Abyss World, a 3A flagship title in the Sui ecosystem: With 120,000 Steam wishlist entries, can it become the leader in the blockchain gaming industry?
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Abyss World, a 3A flagship title in the Sui ecosystem: With 120,000 Steam wishlist entries, can it become the leader in the blockchain gaming industry?
Abyss World has also announced related activities scheduled for June 1, sparking immense anticipation and raising the question within the community of whether it can reverse the downturn in Sui's ecosystem or even the broader GameFi sector.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: nobody
On May 24, Web3 gaming studio Metagame Industries announced a strategic funding round at a valuation of nearly $100 million. Investors include Sui’s development team Mysten Labs and game publisher Funplus/Xterio Ecosystem Fund. The company's flagship AAA title, Abyss World, also revealed plans for an upcoming event on June 1. Backed by a prestigious investor lineup and already boasting over 120,000 players on its Steam wishlist, the game has sparked community speculation about whether it could reverse the current downturn in the Sui ecosystem—or even the broader GameFi sector—driving anticipation to new heights.
Abyss World is a third-person ARPG open-world game built primarily on the high-performance Sui blockchain, later expanding into a multi-chain setup that runs concurrently on both Sui and Polygon. Set in a fictional world called "Nodinia," rich with ancient secrets, players explore this vast universe and gradually uncover the mysteries behind the "Secrets of the Abyss."
Core Game Concepts
1. Heroes
Hero characters in the game are combinations of class, race, and traits.
(1) There are five classes: Warrior, Musha, Mage, Engineer, and Explorer. Each class has distinct attributes divided into external attributes (vitality, intellect, magic, luck) and internal attributes. External attributes determine combat power and minimum requirements for weapons and skills, while internal attributes refer to a character’s combat abilities.
(2) Races are categorized into five types: Bannerlord, Human, Orne, Seracoron, and Sigma Elves. Different races exhibit unique combat characteristics in gameplay.
(3) Each hero possesses quirks or traits, which can be positive or negative—such as "Captain," which buffs the entire team, or "Fight to the Death," which prevents retreat upon critical injury (thus increasing the chance of death).
2. Gameplay
Gameplay is divided into two main modes: PVE, where players explore the in-game environment, and PVP, which takes place in The Abyss Colosseum and The Battle Arena. In the Abyss Colosseum, battles are AI-driven after player matchmaking.
3. Assets
Unlike typical dual-token models, Abyss World features a value-generating asset structure best understood as “Token + Points + Stablecoin.” In the early stages, only one native token exists: AWT, which has a fixed supply and will not function as a governance or utility token. Second is MGC, the in-game currency, which initially serves solely as a non-speculative point system and will not be blockchain-based. Third is USDT/USDC, stablecoins used for pricing and trading all in-game assets.
NFT assets fall into two broad categories: first, weapon or hero NFTs, officially termed commodity NFTs or resource-generating NFTs; second, non-weapon and non-hero NFTs, known as asset-based NFTs.
Game and Economic System
Based on different playstyles, players can be broadly categorized into two groups: casual players focused on PVE and competitive players centered on PVP. These two groups balance each other economically without direct conflict within the same gameplay loop. Casual players earn MGC—a non-speculative in-game currency—by completing daily PVE tasks. They can then use MGC points along with collected in-game items (NFT fragments) to mint weapon or hero NFTs. These NFTs can be sold on the in-game marketplace for profit. Competitive players, aiming for top rankings in various PVP leaderboards, must purchase stronger weapon or hero NFTs from the marketplace to boost their team’s combat readiness and win rates.
These minted weapon/hero NFTs are referred to as resource-generating NFTs. Minting occurs at designated in-game NFT factories (NFTfactory), requiring a 3–5% minting fee paid in MGC, which becomes revenue for the factory. During early stages, the factory is managed by the game’s development team, making minting fees a source of project income (priced in MGC, laying the groundwork for future MGC tokenization). In the future, profits from the factory will extend to long-term partners and key stakeholders. Once minted, these NFTs can be traded on the game’s built-in C2C NFT marketplace using USDT/USDC stablecoins. Transaction fees are paid to the foundation and its partners, making marketplace fees another significant revenue stream.
While MGC primarily supports weapon/hero NFTs and PVE rewards, AWT focuses on asset-based NFTs and core player incentives.
First, AWT acts as raw material for asset NFTs. As described in official documentation:
When players complete season missions and receive treasure chests, they need keys to unlock them. For a limited time, ownership of these keys is generated exclusively through burning AWT. Keys themselves can be freely traded on the market. Players holding keys will earn transaction fees from items found inside the chests.
The team promises to design multiple similar scenarios that attract value-contributing participants without compromising the experience of traditional gamers. Although not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that both the keys and chest contents belong to the category of asset NFTs, and the amount of AWT burned is dynamic. The value of the key and the scarcity/functionality of the chest contents are interdependent: the rarer or more powerful the NFTs obtainable from the chest, the higher the potential value of the key. Since all marketplace transactions are priced in stablecoins, this establishes a dynamic real-world value for AWT—the greater the power of obtainable items, the higher the key value, and thus the more AWT burned.
Second, 40% of the total AWT supply will be allocated to incentivize core contributors to the game ecosystem, including players who complete weekly in-game tasks, PVP winners, guild operators, proposal submitters, and liquidity providers on third-party markets.
Governance System
Abyss World’s governance model is also noteworthy. It abandons the standard “1 Token, 1 Vote” mechanism, choosing not to allocate voting power based on AWT holdings. Instead, governance rights are determined by in-game achievements and a set of performance metrics that qualify players for nomination to governance seats. This avoids the issue of large token holders being non-players and ensures whales don’t dominate decision-making. Metrics may include top rankings in seasonal PVP leaderboards, ownership of Gazer/genesis NFTs, or possession of key-based asset NFTs. After AWT issuance and circulation begin, an Abyss World DAO will be established.
Judging from leaked videos and community feedback on demo test builds, Abyss World—powered by Unreal Engine 5—demonstrates a remarkably high level of polish, with visuals rivaling many AAA titles. Consequently, the game demands high-end PC specifications. Additionally, the Abyss World team is actively targeting Web2 audiences through partnerships with major platforms like EPIC and promotional campaigns across renowned gaming media such as IGN, signaling strong intent.
Strictly speaking, however, Abyss World remains a Web2.5 game—assets are on-chain, but gameplay itself is off-chain. From its economic design, it’s clear the team has deeply considered the limitations of traditional dual-token models in blockchain gaming, proposing their own solution: “non-governance token + game points + stablecoin pricing/trading + classified NFTs.” Still, this represents a refinement rather than a breakthrough of existing models—an issue not unique to one game but reflective of the broader blockchain gaming industry’s challenges. Abyss World follows the logic often cited in crypto circles: blockchain games should meet or exceed the visual standards of traditional games, prioritizing gameplay quality and user experience, with tokenomics playing a supporting role.
Moreover, although Abyss World initially aimed to build around the Sui chain, later plans suggest a shift toward constructing certain genesis assets on Polygon, likely due to better liquidity and native stablecoin support on EVM-compatible chains. Sui is being repositioned mainly for settlement purposes. This could raise future concerns regarding cross-chain security between EVM and non-EVM assets, as well as wallet compatibility issues under single-wallet setups.
The author has no financial interest in any projects mentioned. This article is intended solely for informational sharing and does not promote or endorse any business or investment activities. Readers are reminded to strictly comply with local laws and regulations and avoid participating in any illegal financial activities.
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