Axie Infinity Announce a New Controversial Update. AXS and SLP Drop -7%

In a recent blog post, the developers of Axie Infinity, the most popular NFT game in the crypto ecosystem, were pleased to reveal that the fighting monsters were the most traded NFT collection of all time and thanked the players for this achievement.

Now, just two weeks after that post, the Axie Infinity team announced the 1.1.0a update, with changes to the game’s dynamics… and this part wasn’t too pretty for some.

The Controversial 1.1.0a Update

The game update consists of three main aspects.

First on the list are the traditional technological changes: Fundamentally, the Axie Infinity team made some changes to the Ronin Block Explorer along with some bug fixes. It is important to remember that recently, Axie Infinity’s Growth Lead Jeff Zirlin revealed that the team was working on a DEX tol facilitate the exchange of tokens inside the Axie Infinity ecosystem.

Second, are changes to the game dynamics: The new update will make it possible for players to invite their friends to battle.

And last but not least, there were some changes to the game’s economy: The developers have been quite busy trying to tweak the game’s tokenomics. Recently, players and traders were granted the ability to stake AXS, the game’s governance token. Cryptopotato published an in-depth guide on how to stake AXS.

Now, this update brings even more changes to the economic side of the game: After the update, when someone sells an Axie, the monster’s level will be automatically reset to level 1. The developers also announced the decision to prohibit players with less than 800 MMR from receiving any rewards for participating in the adventure and arena modes or even completing the daily quests.

The decision affects new and low-ranked players, as well as those who have decided to focus on the adventure mode, leaving aside the battles.

Reactions have been mixed, but apparently, the public has taken it with annoyance. While some claim that these changes are a low blow against bots and SLP farmers, a considerable number of users complained that developers were hurting the most novice players -something that becomes even more apparent considering that Axie Infinity’s lead developer acknowledged that nowadays it’s very difficult to start playing the game.

AXS and SLP React to The News

AXS seems to have reacted relatively well overall (even though pthere was a drop in prices inmediatly after the announcement). The governance token has remained above the EMA20 since September 28, evidencing bullish momentum among the markets.

The last daily candle closed in red with a -7.88% loss cancelling out almost in full the gains from October 14. AXS is currently trading at $127 and the candlestick in formation shows signs of a recovery back to the upside.

SLP, however, is another story. SLP is the token that players receive as a reward for winning battles or completing daily quests.

The price of SLP has been in free fall, remaining below the EMA20 since July 28. A recovery on October 4 lifted the price above this benchmark, and the token has remained very close to it over the past week.

SLP is currently trading at $0.07, down -7.55% on the last daily candlestick.

Although it is too early to draw conclusions it seems that the decision makers in the game are more excited than the players themselves about this new update.