From now on, only a set number of each Fancy Cat will ever be possible. Here’s what you need to know about this new feature:

All Fancy Cats are now limited edition.

The total number will vary by Fancy Cat.

Once the limit is reached, there will be no new ones.

If you attempt to breed a Fancy Cat once the limit has been reached, you will get a regular CryptoKitty.

Right now, each Fancy Cat will tell you what number it is and how many are possible. Exclusive Cats and Founder Cats are also getting badges. All existing Fancy Cats will have a “total possible” number higher than the total in the game.

This is only the first version of Limited Edition Fancy Cats

We take the user experience and in-game economy seriously. There are still some things we want to add to this feature:

A UI feature or badge that communicates how many of a Fancy Cat can still be bred. Right now, a user needs to do a little digging to see how many future Fancy Cats can be bred or if the total limit has been reached (sort by the youngest of a Fancy Cat type). This isn’t intuitive, nor is it fun if a user tries to breed a Fancy Cat and receives a plain CryptoKitty instead.

Right now, a user needs to do a little digging to see how many future Fancy Cats can be bred or if the total limit has been reached (sort by the youngest of a Fancy Cat type). This isn’t intuitive, nor is it fun if a user tries to breed a Fancy Cat and receives a plain CryptoKitty instead. We want to add a “trophy case” that shows all the Fancy Cats in the game. Being able to sort through Fancy Cats is a requested featured we want to deliver it as soon as possible.

We think it’s important that all Fancy Cats are limited edition

Fancy Cats are some of the most interesting and fun CryptoKitties in the game, but once a user figures out the breeding formula, it becomes public knowledge in the community. And that’s great! But it also means that Fancy Cats are less valued, less unique, and as a result, less fun over time. That’s less great.

CryptoKitties was created to introduce the general public to the blockchain while practically innovating in this space. One of the things that most excites the team about blockchain technology is how it empowers the concept of digital scarcity, and this feature underlines our commitment to that concept.

This new feature wasn’t launched flawlessly

As we were adding the limited edition numbers to previously existing cats, we set the “total possible” number higher than the total currently in the game.

While we were getting ready to deploy, test and launch, we chose to set Negato’s limit to 250. Unfortunately, the logic got pushed to our production servers and it was after 250 Negato had already been bred.

When we found out that the Limited Edition feature had hit the live production server, we immediately pushed the number up to 500 to give ourselves and our users some breathing room — but we were too late. Two players managed to breed a Negato that didn’t get the custom art but should have. Admittedly, that now makes them the rarest ninja in the game — like a true assassin, they’re a ninja hiding in plain sight.

What kind of hidden assassin wears a pink or purple belt anyways!?

But it also amounts to a poor user experience and something we desperately want to avoid. We’ve already reached out to those users about fixing our misstep with Negato.

You can visit the Marketplace to find Fancies that have already been bred to their limit but are for sale in the ecosystem.