Gods Unchained puts focus on play-to-earn model

Game studio Immutable is changing the way Gods Unchained works and will now focus more on a play-to-earn model. The launch of a marketplace this week is the first step into that direction. The Australian game studio wants to ‘embed play-to-earn into the very fabric of the game’, as they explained in a blog post.

Play-to-earn allows gamers to earn items with real world value just by playing Gods Unchained. The studio already experimented with this during the Genesis season, which ended a few days ago.

To move forward, the studio also needs to take a few steps back. For example core card collections and leveling up progress will be reset, while forging cards will be temporarily disabled. To make up for this reset, qualifying beta users will get an exclusive card called ‘Blessed Ibis’.

How play-to-earn works

Gamers can earn card packs by leveling up their profile. Playing and winning games earn them ‘plain core cards’. Fusing two of those cards together with a resource called flux, will make them eligible for trading. While leveling up, players also get access to more heroes. Giving them the option to test each of the heroes as they level up.

Flux is not yet available in the game. However, gamers can already earn all the cards they would need to create those cards and sell them. Forging only works when one has multiple copies of the same card.

Evolution coming to Gods Unchained

Gamers who hold cards from the Genesis season of trading card game Gods Unchained own something that will become increasingly rare. This new game mechanic is tentatively called Evolution. It allows players to generate new, desirable assets in exchange for older cards, including the ones from the Genesis season.

Evolution will be a feature that’s only available for a limited time. The studio will declare a series of cards, which are the materials for the creation of something new. The assets these cards evolve into, can be anything, ranging from boards and trinkets to packs with new cards or perhaps an ultra-rare, super powerful card. Because cards disappear after the Evolution, these Gods Unchained cards from the Genesis season will become increasingly rare.

Creating economy within a game

The biggest challenge from Immutable will be to create an economy within their card game. Genesis cards will never be produced, so as long as there’s a demand for them there will be value. However, core cards are easy for everybody to obtain and there’s likely not going to be a lack of them. A system like Evolution allows the studio to remove created core cards and Genesis cards from the game, potentially creating more value to players holding certain cards.

It’s unlikely that this will happen without struggle or mistakes. Some cards might become very rare, other cards will never increase in value. There might even be rare cards that don’t have any value, depending on their usage in the game. Without a doubt Gods Unchained is an interesting product that could copy the economy of table top games like Magic The Gathering.

The existence of mechanics like forging and evolution make it easier for gamers to start playing the game, but make it harder to create value. Don’t be surprised if Immutable will create many incentives to destroy your cards. There’s even an option that only certain cards will exist after a season ends, even though this is obviously not set in stone yet.

Immutable aiming for mainstream

Game studio Immutable recently got a 15 million dollar investment. With this money they need to make their game become a mainstream hit. In recent weeks they supported a banned professional Hearthstone player. This gave the game some media attention. In addition they organized an online tournament with eight prominent game streamers on Twitch.tv to get the name out about their game.

In addition their Genesis season has ended. They’ve sold for over 33.333 ETH worth of digital cards. At the current price this would be over 6 million dollars. Currently Immutable isn’t selling card packs. They will start doing this again in the coming weeks or months.

Gods Unchained recently has seen an increase in its player base. Early October there were ~200 players per day, which doubled after #BlizzardGate. Nowadays there are between 400 and 500 players per day, sometimes peaking towards 600 or even 800. However, Immutable didn’t get 15 million dollars from investors to have 500 people playing their game. Gods Unchained needs to attract millions of players when it officially launches somewhere late 2020.

Originally published at NEDEROB.