A Web3 game, Pixelmon which raised $70 million from primary NFT sales, has announced new leadership and development plans. The project was widely slammed after its horrible artwork was revealed in February, however, the original creature artwork has since been replaced and the new leadership helped change the course of the game.

Pixelmon has made its comeback with a new leadership team and gameplay roadmap to deliver a first-of-its-kind Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) with end-to-end web3 capabilities and upgraded artwork.

Earlier this year, the NFT game Pixelmon raised $70 million by selling NFTs and promised to offer a Pokemon-esque experience. Later uncovered the shabby artwork that resulted in a huge failure. Perhaps, this was the only project that was a greater sign of the NFT world’s excess and unfounded madness earlier this year. 

The Pixelmon founder even called the art a “horrible mistake.”

A Web3 venture capital studio, LiquidX took control of the project at the end of the second quarter of 2022. Pixelmon currently claims over 30,000 active community members, as well as over 7,000 aggregate Non-Fungible Token (NFT) holders across collections and potential players ahead of its Alpha Launch in Q1 2023. 

LiquidX, a VC studio that helps build NFT projects has a firm belief in Pixelmon’s potential and long-term vision. One of its two co-founders, Giulio Xiloyannis, also decided to sustain a fully operational role by acquiring a 60% of stake in the project within the company to closely manage Pixelmon’s game production and turnaround process. 

Initial Game Offers

For the first 12 to 24 months, Pixelmon will offer a free-to-play mode,  anyone can play without owning one of the monster NFTs, which currently starts for 0.36 ETH ($475) on the top secondary market OpenSea. 

Giulio Xiloyannis, CEO of Pixelmon, said, “For the next 12 to 24 months, Pixelmon has one goal: to develop the highest quality Free-to-Play and Play-to-Own game in the NFT and metaverse space. Our North Star to create the industry standard for web3 gaming.” 

The refreshed MMORPG will allow players to gain a direct stake in its in-game ecosystem through a Play-to-Own (P2O) model, although the Pixelmon metaverse will remain free for anyone to access and play with optional Pay-to-Play (P2P) mechanics. The game will initially be accessible to players via PC and mobile, eventually evolving into a multichannel experience available on more platforms down the road. 

Pixelmon’s attempt to relaunch its NFT game is evidence of moving past the previous failure. The audience may take time to stop mocking the relaunching, but LiquidX stays motivated to revive the game in metaverse space.