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The token will be sold to the public this month. How can Pixelmon break the "Ponzi" dilemma of blockchain games?

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FDV is approximately US$86.5 million, which is at a medium level compared to mainstream chain games. The project vision is grand and difficult to implement.

Original Title: "Token Sale is Coming, Detailed Explanation of Pixelmon 'GameFi Hunter' Focusing on IP Ownership"

Original Author: Nan Zhi, Odaily Star Daily

Pixelmon, which has been controversial for 22 years, announced a financing of $8 million earlier this month and teamed up with MON Protocol to launch the token MON. It also announced that the token public sale will take place at the end of this month.

Odaily Star Daily will sort out the relevant information of this blockchain game that once set a record of $70 million in NFT sales, analyze its vision and token issuance process.

Pixelmon Analysis

Market opportunities, where are they?

Pixelmon states that NFT technology has been widely adopted in recent years, initially driven by digital artists and collectors who discovered that NFTs are the perfect means to eliminate intermediaries, securely transfer unique images or underlying IP ownership, and earn royalties from the secondary market. It is believed that gaming will quickly become the first consumer market to benefit and drive the widespread adoption of blockchain and NFT technology.

When attempting to decentralize game asset ownership through blockchain for the first time in the market, NFT was used as a payment channel for the game, embedding earning money into the game and rationalizing NFT prices as a relationship between playing games and earning money (i.e. Play to Earn). The problem with this strategy is:

· No one pays attention to creating high-quality game products and iterating on user experience;

· The underlying business goal targets NFT buyers rather than gamers;

· Unsustainable economic system, where new buyers maintain the old economic system without truly having "consumers" (players).

In short, Pixelmon believes that current blockchain games are more like Ponzi schemes and are difficult to survive in the long term with sustainable income.

Pixelmon wants to break through?

Pixelmon states that its goal is to create a decentralized game IP ownership system, providing the correct incentives for Play to Own and establishing a revenue model based on free games. The key to this lies in distinguishing users and differentiating "art and commercial IP collectors" from "game users", establishing a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Pixelmon has built two sets of NFTs, named the Right-of-Game (RoG) system, which consists of Genesis NFTs and in-game NFTs.

Genesis NFT includes IP ownership of specific assets, targeting parties interested in acquiring the IP related to art, and wishing to explore, negotiate, and commercialize it. Game NFTs are products aimed at consumers/gamers.

By offering free games and in-game NFTs, the entry barrier to the game is lowered, which in turn can attract a large number of basic users. According to the Pixelmon white paper, game players are the ultimate consumers of the Pixelmon game and will also become the growth engine of the ecosystem. The large user base can bring additional value to the game IP and achieve linear growth in value as the number of users increases.

而 Genesis NFT 则是 RoG 系统的关键。虽然这些 NFT 不具备游戏内功能，但将获得游戏内资产的空投，同时还可获得来自游戏生态活动的费用奖励。

And Genesis NFT is the key to the RoG system. Although these NFTs do not have in-game functionality, they will receive airdrops of in-game assets and can also receive fee rewards from game ecosystem activities.

On the other hand, Genesis NFT will serve as a credential for IP ownership and franchise fees. Pixelmon stated that through decentralized IP and franchise fees, Genesis NFT holders are motivated to explore, negotiate, and implement commercial applications of IP, and earn corresponding franchise fees.

Therefore, Pixelmon hopes to introduce a large number of game users through free games, build an ecological user base, and then develop the IP of each character on the basis of the ecology, such as giving each character unique and prominent IP value like Pokemon.

Ideal is too full

Undoubtedly, there have been a few cases of Web3 native IP breaking through boundaries and creating value, such as in 2022 when Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning launched a "Li-Ning Bored Ape Club" clothing line featuring the Bored Ape #4102 image, and also opened a Bored Ape pop-up store offline. Pudgy Penguins' plush toy "Pudgy Toys" sold over 20,000 units on Amazon within two days of being launched. However, these are still just a few isolated cases. PFP NFTs can be considered products that focus on IP development, but there haven't been many PFP NFTs that have achieved long-term survival and widespread popularity, let alone combined with a large gaming ecosystem.

Therefore, the chain game mode proposed by Pixelmon can indeed be said to be a novel and theoretically feasible path, but as the first batch to explore this mode, it will still face many challenges.

Funding Background and Token Sale

Although based on the analysis of development models, the development path of Pixelmon is still relatively long, but from the perspective of project financing background and market expectations, Pixelmon still has certain strength.

Earlier this month, NFT project Pixelmon announced the completion of an $8 million seed round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Delphi Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Amber Group, 9GAG founder Ray Chan, and Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson. Pixelmon stated that the team plans to use the new funding to drive the development of casual and core games.

And in the earlier year of 2022, Pixelmon conducted a round of NFT sales with a sale price of 3 ETH and a cumulative sales of 70 million US dollars. However, it plummeted by 90% due to the disclosed game content quality not meeting expectations. Later, Pixelmon replaced the project leadership team and launched a new roadmap. After two years of reconstruction, the NFT price has now risen to 1.65 ETH, and the game quality has also greatly improved.

Token Economics

Pixelmon's partner IP management protocol Mon Protocol announced the launch of MON token, with a total of 10 billion tokens. Approximately 36% of the total MON supply will be directly distributed to the Pixelmon community through two allocation mechanisms, while approximately 29% of the total MON supply will be indirectly dedicated to the Pixelmon and Mon Protocol communities through the ecosystem fund.

MON is the governance and utility token of Mon Protocol, and Mon Protocol will be first applied as an IP protocol in the Pixelmon ecosystem. In the Pixelmon ecosystem, the MON token will serve as a representation of in-game tokens and IP governance rights.