Why ‘X Empire’ Telegram Players Are Complaining to Elon Musk About the Airdrop

Telegram tap-to-earn game X Empire will launch its X token on The Open Network (TON) on Thursday, but its reveal of airdrop allocations has drawn complaints from players who say they were deemed ineligible for a share of the rewards. And some of them are telling Elon Musk about it.

X Empire revealed its allocations on Friday, disclosing to players how many X tokens they can expect to receive and begin trading on October 24. The Elon Musk-themed game is also letting players choose their withdrawal option in advance, whether it’s through a self-custody TON wallet or through a centralized exchange like OKX or Bybit.

However, many players took to social media to complain that they had been excluded from the airdrop for unclear reasons. On Saturday, the game’s creator, Alex Falcon, responded to the complaints in a Telegram post, writing that “active friends” was the most important criteria in the final airdrop calculations, alongside profit-per-hour mark and quest completion.

“Everyone who truly invested time in X Empire gained access to the drop,” he said.

Falcon noted that 6 million X Empire players will be included in the airdrop. X Empire previously claimed to have attracted more than 50 million total players, and Telegram app data points to nearly 34 million active players over the last month.

Players have complained that the “active friends” detail shouldn’t have made such a significant impact into the airdrop allocations. Some players have even tweeted at Musk himself, who is not at all affiliated with the game.

It makes sense why some players would think that, though. The game prominently features cartoonish avatars inspired by Musk, and it originally launched under the name “Musk Empire”—but then shifted gears soon after, perhaps to avoid potential legal issues.

“They rejected people, totally scam and unfair,” one player tweeted at Musk.

“Totally scam project backed by your name,” another player tweeted to Musk. “X Empire. Elon Musk. Musk Empire. Do interrogation on X Empire team. They are just like scammer.”

Musk has not responded as of this writing.

X Empire isn’t the first Telegram game to face pushback over its airdrop calculations. Last month’s Catizen and Hamster Kombat airdrops both received ample pushback from players who thought the communication of allocation criteria had been misleading, or that the ultimate reward for their amount of play wasn’t significant enough.

In this case, X Empire has attempted to assuage players’ concerns by saying that the X token will have substantial future utility in forthcoming apps from the team, including a news feed and a sleep tracking app. Players of the game will also receive a share of tokens from other upcoming Telegram games, the developers have said.