NFT game Pixelmon announced on its official Discord channel that the company has halted all game development work, and relevant employees have been laid off, marking the official end of a project that raised approximately $70 million.

Pixelmon raised about $70 million through NFT minting in February 2022, using a Dutch auction with a starting price of 3 ETH (approximately $8,100); the unveiling of the artwork on OpenSea after minting faced strong backlash from the community, with many buyers believing the pixel-style NFTs received were severely inconsistent with the promotion, and some angrily labeled the project as a "scam."

Project founder Syber publicly admitted at the time that "the OpenSea reveal was a terrible mistake," emphasizing that the NFT images "could be updated" and promised that the raised funds would be used for game development, with an internal test version to be launched within the year (2022); however, the internal testing plan was subsequently delayed to the first quarter of 2023, with the full game version's target pushed to the end of 2023.

At the end of 2022, Web3 venture studio LiquidX acquired a 60% stake in the Pixelmon project, with co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis appointed as CEO to lead the reconstruction. The team revamped the previously criticized rough pixel modeling, upgrading to detailed 3D art, and planned to incorporate virtual land NFTs, utility tokens, and governance tokens; however, the classically mocked character "Kevin" unexpectedly gained popularity, leading the team to intentionally retain its original low-poly style.

Despite undergoing a team overhaul and art redesign, the core game has never been launched as scheduled, and there have been no significant updates disclosed in the following years; now, the company has announced a complete halt to development and team layoffs via a Discord announcement. It has been over four and a half years since the initial $70 million minting, and the project has never delivered the promised complete game product.

For early minters, this means that the Pixelmon series NFTs they hold have completely lost any "future in-game utility value". The secondary market had already been declining due to multiple project delays, and the official announcement of development cessation is likely to further depress the liquidity and price of existing holdings; LiquidX, as the later entrant holding a 60% stake, will see its initial investment essentially go to zero with the project's termination, becoming the last party to bear the burden in this over $70 million fundraising effort.

Source: Public Information