A beta version of Illuvium: Zero will be released tomorrow by the Australian blockchain gaming studio Illuvium.
Zero joins two other games from the team, Illuvium Land and Illuvium Land on mobile and PC. Both Illuvium: Arena, an open world monster battler that launched in December, and Illuvium: Overworld, an open world game, are currently in beta testing. Access to all three is limited currently, but the company expects to open it up to the public fully by 2023.
In Zero, players can build and manage their own “digital industrial complex.” Land NFT holders will be able to sell fuel obtained from their NFTs on the game’s marketplace.
Australia-based Illuvium is building a blockchain-based game using Unreal Engine 5 on ImmutableX’s blockchain.
Mainstream competition
There are many mainstream gaming titles that attract millions of players a day, but even the most popular blockchain games usually fail to reach that number in a month.
Among the reasons for the game’s lack of uptake have been cited as a lack of interest in its content, a dislike of crypto, and difficult onboarding processes. In spite of the limited gameplay of some of the top web3 games currently available, some of them are attracting web3 gamers with financial products such as yields and cash-out tokens embedded in the games.
MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) may take years to develop for ambitious gaming studios.
Most top gaming studios remain wary. Mojang Studios and Rockstar Games, makers of Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto, have banned creators from using NFTs in their games.
Steam creators Valve and Microsoft have also criticized the use of NFT and blockchain in gaming.