“Immortal” chess app discontinues play-to-earn after cheating

Immortal, the play-to-earn chess app, has been discontinued due to heavy cheating encounters. The platform has closed the curtain on its financialized crypto features.

Till now, the app has been rewarding users with CMT (CheckMate) token rewards for playing. The free online chess platform even hosted a marketplace for chess NFTs. One of these NFTs went for a whopping 14,300 dollars.

Immortal became one of the most well-known P2E crypto games from the get-go. The platform made headlines after raising 15.5 million dollars in a Series A round. The Chernin Group conducted the fundraising round in September 2022.

As expected, the news of Immortal’s discontinuation disheartened its players and investors. Designed using Immutable X’s L2 scaling technology, Immortal aimed to offer high-end services.

While the platform is shutting down its reward system, it will still use Web3 technology for community engagement and anti-cheat measures. P2E games have been garnering traction in the market. However, the industry has been facing multiple hurdles, with cheating being the most recent one.

The game developers released an official announcement to inform users about the development. The team has decided to continue building Immortal as an online chess hub. They may even integrate more decentralized technologies into the platform.

The developers stated that offering cash with no entry barrier encouraged cheating on the platform. It hurts the user experience for genuine players adopting a fair approach. The unintended consequence of rewards has certainly motivated unfair practices.

From this week on, the NFT marketplace by Immortal will cease to operate. Players will lose their P2E CMT in-game NFTs as well. No rewards will be awarded for winning tournaments on the platform.

To date, Immortal NFTs have accrued over 885k dollars in trading volume. Similarly, its CMT token established a market cap of 360 dollars. Thus, the unfortunate news is set to hurt the online chess community hard.