16 January 2026 | Weekly news roundup

[0:28] Today's theme is consolidation.

[1:15] Is this the trend for blockchain games companies in 2026 or something more nuanced?

[2:00] Why didn't we see more consolidation in 2025?

[3:46] Playmint has been bought by Cartridge. This is likely more of an R&D rollup or acquihire deal.

[5:53] Playmint worked on fully decentralized games and Cartridge has an onchain game engine.

[7:05] Both companies also have a shared investor Bitkraft to enable the deal.

[8:40] Sequence has been acquired by Polygon Labs. It's more of a classic consolidation deal.

[10:50] Polygon is repositioning itself as a payments and stablecoin infrastructure.

[12:13] Sequence's focus has always been cross-chain dev tools for blockchain games.

[14:59] Investors like tools. Sequence raised around $50 million.

[18:50] Polygon is buying Sequence because it's a proper business with real tech and users.

[22:20] Will Sequence focus less on games in future?

[23:06] Animoca Brands has acquired web3 gameco SOMO. It's unclear why.

[29:31] Delabs Games is shutting down idle RPG Ragnarok Libre.

[35:15] Delabs Games is now an AI-first game developer so it's looking to the future.