Pegaxy, a brand-new NFT game offering, hit the market in early 2022. Conceptualized and developed back in 2021, Pegaxy’s game mechanic moves away from tedious turn-based battles into AI controlled horse racing. Yes, horse racing, with magnificent beasts descended from Pegasus himself.
Since its launch, its popularity has been rising almost non-stop and so has the value of its Play to Earn token, Vigorus (VIS) which exists on the Polygon blockchain. In this article we focus on the economics rather the gameplay, although both are innovative.
Last year we saw the rise of NFT games as they approached mainstream acceptance. Players have now been introduced to the concept of Play to Earn, and thousands, if not millions, have found a new opportunity for improving their income just by spending a few extra hours playing games.
At the forefront of it all was the game Axie Infinity, developed by Sky Mavis. Perhaps the first NFT or Play to Earn game to earn mainstream adoption, Axie Infinity was the go-to for many gamers and investors that want to get into the Play to Earn system.
But as the player base grew, problems with the economy started to surface. With an oversupply of SLP, Axie Infinity’s main utility token, the value plummeted, and the opportunity to earn was not as generous as it once was. And that is where Pegaxy comes in.
Playing to Earn with Pegaxy
In NFT Games, the utility token is the main token or currency earned by players which can then be sold or converted into fiat currencies like US Dollars or the Philippine Peso. The higher the value, the better earnings.
Earning VIS in Pegaxy, given its gameplay, feels a lot easier, a little less repetitive and less stressful, compared to Axie Infinity. The demand is also on a high as investors, and former Axie Infinity Managers, are starting to purchase or breed their own Pegas, the NFT characters for Pegaxy, to help start their own scholarship programs for the game.
This accelerating trend is what further attracts more players, managers and investors to look into Pegaxy as the next big Play to Earn titan.
And with how things are going with Axie Infinity they may just have the reason too.
Axie Infinity’s mainstream popularity did not only present Play to Earn as a viable source of income, but the challenges that it encountered also served as a blueprint for future NFT game developers. The feedback from its players regarding the gameplay, how it handles updates and balances, and most importantly, the team’s approach to balancing the economy, has been useful to developers of competing products..
One major problem with NFT games is the potential oversupply of its utility or play to earn token. With Axie Infinity, the lack of additional burning mechanisms or incentives to spend SLP is still a problem and the developers are now attempting to tackle this by introducing seasonal updates.
The number of breeders — those who burn SLP and AXS — is still less than the number of Farmers, the ones who farm for SLP. Cryptocurrency is extremely volatile but that doesn’t mean it has to be for NFT projects; the development team and the community can work together to help tackle it.
Ease of transactions helps draw people into cryptocurrency
So how does Pegaxy plan to keep the value stable? Well it’s not just about encouraging the community to burn their VIS, but also to lower the obstacles to transactions.
Part of their early 2022 plan involves integrating the Ramp Network into the game which will presumably allow for direct Vigorous to fiat conversions. This means that players or managers will not need to convert their VIS into another cryptocurrency just so they could trade them on trading platforms, before then converting them to US Dollar or Philippine Peso… but rather convert them directly within a platform.
A proper burn mechanism is yet to be in place as they are planning to have it in 2023. Pegaxy developers are planning to introduce more in-game related transactions to encourage burning and stimulate the in-game economy.
Upcoming updates such as Gacha or lootboxes, stadium sales, and even community events are all in line to be released this year. These updates, all aimed at encouraging the community to burn and spend, is something that is greatly lacking from Axie Infinity.
Axie Infinity’s approach is with seasonal updates and changes to the metagame but given the already high cost of entry, not everyone (nor even a significant part of the player base) will be able to switch Axies on a whim to keep up with the metagame.
Pegaxy’s plan, on the other hand, is not just for its current player base but for new participants as well. Gacha boxes will make owning Pegas more accessible for new players and will also make it easier for managers to expand their Pega count for future scholars.
United Gamers Guild Analysis and Perspective
Will Pegaxy’s economy work? Hopeful as we all may be, there is still another hurdle that Pegaxy will face sooner or later. The demand is high and the value of VIS is rising; however, as we take a look at previous trends, one could say that the same thing has happened to Axie Infinity. After it broke into the mainstream, Axie Infinity was on a steady rise hitting the all time high for SLP and just when things started to look particularly exciting, what followed was a few months of decline.
The key problem is still with the oversupply of the game’s utility token with little to no demand to raise the value. Sure, Pegaxy might be planning to introduce new ways for players to utilize and burn their VIS but the question still is, will this be interesting enough for players to do so?
What proper benefit can they have aside from the premise of increasing or balancing the value? Players are there to earn after all, not to spend. This will be the biggest challenge that every NFT game developer will have to face until new economic systems are introduced, especially if they are banking on the Play to Earn concept.
So will Pegaxy dethrone Axie Infinity? Stranger things have happened — Play to Earn is no longer a one-horse race.