This Week in Crypto Games: Gala Kills ‘Walking Dead’, ‘Flappy Bird’ Flaps Away From Crypto

The crypto gaming space is ever expanding, and with prominent games releasing, token airdrops piling up, and the constant shifting of the markets around them all, it’s a lot to take in.Luckily, we’re all over it here at Decrypt’s GG. And if you’re looking to keep tabs on the latest happenings around crypto video games, this weekly roundup gives you a quick overview of the biggest stories we covered over the past week, along with a smattering of other interesting tidbits from around the space.Walking Dead, dead soon: Gala Games announced last week that The Walking Dead: Empires, a multiplayer survival game featuring Ethereum NFTs, will shut down on July 31. The game allowed players to purchase NFT assets like weapons, supplies, and land deeds—some selling for as high as $67,000 during the 2021 NFT boom.As compensation, Gala will distribute NFTs with “equal functionality” from other games to current holders, though some users have griped on social media about the value of the expected assets. The PC game had been in open beta for about a year.Flappy Bird sans crypto: The classic mobile game Flappy Bird has launched on the Epic Games Store for Android without any crypto features, despite previous plans for a token tied to its Telegram version. This new release maintains the original tap-to-navigate gameplay while adding a quest mode, supported only by ads and in-app purchases.Last year’s Telegram version of the game faced heavy pushback from gamers, and was ultimately shuttered earlier in April. However, it doesn’t appear that Flappy Bird is done with crypto. Last week, following the Android release, the official Telegram channel hosted a community call and wrote, “The Flappy Bird brand belongs to the community.”MapleStory N launching: Nexpace, backed by Nexon, will release MapleStory N on May 15, bringing blockchain integration to the beloved 2D side-scrolling game. Running on its dedicated Avalanche L1 chain “Henesys,” the game allows players to own and trade in-game assets on-chain.The 22-year-old MapleStory franchise boasts 250 million users worldwide, with this PC release marking the first official game in the MapleStory Universe ecosystem, which recently switched from Polygon to Avalanche.Sui gaming stablecoin: Playtron announced plans to release Game Dollar, a specialized stablecoin for gaming on the Sui blockchain in Q4 2024. The token will support purchases, subscriptions, and rewards across Playtron’s GameOS ecosystem, including the upcoming SuiPlay0X1 handheld console.Unlike traditional stablecoins, Game Dollar will be programmable at the use case level, backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries, and designed to incentivize specific user behaviors. Playtron CEO Kirt McMaster told Decrypt that this programmability will enable new economic models for developers and marketplaces.Goblins, take the wheel.Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game is now in Early Access on Steam and Epic Games.Steam: https://t.co/21cdoo9pO7Epic Games: https://t.co/omY8kGtUi0 pic.twitter.com/MgGO60M7Zl— goblintown (@goblintown) April 30, 2025Staking is here. And it changes everything.Starting today, you can stake $PIXEL to:💎 Earn rewards💎 Support your favorite games💎 Help shape the future of the Pixels ecosystemPixels is building a decentralized publishing model powered by staking, where games themselves… pic.twitter.com/6ojdNGri7d— Pixels (@pixels_online) May 1, 2025