If you’ve been paying attention to crypto altcoin price movements over the past 24 hours or so, you might’ve seen that Axie Infinity, a star of bullruns past, has had something of a surge.

It’s not a massive pump in crypto terms (currently about +8% over the past 24 hours) for the Ethereum-based AXS token, but it’s nevertheless turning some heads.

And there’s a reason for that – Apple’s App Store has agreed to roll out a “lite” version of Axie Infinity‘s simplistic, cartoony monster auto-battling NFT game – for iOS-device users in “select countries across Latin America and Asia”.

It’s a digital strategy card-game version, to be clear, that doesn’t require users to hold pre-existing Axie NFTs in order to play, and is titled Axie Infinity: Origins.

In its Twitter thread and an additional blog announcement, Axie Infinity (which is created by the web3 gaming studio Sky Mavis), the Axie founders said that the gaming project is expanding its global reach and that:

“This is [an] important step towards a world where anyone, anywhere can experience the magic of Axie on their preferred device. If you live in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, or Vietnam, you can now download Origins for iOS from the AppStore.”

The game will provide non-Axie-NFT-holders with free “starter characters” that aren’t non-fungible tokens.

That said, Axie Infinity did also note that:

“Significantly, iOS Players will be able to use their NFT axies in this release. We believe this is the first time that Apple has agreed to make an externally-purchased NFT usable on the App Store.”

News of the Axie-on-Apple release did initially send the AXS token flying up by about 20%, but that action has cooled a little at the time of writing.

 

Cross the Ages makes waves in France

Also doing some eye-popping business on the App Store this week, is another NFT strategy trading-card game (TCG), called Cross the Ages.

Free to play and using Immutable blockchain tech, the game has managed to hit the number one spot on the App Store in France, overtaking mega mobile-game hits Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Pokemon Go and Hearthstone.

According to some PR info about the title shared with Stockhead today, as well as the game’s website, Cross the Ages is a game in which players can gather digital and physical collectibles “and earn valuable NFTs”.

“The Cross The Ages Universe takes place in a dystopian world where mystical creatures and masters of magic collide with AI-powered cyborgs in a fight for the last resources of power,” reads the info, adding:

“Between the game and the lore also lies a written book called “Cross The Ages Data Spell”, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.”

A further explanation of the book element – the games are based on seven free-to-read novels, which are apparently being authored, published and translated into several languages.

 

Note: Animoca Brands is a heavy investor in and supporter of Sky Mavis, the creator of Axie Infinity. While Animoca Brands is an advertiser with Stockhead at the time of writing, this is not a sponsored article. 

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