The recent announcement from the company included a teaser for a new game in development, although there were no detailed specifics shared about the upcoming project. Kathleen Osgood, the head of business development at Sky Mavis, mentioned in a statement to Cointelegraph that the new game is set to be interoperable, allowing for integration with existing Axie Infinity experiences.
Beyond the forthcoming game, the announcement also focused on CyberKongz’s Play & Kollect game, a blockchain-based game that operates via Polygon and enables the collection of NFTs through soulbound tokens. The Play & Kollect game will now migrate to the Ronin blockchain in an effort to expand its user base and access Ronin’s core gaming community.
Axie Infinity, which introduced a groundbreaking “play-to-earn” paradigm in 2021, has remained a popular project and currently holds the highest sales volume in NFTs, as reported by CryptoSlam, a leading NFT data tracking site. Meanwhile, CryptoKongz also made headlines in 2021 by burning $4 million of Ether during its minting event in just five hours.
While interest in blockchain gaming has diminished somewhat following the NFT craze of 2021, some crypto-based games like Neopets have opted to shift to a non-crypto approach.
Earlier this year, Aleksander Larsen, co-founder of Sky Mavis, stated that the play-to-earn model is ineffective in its current state. Larsen emphasized the importance of games being fun and having solid economic backing for players to earn.
Despite this, Osgood remains optimistic that the blockchain gaming space will be revived by a game or experience that truly understands users’ motivations towards Web3.
Many teams in the industry have been attempting to replicate what has worked in Web2, but Osgood believes this will not drive explosive growth. She believes that leveraging Web3 as a new experience and tapping into users’ unique offerings is the key to attracting a massive audience.
Sky Mavis has begun opening its infrastructure to the Web3 ecosystem through the Ronin blockchain, according to Osgood. This could potentially lead to the creation of more rewarding and sustainable gaming communities.