Axie Infinity Hikes Marketplace Fees to Reward Game Players with ‘Creator Codes’

ERROR

In a move to crank up tokenomics, Axie Infinity launched a new program today to share the wealth with game players.

The leading play-to-earn game, plans to increase its marketplace fees to 5.25% and distribute the extra revenue to Axie’s community of content creators, the project said last week. 

The fee hike will go live on March 7 in tandem with the launch of “creator codes”. When users transacting on the Axie marketplace supply a creator code, they  will collect 1% of the transaction’s value. If a creator code is not supplied, the Axie Community Treasury will claim the full 5.25% fee on transactions in the marketplace.

Sustainable Source

Axie says the increased marketplace fee is intended to “provide a sustainable source of funding for marketing and growth initiatives going forward.” 

Kookoo Crypto TV, a community manager at play-to-earn collective Yield Guild Games and a social media influencer with more than 100,000 followers, said introducing incentives “a good move for any game.” But he warned that the team must be selective about which creators they onboard. 

“Some of them will abuse the system,” Kookoo told The Defiant. “They could farm ‘likes,’ or farm followers in any social media, and then just pretend that they are very popular, but actually, the engagement is very low. They could also use clickbait or sponsored ads just to promote their creator code.” 

The Ultimate Beginners Guide To The Axie Infinity Game and Marketplace

He suggested that Axie introduce a vetting process for creator codes. “If they’re going to do it right, they really need to onboard qualified content creators and give them rewards based on their activity, or based on their engagement,” Kookoo said. “The game developers should put emphasis on equipping those new content creators that are aligned with their values and the vision of their game.” 

Quinn Campbell, Axie Infinity’s marketing lead, told The Defiant that the application process for creators seeking a creator code “is still evolving based on community input.” 

He added that the team is discussing basing the application and review process on factors “including follower count, portfolio of Axie content (both quality and quantity), general fit, values alignment, quality of application and more.” 

Axie predicts the launch of creator codes will incentivize the proliferation of new social media content promoting the game. The team said that its community creators have been a major source of growth for the project, including contributions towards “education, onboarding, and culture.”

Labor of Love

“Axie’s content creators have worked hard to evangelize Axie,” Campbell said.  “To onboard & educate new players, and to build & lead sub-communities. For most this is a passion project which is juggled alongside nine-to-fives and other projects. It’s a tough role that has largely been a labor of love.”

“It’s really important that we build inclusive reward mechanisms for Creators, as well as a clear path to economic sustainability in their content creator careers… We’re working closely with the community to talk through these options and select the best solution,” he added.

The news comes as the Axie Marketplace has suffered declining activity since January, with 30-day volume declining by a third, to 23,660 transactions from 27,400 users worth roughly $13.5M, according to DappRadar

Breeding Fee

Marketplace fees are one of two revenue sources for the Axie Community Treasury. It  also collects 0.5 AXS as a breeding fee when new Axies are created by players. The Axie Community Treasury has amassed more than 21 million AXS and 55,000 ETH worth over $1B at current prices.

Governance over the treasury is expected to be divested to AXS stakers in the future.

Campbell noted that the staking system may see future upgrades designed “to give better rewards to those that have measurably added value to the Axie ecosystem prior to claiming,” adding that “there is still much research and experimentation to be done in this aspect of governance.”

“The stakers who are not players or interested in participating in governance could be able to delegate their required “work” to other parties,” he continued. “This might lead to a future where guilds or corporations with massive amounts of AXS will need to look for talented players who can ensure a high enough Axie score to collect weekly yield.”

What's your reaction?
Minimum 4 characters