Gameplay related to purchased virtual land was intended to be introduced by 2020, but this has been pushed back twice as of April 2022. The record sale of a plot of virtual land was priced at US$2.3 million, as of 25 November 2021. Players of Axie Infinity can also purchase virtual land and other in-game assets as NFTs. The Philippine Department of Finance also clarified that income from playing Axie Infinity is taxable, and suggested that the SEC and BSP may classify its cryptocurrency as a currency or a security. As of June 2021, some people in the Philippines had begun to treat the game as their main source of income, although earning rates from playing Axie Infinity fell below the national minimum wage by September 2021.
In the Philippines, the prohibitive cost of entry led to the formation of gaming guilds which rented out assets to allow new players meet the minimum requirements. By August 2020, the cheapest Axie cost approximately US$307, although reports as of March 2022 suggest the floor price of an Axie has dipped to around US$20. In February 2020, Sky Mavis estimated that a new player would need to spend around US$400 to meet this starting requirement. This model has been described as a form of gambling, and one with an unstable market that is overly reliant on the inflow of new players. Axie Infinity allows users to cash-out their tokens every fourteen days. Sky Mavis marketed the game with a " play-to-earn" model (also called "pay-to-play-to-earn" model) where after participants pay the starting costs, they can earn an Ethereum-based in-game cryptocurrency by playing. The game has an in-game economy where players can buy, sell, and trade resources they earn in the game. Players aim to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. The game's setting is filled with creatures called Axies that players can collect as pets. Īccording to the company's website, Axie Infinity is a competitive game with an " idle battle" system derived from games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Idle Heroes. The hackers were linked to Lazarus Group, funded by North Korea. In March 2022, hackers compromised the Ronin Network, stealing approximately US$620 million worth of cryptocurrency from the project. The game's associated token, SLP, crashed in February 2022 amid a wider NFT and cryptocurrency crash, losing over 99% of its peak value. Īxie Infinity is built on the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-linked sidechain developed by Sky Mavis.
This arrangement has been described as " digital colonialism". They act as low-wage workers for "bosses" who rent out Axies to them so they can grind in the game on the bosses' behalf. Īs of September 2021, most Axie Infinity players are from the Philippines. Sky Mavis charges a 4.25% fee to players when they trade Axies on its marketplace. These creatures can be bred and battled with each other within the game. Players of Axie Infinity collect and mint NFTs which represent axolotl-inspired digital pets known as Axies. Axie Infinity is a non-fungible token-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, known for its in-game economy which uses Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies.