Remember when people hated on Sonic with teeth? Well, wait till you get a load of Pixelmon.
Pixelmon is supposedly an open-world game in which players train and battle Pixelmon — essentially NFT Pokémon that players can buy, sell, and trade in the metaverse. (We’ve covered similar games here.)
Gameplay demos showed scenic landscapes with swells of cinematic music, leading to a project so hyped that a collection of 10k Pixelmon was auctioned off in an hour, raising $70m, per CNET.
Some people paid $9k+ for a single Pixelmon, all of which looked like cartoon eggs upon purchase. Eggs “hatched” on Feb. 26, and…
… Big oof
The actual art looked nothing like the art that had been advertised, so much so that some claimed they’d been rug-pulled — a crypto scam where someone hypes a fake token, then disappears with the money.
The game’s developer, using the pseudonym Syber, admitted they had goofed by revealing unready art and vowed to spend $2m to fix it.
Meanwhile, the collection’s value tanked on OpenSea. As of Monday morning, the cheapest Pixelmon was ~$2.5k.
“Kevin” — a Frankenstein’s monster-esque turtle that’s being widely memed — is an exception. That NFT’s value hit $2m+ on Monday.
But who is Syber?
Per 1News, he’s Martin van Blerk, a 20-year-old New Zealander who previously raised a $50.5k Kickstarter for a game several backers have yet to receive.
But he swears Pixelmon is a real game that will be just as amazing as promised upon launch. Also, no refunds.
For now, please enjoy this hilarious tweet.
