Formerly criticized for disappointment, NFT project Pixelmon fractures NFT IP: offering players royalty income

Cointelegraph reported that the NFT project Pixelmon, similar to Pokémon, faced ridicule due to poor character quality. They recently revealed plans to shift focus to fractionalized NFTs, claiming that whenever the NFT image IP of a holder's character is used outside the game, the holder is entitled to receive royalty income in the form of the native token MON.

Pixelmon, a NFT project with 200,000 followers, issued an apology after the launch, with netizens mocking: "Is this the standard for a 3ETH minting price?"

Fragmented NFT Incentives for Gamers

Pixelmon CEO Giulio Xiloyannis stated in an interview with Cointelegraph that they plan to introduce a fragmented NFT IP system, allowing NFT holders to receive royalties when their characters are used outside of the game:

It's like if Nintendo minted 100 Pikachu NFTs, if you own one, you have 1% of the rights to use Pikachu; and every time it's printed on clothes, cups, or used in the game, you'll receive 1% of the total IP royalties.

He emphasized that "since Pixelmon will be free to play, unlike other paid Web3 games, this will be a key factor in making the game widely accessible."

It is reported that royalties for Pixelmon NFT holders will be distributed in the native MON token of the MON protocol.

Risks of Fragmented NFT IP

However, Xiloyannis also admitted that fragmented NFTs may pose risks:

Some characters may be more popular than others, some NFTs may not be used at all, and players' attention will only be on those popular characters, affecting the royalties of most players.

He added, "If the game and its NFTs are not popular when the game is open for play, the effectiveness of the so-called royalty rewards may not be very good."

Upcoming Game Content

Finally, Xiloyannis also revealed the long-term main games of Pixelmon, including the "Battle Arena" to be released later this year and the "Hunting Grounds" to be launched next year.

The former will be a real-time monster battle game, while the latter will be an open-world role-playing game.

Controversies and Changes in Pixelmon

Previously, as the NFT hype gradually subsided, Pixelmon released NFT presale news around February 2022, seemingly catching the last train to the bear market.

Even at that time, with over 200,000 followers on Twitter, NFT blind box sales raised over $70 million in ETH, the artwork was criticized by the crypto community for poor pixelated quality after the reveal, causing the floor price of the series to drop to 0.6 ETH.

Pixelmon reveal…this can’t be real right?! 🤣 #Pixelmon #NFT pic.twitter.com/zmE3XtrWb7

— RIDDLΞR (@RiddlerNFT) February 26, 2022

In May of the same year, the crypto venture capital firm focusing on NFT projects, LiquidX, acquired Pixelmon, took over the team's related business, and was led by LiquidX co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis as the CEO of Pixelmon.

At that time, Xiloyannis expressed his willingness to remake these unpopular NFT characters:

Only by remaking these characters can we truly save this project.

He added, "Kevin, as the meme character despised in Pixelmon, we will not remake it to prove that things on the blockchain never disappear."

Increasing Trading Volume of Pixelmon NFTs

Apparently in anticipation of the upcoming game content, the trading volume and number of transactions for the Pixelmon Generation 1 NFT series have shown significant growth in the past few days to weeks.

The chart shows that the trading volume and number of transactions have increased by 88% and 74% respectively in a week, with the floor price currently at 1.875 ETH.