• Sesame Street: Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind popular children’s show Sesame Street, will launch its first NFT collection. The digital collectibles will feature characters from the long-standing educational show, including ‘Cookie Monster,’ who will grace the first release. The NFTs are set to drop on March 19, on VeVe, an app-based marketplace for digital collectibles (V).

• Square Enix: Japanese video game conglomerate Square Enix has released a trailer video for its NFT collection Symbiogenesis.The 45-second sneak preview revealed a portion of the project’s fictional world. In addition, the company also announced the launch of Symbiogenesis’ website on March 17, along with “scheduled free mint campaign launch” (NP).

• Beeple: Record-selling NFT artist Mike Winkelmann aka Beeple has opened a 50,000-square-foot digital gallery in Charleston, SC. Named ‘Beeple Studios,’ the art space aims to nurture the community of NFT artists. Beeple made headlines around the world when his digital collage “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” sold for $69.3 million in a Christie’s auction in 2021 (CD).

Web3 Games

• Sidus: Ethereum-based Web3 sci-fi game Sidus has teased the features for the upcoming ecosystem launch in 2023. Some of the offerings include updates for real-time strategy (RTS) game Xenna, a re-designed Battler at Nidum Stadium, new game activities, and many more (TW).

• MetaOps: First-person shooter (FPS) game MetaOps is holding a “laid-back sniper-only” tournament with Avalanche network as the sponsor. The competition’s US server will be on Saturday (March 18), while the Singapore server will run on Sunday (March 19). Moreover, MetaOps is giving away a $75 prize pool for winning participants (TW). 

• PlayMining: GameFi platform PlayMining has launched an advertising solution for NFTs. Known as the ‘Product Placement NFTs,’ the latest offering allows companies and individuals to create digital collectibles on the PlayMining platform. In essence, the feature will enable entities to “easily showcase products and services with original NFTs” (GNW).

NFT News

• Metaverse Inc.: Product development and digital marketing services provider Metaverse Inc., has acquired a portion of art asset management company Maharlika (Hainan) Culture & Art Domain Co., LTD. In essence, Maharlika’s focus is leveraging NFTs for trading artworks. This includes various mediums including music, videos, and visual art, among others (YF).

• Anchorage Digital. The company has cut 20% of its workforce citing lower than anticipated demand for institutional custody of NFTs (BW). 

• Farmhouse: Canabis company Farmhouse announced the launch of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) #30000, “Mega Robot,” brand of premium cannabis products in partnership with Bronx Extracts. The Mega Robot brand is part of the Company’s planned expansion into web3 by aligning cannabis brands with top digital collectible IP holders (PNW). 

Into the Metaverse

• Shiba Inu: The metaverse team at Shiba Inu has met with Ted Schilowitz, the futurist at Paramount Pictures studio. The internet has been speculating there could be a future collaboration (UT).

• YOM: Your Open Metaverse (YOM) announce its initial token listing on MEXC. YOM is the peer-to-peer metaverse infrastructure that allows professional artists, agencies and studios to create, deploy, and manage custom Web3 metaverses with ease and at scale. The platform enables creators to embed their own metaverses on any website with just one line of code, making them instantly accessible from any browser on any device (BC).