Pixelmon began his cryptocurrency odyssey with one of the most serious cases of NFT FOMO as a collector. $70 million invested A fake Pokémon creature so hideous that even the game’s founder called the artwork a “terrible mistake.”
But even after two years Ownership changed laterBetween fundraising and an impending token launch, Pixelmon is set to have a big year ahead in 2024.
On Tuesday, pixelmon Announced $8 million seed raise with participation from prominent backers in the cryptocurrency world such as Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital. Additional investors include Amber Group, Bing Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Sfermion, Spartan Labs, and many others.
Angel investors include: immutability co-founder Robbie Ferguson; Yield Guild Games Co-founder Gabby Dizon FaZe Clan Co-Founder and CEO Richard “Banks” Bengtson (pseudonym) endless clouds Founder of Loopify and others.
Pixelmon was acquired by cryptocurrency VC studio LiquidX in 2022, months after the game’s disastrous artwork reveal and subsequent backlash. LiquidX claims that Pixelmon had enough money to continue operating for years without seed funding, but wanted the opportunity to attract key allies ahead of its upcoming launch.
“Before, it was just us. LiquidX supports Pixelmon’s vision,” said Giulio Xiloyannis, Pixelmon CEO and LiquidX co-founder. decryptionThis is GG. “We wanted a reputable and very helpful list of partners to join us in that vision. And the way to attract quality investment partners like Animoca Brands, like Delphi Ventures, is to give them the opportunity to participate.”
“The fact that we had a runway of more than five years before the recent cash injection was actually very attractive to new investors,” he added.
After overhauling the original’s gritty, Minecraft-like artwork into more advanced, cartoonish creature models, Pixelmon’s current team built the game around its crypto IP. They’ve also been working to reshape how the brand is perceived while embracing the comical and confusing beginnings that initially made Pixelmon an NFT punchline.
First release of Pixelmon adventurer kevin Last October, a “hypercasual” game attracted around 36,000 active players on Base, an Ethereum scaling network fostered by Coinbase. Kevin is the name of Pixelmon’s ogre-like creature that became a meme sensation, Pixelmon’s mascot of sorts, and even appeared in a movie. Affordable Basic NFT Collectibles last summer.
Another casual game PixelPals, which mixes pet management and trading card elements, is scheduled for release this quarter before a rebuilt version of the massive Pixelmon Arena action game arrives later this year. Another, more robust Pixelmon experience, an open-world role-playing adventure called Hunting Grounds, is planned for early 2025.
The variety of outputs is designed to help the Pixelmon team experiment with different kinds of audiences and platforms, Xiloyannis said.
“We plan to release minigames every three months,” he explained. “We have six people working on quarterly hypercasual game releases. web3 It is player-centric, with a game design that focuses more on ‘utilizing degen’. For example, there are a lot of mechanics, player-versus-player, where you steal points from each other.”
“What we can do is try new things, experiment and learn a lot,” Xiloyannis added. “For example, we are testing different chains. Observe Web3 native interactions between players. And let’s look at how anti-cheat can be applied to blockchain-based games, which frankly no one has tried yet.”
Between its planned moves across casual and hardcore games, as well as trading cards, merchandise, and various media adaptations, Pixelmon could be trying to recreate the playbook that transformed Pokemon into one of the world’s biggest entertainment franchises.
However, the team aims to do this in a decentralized way and will do so through the Mon protocol and the upcoming MON token. that much Ethereum The ERC-20 token will facilitate what is described as an “IP Protocol” to incentivize and reward NFT holders who help grow the Pixelmon brand. Expected to launch in 2024, Pixelmon NFT holders can sign up for the pre-sale now.
“The Mon protocol enables decentralized governance of Pixelmon IP, effectively allowing monster NFT holders to actively participate in decisions related to the species they hold,” Xiloyannis said. decryptionThis is GG. “MON token will be the ecosystem token that supports Pixelmon games.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
