Pixelmon has new leadership. And it aims to change gaming forever

The Alpha:

• When Pixelmon first launched in February 2022 with a collection of 10,005 pieces of pixelated character NFTs, the NFT community quickly became excited at the prospect of what seemed like a Web3-focused competitor to Pokémon.
• All that excitement quickly turned into mockery the moment the Pixelmon team revealed what the game they were building would look like.
• Due to each NFT’s hefty 3 ETH price tag, the NFT community went on to call Pixelmon a “$70 million rug pull.”
• Pixelmon has announced the hiring of a new management team to help steer its course, according to an announcement originally reported by Coinbold.

Why it matters

In particular, Pixelmon hyped itself up in early 2022 by branding itself as a triple-A gaming experience with voxel art set in a Pokémon-like world. The announcement alone gave gamers all over Web3 reasons enough to invest in the project, despite how little information was available at the time about the game’s development. All 8,079 publicly available Pixelmon NFTs were sold out within an hour of launch – with 23,055 ETH. At the time, this was valued at more than $70 million.

The catch? Buyers at the time had no idea how the NFT characters they bought would look in-game. When the self-styled crypto hospital ZachXBT posted a set of screenshots of how Pixelmons would actual lo and behold, the project’s investors got a rude awakening. Sales for the project immediately dropped, as did each Pixelmon’s value on the open market.

Despite the way Pixelmon’s coin deterred collectors, several investors in the room believed the hype of the first coin would be worth rekindling. Following the acquisition of a 60 percent controlling stake in Pixelmon, Web3 VC LiquidX is set to take on a fully operational role in all of Pixelmon’s existing divisions.

Aside from that, a new – and much clearer – roadmap for Pixelmon’s future has been established. According to a press release, the game is set to launch a playable alpha version in Q1 2023, with a full release planned for some time in late 2023.

What will be next

Along with a clear release date, Pixelmon’s new management team has directly spoken about the game’s future as a title in the blockchain gaming space. Play-for-earn or play-and-earn mechanics were mentioned in the planned release. Instead, Pixelmon’s new top brass is pushing the planned title towards a play-your-own model.

“I firmly believe that over time we will be able to build Pixelmon into one of the strongest IPs in the gaming and web3 spaces, spanning an ecosystem of entertainment-related assets. These assets will be interconnected and interoperable thanks to NFT technology. Players will be able to port characters, abilities and skins across the ecosystem, and NFT holders will be able to benefit from the performance of all assets,” Pixelmon’s new CEO Giulio Xiloyannis said in a press release.

Additionally, Pixelmon is getting ready to launch a brand new collection of Pixelmons for the upcoming revamped game. The Generation 1 Pixelmon NFTs will reportedly “include 68 genesis playable species and over 130 unique evolutions,” according to the press release. Early adopters are also promised exclusive access to their own in-game country, which will be sold as NFTs.

Hopefully Pixelmon will back up these bold claims and put the doubters to rest once and for all. If they do, they won’t just succeed in Web3 – it would be a huge feat in all of gaming. Another Pokémon-inspired title called Temtem took four years to develop, and spent nearly two years in early access. Should Pixelmon see a successful launch in 2023 with its new leadership at the helm, it will bode well for others in the Web3 space looking to take on the titans of Web2 gaming.

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