Web3 chess game developer shutters play-to-earn due to ‘heavy cheating’

Developers of the blockchain chess game Immortal Game are pulling the plug on its play-to-earn (P2E) and nonfungible token (NFT) features due to rampant cheating.

According to the Dec. 13 announcement, while developers continue to build Immortal Game as an online chess hub and may incorporate further decentralized technologies in the future, its goal of “giving a real opportunity for people to earn an income through chess” through Immortal Game has ended in failure.

“We found that by offering large amounts of cash with no limit barrier to entry, we encouraged heavy cheating on the platform and degraded the user experience for our legitimate player base who want a fair and safe place to play chess online,” Immortal developers wrote. “The unintended consequence of offering money to players has increased the unfair practices.”

Starting this week, the marketplace for Immortal Game NFTs will be discontinued, and players will no longer be able to use the native P2E Checkmake token (CMT) in-game. NFTs, however, will continue to exist on-chain. Users will also no longer be awarded CMT for completing tournaments or daily rewards, although fiat currency rewards may be offered for such tasks in the future.

“Your ETH and CMT balances will no longer be displayed on our platform, but your wallets will retain these tokens. For those using a custodial wallet, you’ll need to connect a personal wallet to transfer your assets.”

At the time of discontinuation, Immortal Game NFTs had a lifetime trading volume of $885,600, and its CMT token has a fully diluted market capitalization of $360,075. The NFTs are minted on the gaming-focused Immutable blockchain.