By Nathan Ferguson
Axie Infinity – a play-to-earn game by Sky Mavis – underwent a downfall in the regular user base thereof even in advance of the latest hack of Ronin Bridge that witnessed nearly $600M in losses. The number of regularly active consumers of the game elevated to its peak in the previous November, however, dropped by 45% till 28th March of this year, as per the latest data shared by Sky Mavis almost a day in advance of the hack of 600 million.
The respective decrease has been specifically noteworthy after the update of the game in December, as well as on 23rd March when USD Coin and ETH of $600 million worth were stolen by the hackers from Ronin (known as a sidechain that provides rapid in-game transfers). In December, a swift selloff was seen in the in-game utility token called Smooth Love, resulting in a decrease in the price.
The enhancing decline in Axie’s user base
Regular earnings fell, and hence did the interest of people in this game. The customers who purchased at the increased prices began to worry and suspect, as suggested by a Nansen-based data journalist Martin Lee. He added that people are pursuing the time to receive the Origin patch of the game that attempts to renovate, improve, and enhance the gameplay’s depth.
Axie Infinity’s developer, Sky Mavis, as well as Ronin, have mentioned compensating players in the shortest possible time however have not given any particulars regarding the strategy for doing this. Hence the apprehensions of the players are mounting and they are shifting toward the rest of the games, and the number of the players of Axie Infinity is continuously getting lowered. On 4th April, the hacker transferred up to 1,400 ETH to TornadoCash (a facility that generates ambiguity in the link between the destination and source of the crypto transfers.
Difference between conventional and P2E games
In just a short time a remarkable place has been secured by play-to-earn (P2E) games, permitting the players to utilize computers and smartphones to make money by taking benefit from blockchain technology. A conventional game enables the players to obtain assets, latest skins, cards, or power upgrades, which are administered by the developer of the game and there is little value for these assets outside the game environment.
In P2E games, players are provided with digital assets (NFTs) that they can exchange for real-world currency, along with disseminating them among the entirety of the players. The respective facility is known as Web3 or decentralized web.