1 May 2026 | Weekly news roundup

Reaper Actual raises capital, tracking FIFA Rivals NFT sales, and whatever happened to Wildcard's Thousands?

• [00:25] FIFA Rivals NFTs have finally migrated to the Pulse market.
• [02:55] Pulse uses USDC stablecoin for all NFT trading, even for in-app trading.
• [8:11] FIFA Rivals is fairly simple; 90 second mini-games and build your team.
• [10:12] Even powerful players are not too expensive: Guimaraes for $74, Haaland for $40.
• [13:40] Playful is shutting down its Thousands platform.
• [14:21] Unclear what might remain of Wildcard as a game, but the IP is continuing it seems.
• [16:18] Wildcard’s very weak Steam Early Access performance - less than 150 concurrent peak.
• [18:38] How the timing of the WC token launched on Arbitrum played into this decision.
• [19:37] Was web3 forced onto Wildcard by its crypto investors?
• [21:46] Reaper Actual raises more funding ahead of its Steam Early Access in mid-May.
• [24:26] Explaining the separate web2 and web3 versions of Reaper Actual.
• [26:49] Steam is a big problem for blockchain-adjacent games.
• [27:59] Reaper Actual’s blockchain-light messaging.
• [30:28] Choosing the “hill to die on” when it comes to web3 game design.