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…
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.
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.