Axie Infinity Shows New Signs of Life, Despite Still-Falling NFT Sales

cryptonews.com:

The crypto-powered play-to-earn (P2E) game Axie Infinity (AXS) is again showing signs of life, after being hit hard by a price collapse in the NFT and P2E sectors in crypto. However, sales of NFTs for the game have still fallen significantly in May and June.

One sign that the worst might be over for the game is the price of the game’s AXS token, which recovered about 10% from its low of USD 11.80 on June 18. Since then, the token reached as high as USD 18.50 on June 25, before once again sliding in recent weeks.

The stabilization of the AXS token price came as Axie Infinity embarks on a journey to transition its model to what it calls play-and-earn, rather than the traditional play-to-earn.

As it turned out, play-to-earn was extremely popular among users as long as prices of the tokens used rose in value. This was especially true in developing countries, where earnings from these games were often higher than average salaries.

When token prices started falling, however, the weaknesses of the model became more obvious, and players were left with only minuscule earnings.

The new play-and-earn model is what Axie Infinity’s new Origin version is based on, Philip La, Game Product Lead at Sky Mavis, the developer of the game, wrote in a blog post from Sunday, where he addressed what he called “misleading narratives” around the game.

“Sky Mavis is aware of economic imbalances. That is a major area Origin was built to bring balance to with the introduction of more ways for players to spend on things they value. It will evolve the Axie Infinity model so it is not player growth-dependent,” La wrote.

He added that he understands “some players will leave” as Axie Infinity transitions to “the more sustainable play-and-earn model,” but said