Sky Mavis, the developer of Axie Infinity, has reduced its workforce by 21% to refocus on its primary products and align with its long-term vision. CEO Trung Nguyen clarified over the weekend that the decision was unrelated to the company’s budget or financial stability.
He stated on X, “Instead, it is a strategic move that enables Sky Mavis to gain a more focused approach and position itself for hypergrowth in 2025 and beyond.”
We anticipate that the reductions will affect approximately 50 employees out of the 250-member global team. Severance packages and job placement assistance will be provided to the affected personnel.
The Impact of Sky Mavis on Gaming with Axie Infinity
Sky Mavis, established in Vietnam, revolutionized blockchain gaming by introducing Axie Infinity in 2018. The initiative was spearheaded by a team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and developers to integrate blockchain technology with traditional gaming mechanisms.
They established a novel genre in the industry by introducing the “play-to-earn” model, which allows users to earn cryptocurrency through gaming.
Sky Mavis’s most significant accomplishment is Axie Infinity, inspired by games such as Pokémon. Axies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are unique creatures that players accumulate, breed, trade, and battle. Their distinctive characteristics enhance the collectibility and value of each Axie within the game’s ecosystem.
The play-to-earn model of the game captivated global attention, resulting in the game’s enormous popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. During its peak, the tournament attracted millions of participants, with daily active users exceeding hundreds of thousands.
New Axie Game, Marketplace, and Developer Ecosystem Expansion in Focus
In 2022, hackers attacked Sky Mavis, seizing crypto worth nearly $600 million from the Ronin Network, a blockchain designed explicitly for Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis promptly committed to compensating the affected users to reestablish player trust. To mitigate the financial losses, it secured $150 million in a funding round that Binance spearheaded.
In the future, Nguyen Trung stated that the company intends to enhance the Ronin wallet and expand the Ronin Network to accommodate more developers.
Additionally, the organization wants to prioritize the development of the Mavis marketplace, release a new Axie game, and investigate potential opportunities in the Web3 game publishing sector.
