Illuvium co-founder Kieran said on X that the studio has cut costs across the board over the past six months and now holds more than 12 months of runway. He added that the remaining team is focused almost entirely on MMO development, with most members having worked at Illuvium for more than three years. Kieran also said the company plans to release several products this year, including a new celebration collection for Beyond Set 1, Beyond Chaos, Primal Tactica and Loadout. Primal Tactica has been licensed to an independent studio and is set to make its first appearance at Steam Next Fest in October. Illuvium will also announce the launch date for Loadout and distribute tokens to the Illuvium staking contract, which it says will give users another reason to stake ILV and ILV-ETH.

ChainCatcher reported, citing The Defiant, that Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick said the studio has sharply reduced costs over the past six months and the team recently agreed to another pay cut. He said the company’s balance-sheet cash could now support operations for more than 12 months. Warwick did not disclose the size of the pay cut, the number of remaining staff, or the amount of cash on hand. He said the current team is focused almost entirely on Overworld, Illuvium’s MMO, and that most members have worked together for more than three years. Beyond the MMO, the company plans to release the Celebrations series for Illuvium Beyond, Beyond Chaos, Primal Tactica through an outside studio, and Loadout, which will allocate tokens to a staking contract. Warwick said Primal Tactica will appear at Steam Next Fest in October, where Illuvium will receive most of the revenue. DefiLlama data shows Illuvium’s protocol fees and revenue totaled about $9,781 over the past 30 days, with treasury holdings around $2.78 million. ILV was trading at about $3.35, giving it a market cap of roughly $27.74 million.

A ranking of P2E games based on verifiable products, tokenomics, and sustainability highlights Off the Grid as the best product but a high-risk token. Illuvium and Axie Infinity show mature economies. The sector is deep in a correction; key metrics are dilution checks and the fun test.

Primitive Ventures founder Dovey used a long-form essay to describe what she sees as a harsher social order taking shape in the AI era: enormous wealth creation for a narrow group tied to companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, and shrinking security for a far larger pool of workers. Writing about San Francisco’s tech scene, she said the phrase “permanent underclass” has started circulating as hiring remains below pre-pandemic levels and roughly 50,000 tech jobs have disappeared in repeated waves of AI-driven cost cutting. She also cited estimates that upcoming IPOs at OpenAI and Anthropic could create more than 3,000 new fortunes above $10 million, including 800 above $100 million. The essay then widened into a comparison of household balance sheets and consumption patterns in the United States and China. Dovey argued that U.S. consumer resilience masks a split between high-income households supported by asset gains and lower-income groups relying more heavily on credit. For China, she said the collapse of property’s role as the core anchor of household wealth has pushed families toward saving and debt reduction, even as some income data remains positive. The piece ends by shifting from macroeconomics to philosophy, questioning whether work can still anchor identity and meaning in a period when career paths no longer offer the same stability.

RuneScape’s record player count has revived attention on Venezuelan players who once farmed in-game gold, converted it into Bitcoin and other crypto, and used it to survive or leave the country.

ApeCoin enables Bitcoin Ordinals Runestones holders to mint 3D avatars for Otherside. Despite the cross-chain integration, $APE price lingers near all-time lows amid market fear.

Analysis reveals how gold farming studios have sustained WoW by keeping in-game gold as a means, not an end. In contrast, Web3 games tie gameplay directly to tradable assets, turning play into labor. Blockchain's true potential lies in creating verifiable memories like achievement timestamps.

WEMADE has launched 'Legend of Ymir', a global MMORPG built on Unreal Engine 5 featuring blockchain and Play-to-Earn mechanics. The launch includes a 1 BTC lottery, NFT airdrops, and a unique player-led partner server auction system. A 2026 e-sports championship in Hong Kong is planned.