The ongoing collapse of the crypto gaming industry claimed another victim this week, with blockchain startup Proof of Play announcing its demise roughly one year after shutting down its flagship game, Pirate Nation.
Founded by FarmVille co-creator Amitt Mahajan, Proof of Play was one of the many companies that attempted to pair familiar, casual gameplay with crypto token incentives and player-owned assets in the form of NFTs–a premise that most gamers never warmed up to.
“When we started out, we believed games using blockchain tech had the potential to usher in a new, decentralized internet,” the team wrote Tuesday on X. “Ultimately, we couldn’t build a product and sustainable business that proved out this thesis at scale.”
Launched in 2022, the browser-based Pirate Nation featured card-driven ship battles and island base-building mechanics, with crypto features layered on top. While Pirate Nation saw initial interest from players, demand faded as the crypto gaming trend lost steam and broader token and NFT prices cratered.
Last August, Proof of Play–which raised $33 million in venture funding–said it would shut down the full Pirate Nation game and instead roll out smaller minigame experiences. The game’s demise also poked a hole in the studio’s claims that Pirate Nation could run forever due to its code being “fully on-chain.”
“The truth is, it wasn’t ever going to be a breakout, mass market success,” Proof of Play co-founder and Pirate Nation Product Lead Adam Fern admitted on X last August.
With the studio’s closure, Proof of Play has open-sourced much of the game’s code and art “so it can be helpful to future builders and agents,” per the official X post. The game’s PIRATE crypto token will also continue to be tradeable, though it has fallen 99.8% from its peak price reached soon after its 2024 rollout.
Proof of Play’s downfall is yet another blow to the blockchain gaming trend that has occasionally grabbed headlines, but has so far failed to produce sustainable results. As Bitcoin surged to new highs in 2021, the Pokemon-inspired monster-battling game Axie Infinity lured in millions of players with the promise of crypto token income–but only if they bought or borrowed unique NFT monsters selling for hundreds of dollars apiece.
Many gamers were vocally resistant to the idea of blockchain gaming, however. Not only is crypto widely associated with scams, but the idea of games built around expensive assets fueled fears that publishers could use the framework to extract more cash from fans. And ultimately, crypto titles that looked and played like knockoffs of better-known games weren’t going to convince them otherwise.
Axie Infinity’s in-game economy collapsed a few months later, with a $625 million crypto heist from North Korean hackers adding insult to injury. While some blockchain-linked games have gained attention in the years since, such as Gunzilla Games’ Off the Grid, many more have crashed out–including Deadrop from the now-shuttered Midnight Society and streamer Dr. Disrespect. And most major gaming tokens have fallen 99% or more from their peak prices.
Even traditional gaming titans that dabbled in the space are starting to pull back. Square Enix ended its NFT game Symbiogenesis last year, and just last week, Ubisoft said that it will shut down Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles in October, after telling players in May that it would “progressively transition away from blockchain functionality.”