Pixelmon NFT game raises $70m as community accuses developers of a scam

On February 7, 2022, the Pixelmon project провел a delayed release of its first NFT collection on the OpenSea platform. After the tokens were issued, the community criticised the team for the visual style and accused it of a scam.

So @Pixelmon raised over $70m at 3 ETH per mint just for them to reveal like this. I think it’s fair to say all the buyers were rugged.

Stop supporting cash grab NFT projects. pic.twitter.com/8VShQxNlgl

— zachxbt (@zachxbt) February 26, 2022

Pixelmon is an open-world role-playing game in which players can catch various creatures (a Pokémon-like mechanic). The latter, as well as other in-game items, are presented in NFT format. The alpha version of the game запланирован for the third quarter of 2022.

The project’s founder, who goes by the nickname Syber, in December 2021 called Pixelmon “the next blue chip.”

Pixelmon is the next blue chip. This is financial advice. Don’t do your own research.

— Syber | Pixelmon (@Syberer) December 23, 2021

«Pixelmon — следующая голубая фишка. Это финансовый совет. Не проводите собственные исследования», — написал он.

In February, the project team put up the Genesis collection on OpenSea. The sale was conducted as a Dutch auction with a starting price of 3 ETH (~$7,884 at the time of writing). During the event all tokens were sold out, and Pixelmon raised $70m.

Pixelmon is sold out! After many months of hard work the team is so excited for the many opportunities that $70M will provide for the game and for holders.

We now have everything we need to build one of the biggest games in the NFT space. It’s time to get to work.

— Pixelmon (@Pixelmon) February 7, 2022

Because this was a delayed NFT release, auction participants received the tokens only on February 25. The project team faced a flood of criticism — users said the token visuals did not meet the promises made by the developers, and some of them were even ‘broken’.

1d) Here is a side by side comparison of what was promised vs what was delivered. Some models even were straight up broken

Anyone asking $8500 per #nft knowing this is straight up scamming ppl. So what’s going on? pic.twitter.com/z873eXyPda

— OKHotshot.eth (@NFTherder) February 27, 2022

For comparison, this is how Pixelmon looks in the official gameplay trailer:

Syber назвал качество выпущенных токенов «неприемлемым». Он объяснил, что NFT рисовали дизайнеры, которых наняли для работы над предварительными моделями. По его словам, полученные от аукциона средства будут использованы для коррекции визуального оформления.

Our NFTs are updatable and what they look like now is poor quality — we own up to that — they will be made better. $70,000,000 was raised. People are saying only 2, or 5 or 10 million will be spent on the game — this is false. The funds raised will be used to build Pixelmon

— Syber | Pixelmon (@Syberer) February 26, 2022

«The plan has always been to use minting proceeds to create proper models. Our NFTs are updatable, and the way they look now is really poor — we acknowledge that — they will be improved. We raised $70m. People are saying that $2m to $10m was spent on the game — that’s not true. The funds raised are being used to build Pixelmon», — wrote him.

Syber also said that the project would enlist the Magic Media studio, which employs more than 600 people.

According to DappRadar, investors invested $1 billion in GameFi infrastructure and projects in January 2022.

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