NFT Game Pixelmon Attempts Comeback After $70M ‘Horrible’ Art Reveal
by James · October 23, 2022
In short
- Pixelmon, a Web3 gaming project that raised $70 million from primary NFT sales, has announced new leadership and development plans.
- The project was widely panned after the artwork was revealed in February, but the original creature artwork has since been replaced.
Perhaps no project was a greater sign of NFT the world’s superfluous and speculative frenzy earlier this year than Pixelmona project that raised $70 million by selling NFTs that promised to deliver a Pokémon-like experience—and then unveiled ragged artwork that was widely panned and gave many memes.
A Pixelmon founder even called the art reveal a “terrible mistake.”
Several months later, the Ethereum-based gaming project is making a comeback. Today, Pixelmon announced a new management team and an overhauled roadmap following the recent release of upgraded artwork, which turned the blocky, Minecraft-inspired models into more polished, smooth 3D creatures.
Now, Pixelmon’s developers plan to turn the collectible NFT monsters — which sold for as much as 3 ETH (about $8,100) apiece in the initial sale — into interoperable 3D characters that can be used in the upcoming Pixelmon online game, as well as in other metaverse game.
Pixelmon’s development was taken over earlier this year by LiquidXa Web3 VC studio that helps build NFT based projects. According to a press release, LiquidX acquired a 60% stake in the project, and LiquidX co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis will serve as CEO of Pixelmon.
Originally, Pixelmon planned to launch a playable alpha test version of the game by the end of 2022. Under the new roadmap, alpha testing for the game will begin in Q1 2023 instead, and the roadmap for the game includes the future launch of virtual land NFTs, as well as separate utility and governance tokens to power Pixelmon’s economy. The full game will arrive in late 2023.
Furthermore, Pixelmon will offer a free-to-play mode that anyone can play without owning one of the monster NFTs, which currently start at a price of 0.36 ETH ($475) on the top secondary market OpenSea. Axie Infinityanother Pokémon-inspired NFT game, launched its own free-to-play mode after first requiring NFTs to play.
Pixelmon may be trying to move past the much-derided launch in many ways, but the project also embraces the memes that made it a glorious icon of the NFT space.
When the artwork was revealed in February, one particular monster – named Kevin – captured the imagination (and derision) of NFT collectors, and quickly became one of the most valuable Pixelmon NFTs. While the rest of the Pixelmon creature has been upgraded and overhauled, Kevin’s blocky, ogre-like form barely touched.
