An IGO launchpad sells a blockchain game's tokens, its in-game NFTs, or both, before the game is fully released; IGO stands for initial game offering. The platform combines a token-sale launchpad with an NFT mint platform, and its hardest task is judging which games will ship.
The blog post on initial game offerings in NFT gaming explains the IGO trend and its history, while this page covers how to build and run the platform.
What an IGO in crypto sells
| Asset | Standard | Sale mechanics | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governance or utility token | ERC-20, BEP-20 or the chain's equivalent | Tiered or overflow sale, vesting and a DEX listing | Securities treatment, and selling pressure when tokens unlock |
| Unique items such as characters or land | ERC-721 | Fixed-price or Dutch-auction mint with allow-lists | The value depends on a game that may never ship |
| Fungible or semi-fungible items | ERC-1155 | Batch mints of each item type with a fixed supply | The game can mint more items later and dilute holders |
| Mystery boxes | ERC-721 or ERC-1155 with a delayed reveal | Buyers pay for a box and see the random contents later | Loot-box and gambling rules |
IGO launchpad components
- Project onboarding. The game team submits game details, links to a playable build, the token and NFT plans, team identities and audit reports.
- Token sale module. This module uses the same staking tiers, allow-lists, sale contracts and vesting contracts as any crypto launchpad.
- NFT sale module. Mint contracts set a supply cap for each item type, run allow-list phases and limit mints per wallet.
- Fair reveal. For random items, the team publishes a provenance hash before the sale, a fingerprint of the full item list that lets anyone check later that the list did not change. After minting, verifiable randomness such as Chainlink VRF assigns the traits, so neither the team nor the buyers can steer the outcome.
- Royalties and metadata. The NFT contract reports royalty terms through EIP-2981, although many marketplaces treat royalties as optional. Metadata is stored on-chain or on IPFS, where files stay available only while a node keeps them "pinned", so the project pays a pinning service or runs its own node. The sale terms state what each NFT grants inside the game.
- Delivery into the game. The game's servers or contracts must recognize the item NFTs, so the launchpad and the game team agree on the integration format before the sale.
The NFT launchpad guide covers NFT mint mechanics in general.
Vetting games
A game that sells assets before launch asks buyers to trust a future product, and the play-to-earn boom of 2021 and 2022 showed how quickly a game economy can fail. Axie Infinity's reward token lost most of its value when fewer new players joined, and the Ronin bridge, which served Axie Infinity, lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a 2022 hack. Many other funded games stopped development without notice.
An IGO launchpad can check each game on these points:
- Playable build. A working build exists, and people play it for reasons other than the token.
- Economy design. The design shows where tokens and items are created ("faucets") and where they are destroyed ("sinks"), and the economy does not depend on a constant stream of new buyers.
- Funding runway. The raise covers development until launch, and the team has a plan if the money runs out.
- Team. Team members have verified identities and a record in game development, not only in crypto.
- Contracts. Independent audits cover the token, NFT and in-game contracts, and the contracts limit future minting.
- Vesting. Team and investor tokens do not unlock in the weeks right after the game launches.
Legal points specific to games
In March 2026 the SEC issued an interpretive release that sorts crypto assets into five groups: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities. The release names in-game items as an example of "digital collectibles", which are not securities in themselves, but it warns that fractional shares of a collectible can be securities. The release also separates the asset from the sale, so a sale marketed as an investment can still be a securities offering, even when the asset is not a security.
Loot-box rules differ by country. Belgium's gambling regulator has treated paid loot boxes as illegal gambling since 2018. In the Netherlands, the Council of State ruled in 2022 that the loot boxes in a major football game were not gambling under Dutch law. Promises of earnings or returns make it more likely that an NFT or token counts as an investment product, while sale materials that describe in-game use and make no earnings claims carry less risk.
IGO launchpad build effort and cost drivers
The figures here are reasoned estimates. An existing token launchpad needs two to three months, with two or three engineers plus audits, to add an NFT sale module with a fair reveal and game integration. Building both modules from scratch, with support for several chains and a vetting pipeline, takes about four to six months. The game itself is a separate and much larger project, covered in the Web3 game development guide.
Frequently asked questions
How is an IGO different from an IDO?
An IDO sells a project's fungible token, while an IGO sells a game's assets, often in-game NFTs alongside the token or instead of it. That adds minting, reveal and game integration work to the launchpad.
What does IGO mean in crypto?
IGO means initial game offering, in which a game sells its tokens or in-game items to early buyers before the full release, usually through a launchpad.
Should a game sell NFTs before launch?
Only if the team can deliver the game and honor what the NFTs promise. An early NFT sale creates obligations to the holders, and a delayed game leaves those holders with items they cannot use.
Are mystery boxes allowed?
Not everywhere, because some countries treat paid random items as gambling. Sales where buyers know the contents before they pay carry less risk, and the launchpad may also need to block buyers from some countries.