Non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles like artwork and videos exploded in popularity in early 2021, but several blockchain-based video games were built before the NFT trend took off.
In 2021, when NFTs became mainstream, a promising crypto game Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis studio succeeded. And when the NFT market went down after the "hype", Axie Infinity became prominent, growing strongly, surprising many people.
Axie Infinity is an NFT game inspired by Nintendo's beloved Pokémon game. In the game, you will collect and defeat adorable monsters through battles.
However, to play you need to have some capital to buy Axie NFTs, which can be higher than playing PlayStation or Xbox. However, the Axie NFTs you own, you can resell them or through its “play to earn” approach will help you get rewards in the form of cryptocurrency tokens that can be exchanged for money.
What is Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity is a monster-battling game where you assemble teams of cute monsters called Axies to fight each other in battles.
The game runs on the Ethereum blockchain with the help of Ronin – a sidechain that reduces transaction fees and latency. The game focuses primarily on turn-based battles against computer-controlled Axie teams or other players.
In-game items are represented by NFTs (non-fungible tokens) these cryptographically unique tokens can be linked to digital assets. Unlike regular in-game items, NFTs give real ownership to the buyer, you can trade Axies on the game's marketplace to sell and earn real money.
You can also breed Axies, allowing you to build potentially stronger teams and bring other NFTs to sell on the marketplace. Some Axie NFTs have sold for as much as 300 ETH, or over $600,000, at the time.
How does Axie Infinity work?
Axie Infinity is built entirely around NFT items, there is no way to play unless you purchase the 3 Axie NFTs needed to create your first team.
You can buy them from the Axie Marketplace. You can play on PC, Mac, Android, or iOS and take your Axies into battle to win rewards.
What's special about Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity takes the fun and engaging premise of Pokémon and adds an element of ownership. These Axies belong to you and bring tangible rewards: Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens that can be exchanged for money.
The capital to start buying Axie is a big barrier for many players, but it is a highly financially profitable game that attracts a lot of people despite the large capital required to start.
“Play to earn” may sound like a phrase that invites a lot of skepticism, but we’re already seeing evidence of player-led economies forming around games.
For example, there are thousands of “Axie Scholars” through programs like Yield Guild Games and others, where Axie owners lend their NFTs to other players to use and earn money. The profits are split between the parties; in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, people are playing Axie to support their families. Whether or not this is a sustainable model remains to be seen, but it’s a potentially powerful and revolutionary idea that’s already being put into practice.
How to Get Started with Axie Infinity
Previously in the Axie Classic version you would need three Axie NFTs to start playing Axie Infinity, the price of each Axie used to fluctuate between $225- $250.
However, in 2022, the Axie Infinity project encountered the problem of SLP token inflation, leading to the need to build a new version called Axie Origin, also known as V3, to overcome the disadvantages and mistakes of the previous play to earn model.
The inflation of SLP tokens has seriously affected the profits of game participants. The price of SLP tokens has divided more than 60 times since the peak, and the price of Axie NFTs is currently only about 6$ per NFT on the marketplace.
Although Axie Infinity is a game project that aims to bring joy and entertainment to everyone, its nature is still a play to earn game that focuses heavily on the financial aspect. The creation of the Origin version is considered a new direction that brings more revolution but cannot ease the pain of previous gamers.
Looking at the positive side, Axie Infinity is still the leading play to earn game project in the crypto market and is supported and invested by many of the largest funds. Throughout 2021, Axie has always led the gamefi market, creating many achievements that have gradually encouraged investment funds to have confidence in exploiting and developing the play to earn model to serve and develop the community.
The Axie Infinity fan community is still the largest in the world compared to many other game projects, and people still believe that Axie will once again lead the vibrant gamefi market again.
Note that Axie Infinity is not a game that stands out for its gameplay but rather for its leading play-to-earn model. In the future, there will certainly be many games of many other genres that will replace the dominance of Axie Infinity, but in the short term, Axie Infinity is still a monument, a shadow that many game projects and game studios must strive to pursue.
What is AXS Token?
Axis Infinity Shard (AXS) is the native governance token of Axie Infinity. Currently, you can use AXS to pay for farming fees. In the future, AXS holders will be able to vote on decisions related to the game and its future development, as well as stake AXS tokens to earn in-game rewards.
Over time, Axie Infinity plans to gradually transition into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to enable community governance.
Where to buy AXS?
AXS is available from cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, FTX, Huobi Global or decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and SushiSwap.
To buy AXS on decentralized exchanges you need to connect to Metamask wallet and have some ETH for gas fee.
Future
Axie Infinity exploded onto the scene in late June 2021, shortly after the Ronin transition and the announcement of a $7.5 million Series A funding round led by Mark Cuban and Alexis Ohanian, among others. Sky Mavis also has backing from major game publisher Ubisoft, which has advised Entrepreneur's Lab. A Series B funding round in October 2021, led by Andreessen Horowitz, saw Sky Mavis reportedly valued at nearly $3 billion.
By September 2021, Axie Infinity had reached over $2 billion in total NFT trading volume. (That number climbed to $4 billion in March 2022.) Long-term players were rewarded with a $60 million airdrop of AXS tokens in September 2021.
In November 2021, Axie's Ronin sidechain added its own decentralized exchange, Katana, making it easier for Axie players to exchange tokens without having to move to Ethereum.
While the $AXS token price and NFT trading volume declined from December 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, the team has also begun implementing economic changes to try to combat the collapse. For example, reducing the generation of SLP in the game.
The boom in playing to earn has made improving the user experience often troublesome and tutorials for newbies are always a headache for project development teams, as they require a lot of operations and a little knowledge about cryptocurrencies.
Co-founder Aleksander Leonard Larsen has highlighted that more than half of new Axie players have never used any cryptocurrency app before, noting that “it’s really hard to start playing Axie right now.” As part of the major shift, Axie Infinity plans to eventually roll out a way to play without requires players to purchase Axies, by providing new users with a non-marketable and monetizable but limited form.
In the Origin version, all players will be given 3 free Axies when they start and can increase the number to 5 Axies through gaming activities, anyone can experience Axie Infinity without risk. However, if you want to make real money, you still have to invest in Axies sold on the marketplace, they are NFTs that have ownership value and will help you mine many tokens in the game.
