Affyn CEO On How Its P2E Game Can Dethrone Axie Infinity If Its Vision Is Executed Well

Gabriel Sieng
April 6, 2022
10 mins read

GameFi is by far the most exciting and innovative use case for crypto. Both venture capital and retail investors have poured billions into this space and it became one of the major drivers of cryptocurrency adoption.

With many crypto gaming projects on the rise, many are labelled as cash grabs as they are built on pure ponzinomics that work exactly like a pyramid scheme.

Affyn is one of the many games scheduled to be launched this year. But is it a cash grab or will it come out on top as the next Axie Infinity?

Creating a common ground for the community to come together

According to Lucaz, CEO and Founder of Affyn, the idea behind the startup was to be a common ground where the community can come together and have fun.

“I’ve spent most of my time and attention building a career and neglecting my friends and family since 2012. It was only in 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, that I started bonding with my family,” said Lucaz.

“Those moments reminded me of all the good times I had with my friends playing games, and that made me realize that many things come and go, but what truly matters and gives actual meaning in life are our friends and family.”

“I’ve always liked the idea of a community, where people get together for a common purpose and have fun together. That was when the initial idea and concept for Affyn’s Play-to-Earn game came to mind,” he added.

What is Affyn?

Lucaz told Chain Debrief that most play-to-earn (P2E) games currently are not just facing the issue of an unsustainable outflow but also lack real-world utility.

He thus believes that Affyn has the solution to this problem, and the team plans to revolutionise the P2E category.

“It is going to lead the entire industry into mainstream adoption, and this is what Affyn aims to become,” shared Lucaz.

Affyn is a P2E NFT game built on top of the polygon blockchain. It is driven by four key pillars: P2E that is Free-to-Play, sustainable game economy, mobile geolocation-based, and real-world token utility.

Unlike the many Play-to-Earn games out there with a high barrier of entry, Affyn allows anyone with a working mobile phone to start earning without paying a single cent.

The metaverse is mapped out based on the real world such that gamers can participate and explore the metaverse based on their geolocation tagging.

The native token $FYN can be used like fiat in the real world to purchase goods and services from vendors. Those who use $FYN as a form of payment will be entitled to special privileges and benefits.

The core notion of Affyn is still geared towards a sustainable game economy where the rewards are able to retain existing players while at the same time attracting new players.

Issue of the current GameFi landscape

One of the fundamental issues that GameFi is facing is the sustainability of the game economy. Many games have failed in the past as they are unable to overcome this sustainability issue.

Early investors and gamers would start dumping the tokens when the price start to peak. When the number of sellers outweighs the buyers, the game economy would start to collapse.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced throughout our whole journey was to resolve the sustainability issue of the Play-to-Earn game economy. We started challenging the sustainability issue in 2020 and have hit many roadblocks because there was no successful case study to reference.”
Lucaz Lee, CEO & Founder of Affyn

Even Axie Infinity, one of the leading P2E games, is still trying to find a solution to this issue. It is extremely challenging and Axie Infinity is constantly tweaking its model to ensure that the economy remains stable.

Affyn believes it has found the solution to solve the mind-boggling sustainability issue. According to Lucaz, Affyn will be able to “dethrone Axie Infinity” if its vision is executed well.

Sustainable P2E model

The answer is utility. In the current landscape, most cryptocurrencies lack real-world utility. Users have to cash out cryptocurrency into fiat for them to be able to use it in the real world.

One of the biggest features of Affyn is the ability to use its native token in the real world. Instead of cashing out the in-game currency, players will be able to use the token to pay for goods and services.

This would bridge the gap between the metaverse and the real world. It would combat the issue of sustainability as it forms a closed-loop economy.

Looking to the future

Many in the community are curious about the abrupt departure of Christina Yip, ex-CMO, and Franklin Chuah, ex-CTO, of Affyn.

When asked about the departure of Affyn’s CTO and CMO, Lucaz told Chain Debrief that “Nothing has been affected at all and the team’s morale is very high now as we have many new additions and we have been expanding very quickly with 12 new confirmed hires with more to come.”

Affyn raised over US$20 million through several fundraising rounds and at one point it was valued at US$1 billion in valuation. It is backed by more than 50 different VCs, institutional investors and partners.

Expect to see more new and exciting announcements in Q2/3 of 2022.

Affyn would be in the Alpha development stage with the development of Nexus World and NFT marketplace commencing.

Pre-sale land is also scheduled to be out in the same quarter. More details will be released closer to the date.

Q2/Q3 of 2023 would see the full release of Beta and hopefully, gamers can get to experience the 3D metaverse. At the same time, special real-world events and parties will be launched with many activities and collaborations.

“For most people, one of the greatest successes is raising more than USD 20 Million from our fundraising campaign. However, the greatest success for me so far is having a team that believes and is excited about the vision of Affyn.”
Lucaz Lee, CEO & Founder of Affyn