by Lydia Ludmila 
Are NFTs finally infiltrating the AAA gaming space? Meanwhile, leading Solana marketplace Magic Eden is dealing with community disagreement and the biggest name in coffee is kicking off their new NFT rewards program.
It’s just a few of the biggest stories that we compile and present to you a nice bite-sized fashion each weekend.
This Week’s Non-Fungible Token News
Magic Eden’s Royalty Structure A Cause For Debate
A new royalty structure proposal on Magic Eden, Solana’s largest NFT marketplace, has the SOL NFT community in heated debate. The new structure, titled ‘MetaShield,’ takes aim at NFT buyers who avoid creator royalties when purchasing NFTs.
The tool allows creators to modify the royalty towards watermarks, which can be removed once the collector pays the respective royalty fee. Some users, however, claimed that royalties aren’t the issue – and that MagicEden is.
Epic Games Launcher Supports First NFT-Based Game
Very few major game developers and publishers have shown willingness to engage with NFTs or blockchains at large. That’s not the case, though, for Epic Games this past week. CEO Tim Sweeney has shown an open door for Epic Games to engage with the space, stating that whatever developers what to engage with should be fair game. Sweeney’s sentiment thus far has been somewhat emblematic of the idea that if devs want to build around NFTs, than so be it – Epic will not restrict that.
From Sweeney’s mouth to the Epic Games Store this past week, apparently, as the store is now supporting NFT-based ‘Blankos Block Party,’ the first title of it’s kind to be supported on the Epic Games Store.
Yuga Labs Latest From The NFT’s Rumor Mill
Are Bored Ape Yacht Club creators Yuga Labs planning their next release? A speculative report over the past week outlined ‘Mecha Apes,’ a purported upcoming release that has been rumored to be Yuga’s latest derivative project.
The project reportedly was aiming to hit the market before the end of the year, with an objective of raising $50M. Yuga co-founder Garga quickly dismissed the report, tweeting out simply “fake news” in a quote tweet referencing the story.
Doodles Closes Major Fundraising Round
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and long-time ‘Doodle’ owner led the latest equity funding round for the NFT project, sealing ‘Doodles’ with a $54M raise that was led by the Ohanian-led firm Seven Seven Six. Ohanian isn’t shy of sharing his bullish sentiment on NFTs and that’s exhibited here, as the raise for Doodles secures them at over a $700M valuation. Many NFT community members were surprised to see the project command such a high valuation, particularly given the criticism in the past surrounding Doodle’s quiet-natured movement in the market.
The 10,000 mint project currently has a floor around 8 ETH, a modest number compared to the project’s 35+ ETH peak just three months ago.
NFTs As Rewards: A Look At Starbucks’ New Partnership With Polygon
Starbucks is integrating a new rewards mechanism that utilizes NFTs, a project that has long been in the works but is seemingly finally finding some legs. We first heard about the program roughly 6 months ago from previous (and three-time) CEO Howard Schultz, and despite Schultz’ departure since the program’s announcement, new CEO Laxman Narasimhan is seemingly going to see the project through it’s launch.
This past week, the next step in launching the NFT reward program was brought to life, as Starbucks announced their latest partnership with the Polygon blockchain. Starbucks is calling the program ‘Odyssey,’ and is expected to compliment the current rewards program and also include an NFT marketplace.
What will that look like? There is still a lot to uncover, users are expected to be able to earn digital assets, dubbed “journey stamps,” and Starbucks CMO Brady Brewer stated that the company has a desire for the program to be “super easy and accessible.”
