlist for journalists, educators, designers, and researchers to try out the program.

As generative AI tools become more widespread, educators are finding it increasingly difficult to determine whether a student’s work is original, even in assignments meant to reflect personal experiences.

Using AI to cheat

A recent report by New York Magazine highlighted this growing problem.

A technology ethics professor at Santa Clara University assigned a personal reflection essay, only to find that one student had used ChatGPT to complete it.

At the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, another professor discovered students relying on AI to write their course introduction essays and class goals.

Despite an increase in students using its AI model to cheat in class, OpenAI shut down its AI detection software in 2023, citing a low rate of accuracy.

“We recognize that identifying AI-written text has been an important point of discussion among educators, and equally important is recognizing the limits and impacts of AI-generated text classifiers in the classroom,” OpenAI said at the time.

Compounding the issue of AI cheating are new tools like Cluely, an application designed to bypass AI detection software. Developed by former Columbia University student Roy Lee, Cluely circumvents AI detection on the desktop level.

Promoted as a way to cheat on exams and interviews, Lee raised $5.3 million to build out the application.

“It blew up after I posted a video of myself using it during an Amazon interview,” Lee previously told Decrypt. “While using it, I realized the user experience was really interesting—no one had explored this idea of a translucent screen overlay that sees your screen, hears your audio, and acts like a player two for your computer.”

Despite the promise of tools like SynthID, many current AI detection methods remain unreliable.

In October, a test of the leading AI detectors by Decrypt found that only two of the four leading AI detectors, Grammarly, Quillbot, GPTZero, and ZeroGPT, could determine if humans or AI wrote the U.S. Declaration of Independence, respectively.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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May 21, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Lost in Cult launches physical games publishing label

by admin May 20, 2025

Lost in Cult has launched a physical games publishing label.

The independent book publisher and design studio will focus on producing mass releases and collector’s editions (known as ‘Editions’) of physical titles to maintain game preservation and curations.

Lost in Cult’s publishing label is launching with three titles for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. These include Thank Goodness You’re Here (PS5/Switch), Immortality (PS5), and The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow (Switch).

The entire game is on the disc and/or cartridge, and requires no download code or an internet connection to play.

Retail editions of these games will be available online and in-store, and distributed by developer and publisher PM Studio.

Lost in Cult’s ‘Editions’ will be sold exclusively on Lost in Cult’s website in limited quantities – between 1,000 to 1,500 units per title.

Editions releases include exclusively commissioned outer slipcase artwork, variant retail covers, a poster and collector’s checklist, and a booklet edited by Lost in Cult editorial director Chris Schilling featuring developer interviews and analytical essays.

Image credit: Lost in Cult

“We [have] set out to create a new standard for physical games,” said head of publishing Lost In Cult Ryan Brown. “Our editions are designed to preserve not just the game, but the story and artistry behind its creation.

“At the same time, our retail releases ensure no one is locked out of owning great games physically, giving everyone a chance to play their favourites for the decades to come, internet connection willing or not.”

“We’re proud to apply our knowledge and experience in quality-testing, having tested over 2600 titles, with a company that matches our vision on game preservation and also sees video games as art,” said DoesItPlay? owner Clemens Istel.

Lost in Cult has also partnered with preservation group DoesItPlay? – a community that tests physical releases and hardware for offline functionality.

“We work tirelessly to ensure these fantastic experiences remain accessible now and always,” added DoesItPlay? owner Clemens Istel.

“Aligning with Lost in Cult’s mission to provide the best physical games publishing to date is now the next step in our efforts to ensure quality physical releases that stand the test of time and make developers and players equally proud.”

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

XSGD Stablecoin by StraitsX, With 8B On-Chain Transactions, Launches on XRP Ledger

by admin May 19, 2025

Crypto infrastructure provider StraitsX debuted its Singapore dollar-pegged stablecoin, XSGD, on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to cater to growing demand for regulated multi-chain stablecoins supporting real-time cross-border payments.

Digital asset developers, fintechs firms and financial institutions can use XSGD to conduct cross-border transactions, settle transactions on-chain and create programmable financial flows. XGSD is being powered by XRPL, a decentralized public blockchain from Ripple.

StraitsX, a major payment institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, began issuing XSGD in 2020. The stablecoin pegged to the Singapore dollar is fully backed 1:1 by reserves held with DBS Bank and Standard Chartered.

As of writing, XSGD had a total supply of 14.12 million, with an onchain transaction count exceeding 8 billion. The stablecoin is available on Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon, Hedera and Zilliqa.

“At StraitsX, we’ve always approached stablecoins not just as digital representations of fiat, but as critical infrastructure for the future of financial markets. Launching XSGD on the XRP Ledger is a meaningful step toward that vision – an expansion of interoperability, programmability, and access across networks that were purpose-built for real-world value exchange,” Co-Founder and deputy of StaitsX, Liu Tianwei, told CoinDesk.

Regulated stablecoins like XSGD are better positioned to see increased adoption in the expected boom in cross-border economic activity in the coming years. For instance, per some estimates, cross-border e-commerce in Asia is expected to surpass $4 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, global cross-border payments are projected to hit $250 trillion by 2027, according to a report published by Infosys Finacle last year.

The report mentioned Ripple while discussing various methods fintechs employ for money transfer. The report said that Ripple’s real-time settlement of funds “eliminates the need for pre-funding destination accounts and supports low-cost payments within seconds.”

Opening move

The debut of XSGD on the XRP Ledger marks the beginning of a series of upcoming rollouts outlined under the strategic partnership, the press release said.

In June, StraitsX plans to introduce a second phase focused on institutional applications, including programmable payouts, merchant settlements, and seamless compliance integrations for various financial workflows.

“StraitsX’s launch of XSGD on the XRP Ledger underscores that digital assets, including stablecoins, could play a pivotal role in payments” said Fiona Murray, managing director of APAC at Ripple.

“We are seeing a growing appetite for stablecoins like XSGD to support enterprise-grade use cases across payments, liquidity, and compliance-first infrastructure. Our collaboration with StraitsX to bring XSGD to the XRP Ledger supports our commitment to delivering regulated assets that can reshape cross-border payments and unlock value for financial institutions,” Murray added.

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May 19, 2025 0 comments