Pixelmon NFT: Everything You Should Know

The Pixelmon NFT project made history on 7 February, 2022, when it raised a staggering $70 million from primary NFT sales, making it one of the largest in the NFT market.

However, the project quickly became a laughingstock, with some claiming it was a scam after revealing its highly anticipated NFTs. The NFTs' artwork was far from what buyers had been sold on. They were hideous.

This guide looks at the Pixelmon NFT project and if it is still worth it.

What is Pixelmon?

Pixelmon is an Ethereum-based NFT game where players trade and train tiny monsters called Pixelmons while exploring a virtual universe. Players have to acquire and battle Pixelmons to win rewards, which come in the form of ETH or Pixelmon NFTs.

The game is free to play with some optional pay-to-play features. It is designed to cater to all types of players, including solo, multiplayer, PvP, and PvE. It is accessible on PC and mobile, with plans to be available on more platforms.

Some of the game’s features include:

• Pixelmon Generation 1 NFTs

They are the first playable species that players can own. They are 68 in number with more than 130 unique evolutions. They are a limited drop and no longer attainable after the first genesis collection.

They have several perks, including enabling owners to gain exclusive access to airdrops of land, which can be staked for in-game yields.

• Evolution

The monsters are designed to evolve when trained. Once they have evolved, they not only obtain a new look but stat boosts and new abilities too. They, therefore, become more powerful, giving players an edge when competing in battles.

A serum is required for a monster to evolve. During the evolution process, only the serum is burned and the player is left with two NFTs, the old and newly evolved monster.

• Land

Players can also own land NFTs in the game. Land NFTs enable players to gain certain services and extract resources.

Land is split between urban (yield) and peripheric (resource extraction). There are plans to add a third type called region, allowing players to expand the map itself.

• Tokens

There are plans for the Pixelmon NFT project to feature native utility tokens and governance tokens. The utility token will be the primary currency of the entire game ecosystem. It will be used to craft items and armor, buy cosmetic assets, and upgrade assets, among other things.

Utility tokens will have a capped total supply and be earned in various ways, including participating in competitions, battles, themed events, and selling NFTs and in-game items.

The governance token will enable the creation of four tribes as in-game DAOs; fire, water, earth, and air. The tribes will have responsibilities and financial ownership over their tribe wallet's tokens inflows and outflows. Much about the tokens is yet to be revealed.

The controversies

Truth be told, Pixelmon did a great marketing job. By the time its Genesis NFT collection began minting via a Dutch auction, it had already amassed thousands of followers on various social platforms. On Twitter alone, it had more than 200,000 followers.

So hyped was the project that its Genesis collection sold out in a matter of hours. Then came the reveal date, and no buyer was smiling.

The species artwork was far from the in-game renders that the development team had posted on social media. The NFTs were so poorly designed that the project became a laughingstock.

Buyers were not amused and the project’s team came under harsh criticism.

Extreme scrutiny revealed that the development team had outsourced NFT artwork design to freelancers. The reveal was infuriating to many as the community had been misled into believing that the project had a dedicated team of artists working on the NFTs.

After harsh criticism, ridicule, and threat of legal action, the team accepted they had messed up and assured its community they were working hard to rectify all shortcomings.

Changes

True to its word, the Pixelmon NFT project has undergone tremendous changes. Its NFTs are no longer as hideous as they were.

There is a new leadership team and an overhauled roadmap. Its development has been taken over by LiquidX, a Web3 VC studio that helps build NFT-based projects. LiquidX acquired a 60% stake in the project, according to a press release, and its co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis serves as its CEO.

As per the new road map, alpha testing of the game is set to begin in the first quarter of 2023, while the full game is due in late 2023.

Conclusion

Despite its shortfalls, which have been rectified, it might be too early to consider the Pixelmon NFT project a lost cause. The project already has new leadership and a new roadmap that reveals good things are on the way. As for now, only time will tell if the project can still live up to its hype and huge claims.