Sky Mavis has announced that they raised $152 million to grow their play-to-earn revolution with Axie Infinity and the development of a wider ecosystem. The Series B investment round was led by a16z, which also backed numerous other web3 projects. Sky Mavis will use the fund to develop Axie Infinity and prepare their Ronin sidechain for broader use cases.
They will use the investment to grow their team. On the roadmap there’s the release of Axie Infinity: Origin, an upgraded battle system that comes with new art, new animations and new game mechanics. It will also introduce an opportunity for gamers to play Axie for free. The release of their own decentralized exchange (DEX) has become one of the priorities, while gameplay tied to land NFTs will also happen. Think about harvesting resources, building structures and battle for territory.
Right now Axie Infinity is the only game on the Ronin sidechain. However, Sky Mavis will also use the funding for an entire new ecosystem. Other game developers will be able to create experiences on top of Axie Infinity, for example tapping into the Axie NFTs or perhaps even create games inside the land. We honestly don’t know this year.
The Axie Infinity vision
Axie Infinity moved to the Ronin sidechain earlier this year, and launched staking of their AXS governance token a few days ago. The game uses play-to-earn mechanics to reward players with Smooth Love Potions, empowering communities around the world. In their latest update, the team reiterated their focus on three main components: rewarding value creation, co-creation and co-ownership.
The community has grown to over 2 million players without ever releasing their game on Google Play or the iOS App Store. With Axie Infinity the developers actively want to redefine what it means to work in a world where digital ownership has actual value.
What is Axie Infinity again?
Let’s quickly talk a bit about Axie Infinity. The tactical battle game uses its own, native Ronin sidechain. In the game players need to use 3 Axie NFTs to battle opponents and earn Smooth Love Potions (SLP). Players need to use SLP to breed new Axies. In addition parent Axies can only breed children a limited amount of times. SLP has a demand, while the floor price for an Axie NFT is right now more than $200. In short, you need three $200 Axies to play and earn SLP tokens.
Earning SLP tokens has become a source of income for people in developing countries. Among those countries the Philippines is leading the pack. The organization and economics behind this, is also becoming more professional. Third party organizations like Yield Guild Games are building tools and communities to really turn people into gamers earning income by playing Axie Infinity.
