Why Raijin? The Ambition Behind the Brand Rebranding
Xai Play has been renamed Raijin (雷神), and this is more than just a name change. The name Raijin is more game-like and powerful; it is designed for Steam's 100 million traditional players.
Through Raijin, XAI no longer emphasizes "blockchain" but instead highlights "rewards" and "achievements." This is a major upgrade in brand strategy — from "geek's toy" to "mass consumer product." Raijin will be XAI's spearhead to penetrate the Web2 market.
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XAI has really been different lately. It's not the kind of "air game" that only screams concepts; instead, it honestly develops the entire Arbitrum ecosystem's games into a dedicated L3, minimizing fees to almost imperceptible levels, while continuously signing new games and expanding studio collaborations. It feels like they're not chasing trends but seriously building a "chain for players." If you play games and are curious about crypto, it's really worth spending a few minutes to look up what XAI has been up to recently.

Many blockchain games in the past have followed the pattern of "issue tokens first, then develop the game." When players jumped in, they found not even a decent demo. XAI's approach is relatively healthy: first build the infrastructure and establish partnerships, then gradually release games and gameplay features. Funds mainly flow around the direction of "people use it, people play it." Looking at their collaborations with traditional PC game platforms and content publishers shows that this is not just a chain looking to make quick money, but genuinely wants to attract Web2 players.
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XAI's move into Layer3 actually positions it very comfortably: the underlying security relies on Ethereum + Arbitrum, while the upper layer can provide enough high TPS and customization space for games. Simply put, it inherits the "orthodox lineage" without sacrificing player experience. Many analyses list XAI as one of the Layer3 projects to watch in 2025. You can consider it a candidate for the "gaming version of Optimism / Arbitrum" and start researching where the main battlefield might be in the future.

Many people think that "defending rights" is just a PR battle, but for XAI, this lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI is more like an oath: we are not a flash-in-the-pan project, but one that aims to operate for ten years or even longer under the name "XAI." Being able to stand firm on brand issues shows their confidence in the long-term value of their ecosystem. This detail, rather than short-term price fluctuations, better reflects the team's attitude. If you're looking for projects that genuinely want to build a lasting business, this is something worth keeping in mind.

For developers, XAI doesn't provide a script for "remaking blockchain games as P2E" but rather offers a toolbox that is closer to what the traditional gaming industry uses: you can choose which logic to put on-chain and which to keep on the server; you can design your own closed economic loop, instead of being constrained by the limitations of a generic L2. Additionally, with support from the foundation in terms of funding, resources, and traffic, many teams that originally planned to "only develop for Web2" have started to seriously consider an on-chain version. If you're a developer, you can

Many reports this year have highlighted a trend: capital is gradually shifting from pure financial DeFi towards areas with real users and real use cases, and gaming happens to be right at the crossroads. As an L3 focused exclusively on gaming, XAI is essentially betting on a long-term thesis—that in the future, the majority of on-chain daily active users will actually come from entertainment and content consumption, rather than just lending and trading. If you agree with this direction, doing your research early on foundational infrastructures like XAI might be more solid than chasing the next

To be honest, there are a lot of blockchain gaming projects right now, but very few can truly excel at all four aspects: “gameplay, blockchain integration, ecosystem, and compliance,” while also making continuous progress on all fronts. XAI is one of the rare projects that has a compelling story in all these areas: it has a solid tech stack, a growing number of games, an active community, and it’s bold in facing compliance and trademark issues head-on. You don’t have to rush to buy anything right now, but I highly recommend adding it to your long-term watchlist and keeping an eye on every vers

From a player's perspective, the most comfortable aspect of XAI is that you can "hardly feel the existence of the blockchain." There's no need to sign transactions every day or keep an eye on a bunch of unfamiliar contract addresses—you just log in to the game as usual, complete tasks, participate in events, and all the on-chain operations are handled automatically in the background. One day, when you decide to take a closer look at your assets, you'll discover that your achievements, items, and identities have quietly become on-chain assets. This "seamless on-chain" experience is the only acc

The overall blockchain gaming industry in 2025 is indeed less lively than the previous cycle, but in this "noise-reduced" environment, it's easier to see who is truly building things. XAI is one of those teams that seem even busier when the market is quiet: they're upgrading their chain, launching new games, building bridges to Web2, and legally protecting the brand they've built over the years. Projects that continue to deliver during the calm periods are often revalued by returning capital and users in the next cycle. While the hype hasn't fully returned yet, it's worth taking a closer look

XAI is also actively embracing content creators and streamers, which is crucial for ecosystem expansion. For traditional games to become popular, they rely heavily on livestreaming and short videos; this is even more true for blockchain games. Now, we can already see quite a few streamers trying out new games within the XAI ecosystem, explaining the economic systems and reward mechanisms as they play, essentially providing in-depth education for the project. In the future, just saying "this game is on XAI" will probably let the audience know: it has both on-chain assets and is actually playabl

If you’re already feeling a bit of PTSD from the term “Play to Earn,” try thinking of XAI as a testing ground for “Play and Own.” You still play dungeons, rank up, and achieve milestones as usual—the difference is that all key events are recorded on-chain. Assets can flow freely, accounts won’t get banned in an instant, and some of your in-game efforts can naturally translate into rewards. Instead of constantly thinking about how to turn the game into a mining operation, this is a completely different mindset. If you’re interested in seeing new design paradigms, XAI is one of the samples worth

One notable point: while most blockchain gaming projects are still trying to ride the AI trend, XAI is already engaged in a high-profile brand lawsuit with a real AI heavyweight. Everyone knows who the “name collision” is with, and this incident itself shows that XAI has reached a very high level of public attention. More importantly, Ex Populus chose to actively defend its rights instead of giving in, and this responsible attitude toward its brand and community is itself commendable. If you want to understand the whole story, you can look up the news details about XAI vs xAI.
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One advantage of XAI is that it isn’t isolated within a small circle doing its own thing, but rather is built on top of the larger Arbitrum ecosystem. Arbitrum itself already has gaming support programs and funding pools. As an L3, XAI can naturally benefit from these incentives while also providing a dedicated track for games that require more customization. You can think of it as a “high-speed express lane” for game developers: if you don’t want your gas fees to be driven up by DeFi or Memecoin trading, you can simply build on XAI.
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If we think of the entire Web3 as a city, then what XAI wants to build is the “gaming and entertainment center,” not just a small stall in some corner. It has its own transportation (underlying L2/L1), its own shops (various games), its own infrastructure (nodes, wallets, cross-chain), and even its own “city management” (foundation + legal rights protection) responsible for this area. You can choose to enter from any entrance—you don’t have to participate right away, but it’s at least worth seeing for yourself what this “entertainment district” looks like before deciding whether to settle here

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