Azuki’s upcoming game gets pricey card packs

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The anime-inspired Ethereum NFT collection Azuki is releasing its Alpha Starter Decks this week. These decks consist of mystery loot, booster packs, and cards that will be playable in the brand’s upcoming trading card game (TCG).

Each box — either a red “Shao” box or a blue “Raizan” box — will cost the equivalent of $95 of the ANIME token. Only Azuki community members will be able to buy these boxes, based on their predetermined status level. The eligibility snapshot was taken Tuesday morning, so it’s too late to qualify if you don’t own any Azuki NFTs.

Azuki’s Games Division Manager Jon Chao is credited as the mind behind the upcoming game. He’s been working for Azuki since late 2023. Previously, he worked as a game producer at Timi Studio Group, Riot Games and Ubisoft.

“A lot of collectors, a lot of degens [are] in our community,” Chao said in a video interview, speaking on why the Azuki team chose to build a TCG.

“I do think we face major challenges that Pokemon or One Piece do not have… [for example,] they have so much content and lore,” Chao said. “All that can just be translated into card art and gameplay mechanics quite easily.”

There are three allocation tiers for this Azuki drop: Grand Tier, Legend Tier and Order Tier. Grand grants you the ability to buy one deck, Legend grants the ability to buy up to four, and Order tier members can buy up to eight decks — if you feel like dropping $800 on cards for an unreleased game.

Decks will come with a rulebook, but the team isn’t releasing its full guide on how to play the upcoming game just yet. That means we don’t know to what extent this game could feel like it’s pay-to-win when it finally comes out.

If you got an allocation but want more packs (or didn’t get an allocation at all), you can enter their raffle to try to get one.

After checking out, buyers will be given an NFT signifying that they purchased a pack. Physical cards won’t be sent out until July at the earliest, according to a post from the team.

These proof-of-purchase NFTs can be traded before the physical card packs are issued, but Azuki warns traders that you do so at your own risk. Technically, though, if you get someone’s proof-of-purchase NFT, you would be able to claim a pack when redemption time comes.

The Alpha Starter Decks drop begins March 27 at 1 pm ET, and will be live until April 3 at 1 pm ET.

The Azuki team previously teased this drop two weeks ago via a blog post on their site, along with the note that different starter packs of cards will become available to the public later this year. They’re promising Waifus, too, don’t worry.

Chao said that more than a third of the game’s budget has gone to designing its artwork — though they are outsourcing some of that art design to third-party firms.

They’re also trying to release some of the cards as physical-backed tokens, or PBTs, meaning each physical card is tied to a token on the blockchain.

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Azuki waifu card design in progress

The first Azuki collection launched back in 2022, in the form of 10,000 PFP NFTs. In 2023, they also launched the Azuki Elementals, a supplementary PFP collection with 20,000 NFTs. Azuki’s verified OpenSea page lists over a dozen different NFT collections in total, with some that redeemable for IRL merch or other NFTs.

The Azuki Elementals were seen as controversial at the time of launch because of the quality of the art, as well as the perception that the additional PFPs in a similar style were diluting the value of the original collection. The team made $38 million in revenue from that second launch alone.