Major blockchain game project Illuvium has released a roadmap showing significant private and public beta launches in the remainder of 2023.
The move comes after sustained criticism of the Australian-founded, globally distributed game studio for missing earlier deadlines.
Illuvium is making an ambitious suite of games, all based in the same world and sharing blockchain assets. The major games are an arena autobattler (Illuvium Arena) and an open-world creature collection game, in the vein of Pokemon (Illuvium Overworld). There is also a resource producing city-builder (Illuvium Zero) and a collectible card game (Illuvium Beyond).
The roadmap (see graphic below), indicates the launch of a studio store and new versions of Overworld and Zero within the next three months (April to June 2023).
Zero “Season 1” refers to a kind of closed beta, open only to existing Illuvium land owners, where most game elements including resources produced will be reset at the end of the season.
Note: Polemos has significant Illuvium landholdings, and invites interested players to apply to borrow land for Season 1. In line with our Editorial Policy, our landholdings have not affected this reporting.
Co-founder Kieran Warwick published the dates on the Illuvium Discord, committing to providing monthly updates and describing the roadmap as “ambitious”.
In the roadmap, the acronym “PB” stands for “private beta”. These releases are only open to approved players, and most blockchain assets produced, discovered or earned in the games will not persist. Leaderboards with token earnings for top players will not yet be working.
Community conversations indicate the “Illuvium Public Beta Launch” in Q4 (October to December 2023) will see resources, skins and leaderboards operational.
Illuvium has confirmed that with the general public beta launch all three games will be generally accessible, with no beta key needed.
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Also significant is the planned release of a mobile version of Arena in Q2 (April-June) 2024.
Illuvium was disturbed last week by questions surrounding its financial situation, with community concern that cash reserves would run out before revenue-generating games could be released.
Financial data released by Kieran Warwick showed the company is currently spending $12.7m a year on staff, contractors and software licensing. It holds $15.4m in cash, mostly in stablecoin cryptocurrency.
Warwick later pledged a significant amount (300k ILV, or $18m) from his own Illuvium token pool to create an emergency fund should it be required to finance operations.
The roadmap was generally well received by the Illuvium community, who have in the past been disappointed by the studio’s tendency to miss deadlines. Illuvium Zero was first promised for release in 2021, and a February deadline for Season 1 was also missed.
