Is the Pixelmon NFT Project a Scam? Disappointing Artwork Reveal After Hype

The Pixelmon team promised to build a top-quality NFT adventure game set in the metaverse. The project raised millions of dollars from investors jostling to be part of what could be the next big thing in the crypto space. But after a disappointing artwork reveal, investors wonder whether the Pixelmon NFT project is a scam.

The NFT business is booming. The big brands and celebrities you think about are in it already and more are joining the bandwagon. The market forecast shows that global NFT sales will hit $35 billion in 2022 and grow to $80 billion by 2025. The market was valued at just above $20 billion in 2021. Nobody wants to be left out of the NFT boom.

Inspired by Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs that started small and grew big, investors are eager to find the next NFT blockbuster. Therefore, when Pixelmon debuted and put out a compelling concept of its play-to-earn NFT game, many investors rushed to it.

The Pixelmon team persuaded investors to pay more than $8,000 in Ethereum for the 3D NFTs that it would release at a later time. At the end of the day, investors put some $70 million into the project. The team marketed the NFT project as a blue-chip type. In fact, the project’s founder Syber assured the community that this was going to be a sound investment and that they didn't need to bother with doing their own due diligence.

But when the much-anticipated reveal time came, investors got the shock of their life. Pixelmon’s NFTs look so bad that investors quickly took to social media to complain. For some, it turned out to be a classic case of a project overpromising and under-delivering. For others, they felt that they had been scammed because the NFTs didn’t look anywhere near what the Pixelmon team touted in their concept.

While some disappointed investors have been quick to label Pixelmon as a scam, the project’s founder Syber has explained that what happened was a mistake. Syber admits that the quality of the NFTs that Pixelmon revealed was bad, but he promises that better things are coming.

Syber said that Pixelmon is looking for a reputable studio to redesign the NFT artwork. The founder also told investors that the NFTs are updateable, so the quality of the artwork should continue to improve.

In a typical crypto scam, project founders take the money from the people and disappear. Therefore, Pixelmon seems to be a different case because the team behind the project is still there to answer investors’ questions. It remains to be seen whether the promised NFT artwork redesign will come and restore investors’ confidence in the project.

In the meantime, disappointed investors are selling Pixelmon NFTs cheaply on OpenSea in an apparent bid to get rid of the ugly artwork. That has caused the floor price to drop sharply. Many Pixelmon NFTs are listed for only a tiny fraction of what investors paid to purchase them from the project. If the project can overcome its current troubles and explode, investors purchasing the NFTs cheaply now could make a fortune.