Why Meta Will Struggle With the Metaverse… And Here’s Who Might Succeed

This piece is sponsored by Decentral Games — the gaming company behind the metaverse poker game, ICE Poker.

Face it. Horizon World, in its current state, sucks.

We also get it. Corporate innovation is notoriously difficult. The vision is there, but Meta is no startup anymore.

Meta is filled with corporate bureaucracy, investors are too focused on short-term results and employees are confused and discouraged.

They can’t even acquire gif-company Giphy without it getting blocked, or make big investments without investors hawking every move.

If we had to take a guess, we’d say it won’t be Meta that successfully builds the metaverse. So who will?

The metaverse startup with big ambitions

Decentral Games ($DG) builds games and social experiences with a focus on the metaverse. Their flagship game is ICE Poker.

Why Poker? It’s a massive market with little innovation in the past decade. The World Poker Tour estimates that there are over 100M poker players worldwide — with 60M in the US alone.

Unlike Meta’s Horizon World — which lost 33% of its players over eight months — Decentral Games is actually growing its user base.

ICE Poker has users, generates revenue and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to play. Also, no VR headset required.

• 8,000+ daily active players.
• $36M+ in sales — the highest-grossing NFT project on Polygon this year.

Head over to their metaverse, and you’ll see poker tables filled with players…

Not your Average Joe poker game

Unlike other online poker games, ICE Poker is free to play. Instead of buying in, users are given free chips to play each day.

You play to earn tokens ($ICE), which can be converted to cash. Score on their leaderboard, complete challenges and perform other tasks to earn their in-game token — $ICE.

To play, you’ll need to buy a digital wearable. Think of it as buying virtual shoes to go virtual bowling. No shoes, no entry (don’t worry, we’re giving you a free one below).

• When you hold a wearable, you’ll be given 3,000 chips (~7 games) each day for free.
• The more collectibles you hold, the more chips you’re given every day (i.e., two wearables – 3,500 chips, three wearables – 4,000 chips, etc.).

Unlike regular poker, your chips have no value. Instead, your chips allow you to earn tokens that, like regular poker, convert to cash in hand. Did we mention they reset daily?

Here’s how you can earn their in-game currency $ICE:

• Completing an ICE Poker daily check-in and three challenges.
• Competing for daily leaderboard multipliers based on Chips net winnings.
• Scoring on the top monthly leaderboard to earn $xDG — Decentral Games’ Governance token.

The more you play and the better you do, the more tokens you’ll earn.

What can you do with $ICE tokens?

• Buy upgrades — which can help you earn additional $ICE.
• Buy accessories, emotes, and other features to customize your avatar.
• Sell the tokens for cash.

They recently launched two new ways to play:

1/ Tournament mode — a fast-paced six-player, single-elimination play style.

• First and second place win badges that can you can redeem for prizes.
• Prizes include wearables, $ICE tokens or $xDG tokens.

2/ ICE Poker Flex — their web app that lets you play on a desktop, tablet or mobile browser.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Create a MetaMask Wallet to store your rewards and in-game items.
2. Get your free wearable here (courtesy of Decentral Games).
3. Log into ICE Poker Flex here.

Decentral Games is hooking you up with a free wearable

In partnership with Decentral Games, we’re giving out a free wearable so that you can play right away.

Just fill out this form, and Decentral Games will send you one. TY DG 🙏