BIG economic changes are coming to popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, as the developers Sky Mavis admitted that “the Axie economy requires drastic and decisive action now or we risk total and permanent economic collapse.”
Earlier today, February 4, Axie Infinity announced via their Substack how they will kickstart the game economy, which is currently awash in oversupply of their Smooth Love Potions (SLP) in-game currency. The Vietnam-based developer revealed that four times as many SLPs are created per day than is spent on breeding the digital pets.
“While we’ve all experienced the euphoria that comes with incredible growth and prosperity, we’ve also more recently entered into a period of economic uncertainty. We all feel this pinch, which has made the last few months difficult for everyone,” said the statement.
To address this volatility and stamp down the inflation of SLP, the game will “sunset” SLP gains from the game’s PvE Adventure Mode and Daily Quest Rewards.
In other words, players will gain zero SLPs from chasing daily quests and playing PVE.
According to Sky Mavis, “[R]oughly 40% of SLP is created from adventure mode”, and while the Daily Quest Rewards encouraged users to play every day, the developers admitted that “it’s now become a mass emission mechanism for SLP.”
Axie Infinity will also restructure PvP rewards
Sky Mavis will also revamp the rewards structure for the player-versus-player Arena Mode.
“This will supercharge the competitive Axie scene and create more demand for quality Axie teams in the ecosystem. This equates to a six million USD equivalent prize pool for Season 20!” explained the developers.
To address the SLP demand-versus-supply, the developers will also introduce “fun burn mechanisms and economic sinks”, which will include skins, cosmetics, Axie body parts, in-game emojis, and more.
These changes will roll out in Axie Infinity’s Season 20.
The changes come soon after the game was featured in the popular social media video channel Nas Daily. In true Nas Daily style, the video is an upbeat explainer of what the Axie Infinity is all about — something Pinoys are already likely very much familiar with, as the Philippines became ground zero for the play-to-earn game in 2021.
There, co-founder Jeff “Jiho” Zirlin reiterated the core philosophy that powers the game.
“There are huge middle men — the app stores, the game publishers — that are extracting way too much value from the gaming ecosystem,” said Jiho to Nuseir Yassin, the Israeli vlogger behind Nas Daily. “We believe that majority of the value should be going to the gamers, to the game developers that are actually doing the majority of the work.”
True to their own ethos, “we all own [Axie] collectively together. We as the inventors, we actually own 20 percent. The other 80 percent is owned by the community.”
He also added: “There’s a battle happening right now for the future of the internet. Crypto, blockchain, NFTs — these are all going to be things that create a tectonic shift in the way that you have fun, socialize, and even own things on the internet.”
Some 40 percent of the userbase comes from the Philippines, according to a September report from Rest of World’s Vittoria Elliot.
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