Renowned blockchain game Illuvium will be launched on Epic Games tomorrow, marking the first step of blockchain games targeting mainstream players. After two years of bear market, the industry is gradually maturing, and the days when game quality is evaluated by playing the game rather than just reading the whitepaper may not be far away.
Contents:
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What is Illuvium?
Illuvium Game Ecosystem
PVE Mode
Illuvium Released on Epic Games
Illuvium Beta 3 Targets Mainstream Users
Epic Games is Crypto-Friendly Platform
Web3 Games Show Their True Potential
Illuvium is a 3A blockchain game project established in 2020, built on the Immutable X network. The initial game setting is similar to the mechanics of Pokémon, where players can capture various Illuvials (creatures in the game) through adventures and battles, enhance their overall abilities, and engage in PvP battles with other players.
However, after several years of product updates, the existing game mechanics have become more complex and rich. Currently, the Illuvium game ecosystem consists of four main games:
Illuvium Overworld:
Open-world game
Illuvium Arena:
Auto battler game
Illuvium Beyond:
Card collecting game
Illuvium Zero:
City development game
Although each game is independent, their gameplay mechanics are interconnected. For example, in the “Zero” game, players can use blueprints obtained through land development as items in the “Overworld” game. Illuvials captured in the “Overworld” game can then increase the player’s chances of winning in PvP battles in the “Arena” game.
Illuvium’s in-game items, lands, and Illuvials are almost all tradable NFTs. The official has established the illuviDEX exchange to provide a trading platform for players.
The game’s economic ecosystem primarily relies on players purchasing NFTs and converting them into gameplay rewards through the PVE mechanism. However, the official version of Illuvium is expected to be free for all players, aiming to attract a larger market. Free players will not be able to convert their rewards into crypto assets.
The official release of the Illuvium game is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.
Illuvium will enter Beta 3 public testing tomorrow (28th), and this time it will be open to players on the Epic Games platform, which has a monthly active user base of over 60 million.
This public testing is significant for Illuvium, as it may be the final testing phase of the Beta version, and with the launch on Epic Games, it finally succeeds in bringing Web3 games to the mainstream market. There is an opportunity to break through the legal gray area of crypto assets. Regardless of the outcome, this event has already pushed the Web3 Game industry further.
According to interviews with foreign media, Kieran Warwick, co-founder of Illuvium, believes that free distribution on mainstream platforms is the first step in large-scale adoption and has the potential to witness the substantial impact of Web3 on existing business models.
The game content released on Epic Games this time includes “Overworld,” “Arena,” and “Zero.” However, it is important to note that the records of this Beta 3 public testing will not be retained, and it will not be linked to blockchain assets. Users do not need to prepare a wallet. All real-chain data will be connected and implemented in the official version.
Due to the special economic nature of blockchain games, there have always been concerns in terms of regulations, and the potential risks to existing business models should not be underestimated. Therefore, most traditional game industry players are still observing or even rejecting Web3. Steam is a representative case in point.
However, Epic Games is actively promoting many Web3 businesses, including the Fortnite metaverse project and opening applications for Web3 games to be listed. This demonstrates the company’s expectations for the industry and has attracted Illuvium to join the platform.
In the past, many high-profile projects experienced significant token price declines during the bear market, making the market appear conservative in the past year or two. However, the surviving projects now seem more down-to-earth and are still working hard to improve the games and achieve their goals. We can expect to see the achievements of other game projects one after another in the future.
What remains is to face the market test head-on. After the hype of tokens is removed, the gameplay itself becomes increasingly important in attracting players. Perhaps it is time to actually play the game and experience it, rather than just analyzing the whitepaper.
Epic Games
GameFi
Illuvium
Immutable X
Web3 Game