Web3 role-playing adventure game Big Time has completed a year-long testing period and is expected to go live in early October.
Big Time wants to offer its large community a free-to-play experience without the poorly tuned pay-to-win mechanics that have dogged other crypto-centric games.
Big Time’s creators, which include the former CEO of Ethereum-based virtual world Decentraland and several former AAA game developers, are referring to the “player-owned economy” in which players create digital wearables and collectibles in the form of non, Trade or capture Fungible Tokens (NFTs) powered by a native big-time cryptocurrency while exploring ancient civilizations and futuristic worlds.
Once-hyped cryptocurrency-based games like Decentraland or competitive digital favorite Axie Infinity have run into problems over time; Decentraland’s metaverse world is often criticized for its lack of engagement, while Axie is vulnerable to the insidious effects of its play-to-earn model.
Ari Meilich, former CEO of Decentraland and founder of Big Time, pointed to a strong community behind his new game and a creative team at Big Time Studios that are collectively responsible for games that have attracted tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions in revenue dollars achieved.
“The Big Time community has already grown to over 350,000 people on Discord and over a quarter million on X (formerly Twitter),” Meilich said in an interview with CoinDesk. “We also have a sign-up list of over a million people and have made over $8 million in direct sales, plus anything that users have traded between themselves.”
A key differentiator, Meilich added, is Big Time’s status as the most streamed PC Web3 game on Twitch, with over 2,500 streamers having played the pre-alpha and a large presence in key markets such as Japan.
In addition to building a stable community, Big Time’s economic incentives were carefully crafted to avoid the play-to-earn trap that Axie fell into, which has led to the game being viewed as a form of “digital serfdom.” is branded as relying heavily on an army of low-wage workers in places like the Philippines.
The game’s native $BIGTIME tokens are not generated solely by time spent playing, but rather depend on skill and strategic use of resources, resulting in a meritocratic in-game economy, explained Michael Migliero , Chief Marketing Officer at Big Time Studios.
“The first version of Web3 Games had an unsustainable model,” Migliero said via email. “They needed assets that fluctuated wildly in price to access the core game. Their economies generated excessive token supplies and the tokens did not have enough utility sinks. This led to a user base that was primarily interested in profit rather than fun. They also delivered simple, superficial gaming experiences.”
Big Time’s full in-game economy, known as “preseason,” begins in early October, Migliero said.
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