How Atia's Legacy will mirror EVE Online's economy

GAMING CHRONICLES 110

Raiden

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Memento | Oscar

Mar 12, 2025

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TLDR :

Axie introduced Atia’s Legacy
More crypto games close up shop
Wildcard drops the WC token and Wildpaper

🗞️ NEWS

AXIE IS THE NEW AXIE

We all know that Axie announced Atia's Legacy, the Axie MMO, last week. Let’s break down what we know about the game and what this all means:
- Atia’s Legacy will be an MMO, where players can play minigames, fish, farm, explore (“an open world”), forage, collect resources, craft, and build an army
- The game has been in development for less than a year (as of May ‘24), and this trailer marks the first public view of the game they ever shared
  - More info on the playtests:
    - “Early iterations of the game will also start by setting up core gameplay features, and guild wars and social coordination will be the endgame content”
    - If everything goes to plan, the Alpha that will come later this year will have squad-based combat, dynamic progression, immersive PvE, resources and crafting, social interaction, and guild wars
- Furthermore, the article mentions:
  - The game will be cross-platform and mobile from the game
  - It must have social coordination and warfare (e.g. guild wars) to make sure there’s enough endgame content
  - The game is meant to be played with friends
  - The game will have a deep integration with the existing Axie NFTs and economy (including Land and Mystic Axies)
Jihoz shed some light on the question of “why an MMO?”, through 4 key principles:
- Player-driven production and markets: players will play the role of specialized producers, producing goods and resources essential to others
  - This creates interdependencies between players and promotes trading. Plus assumes there will be a deeper skilling system
- Resource scarcity and distribution: promotes exploration, territorial control, and trade
  - I guess this will have something to do with both Guild Wars and Land NFTs
- Destruction as a sink: Guild Wars will lead to asset destruction, driving production and balancing resource accumulation
  - Just like how in Eve Online (mass scale) destruction plays an important role in sinking resources and creating memorable (movie-like) moments
- Social coordination: Guild coordination and meaningful conflicts with real losses keep players engaged, supported by strong social structures
  - Guilds or groups play an important role in any MMO, and it seems like Atia’s Legacy will have features to support social dynamics
Atia’s Legacy seems to have the right ingredients to succeed, IP, a fanbase, and a fun-looking game, so far
- But we still have to remember that the game is in early development, and I wouldn’t expect a full release before late 2026

MORE CRYPTO GAMES CLOSE UP SHOP

Crypto gaming can’t catch a break, in the past few weeks:
- Midnight Society shut down
- Mystery Society shut down
- Valeria Games shut down
- Illuvium downsized
- Seedify and Seedworld downsized
And this week, we get 3 more announcements from studios closing shop:
- Goombles: The team announced they “discontinued active development on Goombles”, a mobile tower defense game with a candy theme, part of the ADA network
  - Only 339 players installed the game, which only seemed available via a Google Drive page and never launched in one of the app stores
- Battlebound: Battlebound announced its closure just yesterday, shutting down the studio and pausing the development of Anterris
  - “Ultimately, we're in the same position as many studios before us, closing our doors due to remarkably challenging market dynamics.”
  - The studio started with Evaverse a couple of years ago, a hoverboard-racing game. Anterris is a creature collecting game that was supposed to launch on Monad, and even had a playtest last February
- LE7EL: Announced its closure a couple of days ago. After a team member abruptly left during its fundraising phase, it made it impossible to secure the resources needed to continue
  - LE7EL created decentralized infrastructure, which powered a handful of games
  - They had a live token that only launched in December ‘24
As these announcements are becoming more “normalized” I foresee more studios “admitting defeat” soon…

WILDCARD AND $WC

Wildcard dropped its Wildpaper 2.0 with a bunch of new info on the upcoming $WC token:
- $WC is mentioned to be “the first token” distributed via Thousands.tv (the crypto-native streaming platform). This token will provide an example for future tokens launched and distributed via the network
- Wildcard has been in development for 7 years, with over $50M invested to date. Made by the developers of Age of Empires and Halo Wars
  - $46M was raised from Paradigm, Griffin, Playful Studios, and Sabrina Hahn
Economy:
- The Web2-side of the game will monetize using off-chain cards and card packs
- When it comes to the Web3-side, the $WC token will take the center stage:
  - “The $WC economy merges strategy, ownership, and competition into an interactive experience where $WC holders stake, predict, and compete for the biggest prizes in the Wildcard universe.”
  - $WC will power a “meta game” specifically made for the audience of fans, collectors, and speculators.
    - The meta game will launch alongside Wildcard Early Access, coinciding with the token becoming tradeable (something called “Airlock”)
      - WC tokens will be distributed using Airlock, which is a mechanism that initially disables trading, until the Airlock is opened. The aim is to have sufficient awareness and liquidity before the tokens become tradeable to support a healthy launch
      - Tokens will be distributed via the Thousands Network and Thousands.tv platform. The first event being the Wildcard Exhibition series, where you can earn as a player, viewer, and fan based on engagement and participation
  - More on distribution:
    - A retroactive airdrop of 20% of the total supply was distributed to Wildcard’s earliest and most loyal community members
    - The Exhibition Series will serve as multiple distribution events
    - There will be a Series Finale, which marks Wildcard’s transition to Early Access
    - At the launch of Early Access, 100% of the $WC supply will be distributed to the community
  - Utility:
    - Players will be able to stake and spend their tokens in the Wildclash (competition between Houses)
      - Higher stakes grant player voting power in faction decisions, stronger draft picks (of Champions), and the opportunity to participate in high-stakes, speculative games
    - At the end of each season, a leaderboard will determine the share of the Wildprize ($WC prize pool)
  - Wildcard Organization (Wildorgs)
    - Wildorgs will be player-owned businesses within the Wildcard game and IP. Similar to the franchise model in traditional sports.
    - This opportunity will only be available for the most dedicated WC holders
  - Lastly, the tokenomics:
    - As mentioned, 100% of the supply will go to the community
    - Initial liquidity pools will be funded by revenue from user spend and will scale in proportion to player activity
Haven’t seen 0% of the token being allocated to the team or VCs yet before, and Wildcard seems one of the few (or only) teams which is uniquely positioned to pull this off. Yet, the approach brings multiple critical questions…
- Chris Heatherly asked a few great questions on the approach, answered by Paul here (also when it comes to team and investor alignment)