Onetime Darling of 2021 GameFi Market returns with Overworld in Beta for 30,000 players

In a sign that the GameFi market hasn’t completely crashed, web3 game studio Illuvium has released its second game, overworldin beta on wednesday.

The beta launch is available to 30,000 of the more than 2 million players who signed up for the Illuvium waiting list, including those who have access to the second private beta of the Illuvium title. Sand.

how to play

Illuvium was a darling of the 2021 GameFi bull market, promising to deliver the industry’s first AAA-quality title at a time when most web3 games combined performance farming mechanics with tamagotchi-style gameplay.

With GameFi among those hardest hit by the 2022 bear market, Illuvium’s progress in building out its suite of interoperable games is a much-needed boon for the industry.

What is a metaverse?

Increased investment and popularity is driving the development of a 40-year vision

overworldThe gameplay of is focused on exploring the Illuvium universe and capturing NFTs in the game. Sand is an auto battle game where players can use in-game items and the monsters they capture in overworld.

“Overworld represents the culmination of all of our hard work and dedication to creating the best possible viewing experience,” said Illuium co-founder and art director Grant Warwick. “Each member of the art team has worked tirelessly on even the smallest details.”

Kieran Warick, the co-founder of Illuvium, told The Defiant that Zerothe third Illuvium game, may launch in alpha before Christmas. Sand it entered its second private beta phase on September 28.

100 million players

The Illuvium team expects to release nine interoperable games set in the illuvium universe in the next two decades. Existing Illuvium titles are released on Ethereum via the ImmutableX Layer 2 network.

Players will be able to use the same NFT-based game items and assets within each title. Illuvium has the distinction of being the fastest game studio to tag a $10 billion valuation.

“Our mission is to build the first truly AAA experience in Web3 history,” said Aaron Warwick, Illuvium Co-Founder and Game Director. “Over the next few years, we will introduce 100 million gamers to the advantages of owning their hard-earned digital assets.”

Illuvium also raised $72 million in June by selling 19,969 of the game’s 100,000 virtual plots to players. The land was sold for 4,018 ETH worth $7.2 million at the time, with the rest of the funds raised in the form of sILV2, rewards accumulated through Illuvium’s governance token, ILV. All sILV2 tokens raised through the auction were burned.

ApeCoin

Like other GameFi assets, ILV took a beating in 2022. The asset last changed hands at $47.5, down 97.5% from its December 2021 all-time high, according to CoinGecko.

ILV is the 12th largest GameFi asset with a market capitalization of $89 million. GameFi’s assets are worth $7.4 billion, up from $15.4 billion on January 27. However, ApeCoin, which launched in March, accounts for nearly $1.5 billion of GameFi’s current capitalization. Internet Computer also accounts for $1.1B and was not classified as a GameFi asset in January.