Blockchain game studio Battlebound shuts down
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One other blockchain gaming studio is shutting down — Battlebound is closing its doorways.
The studio was overseeing two video games, together with the metaverse sport Evaverse with an EVA token and an in-development RPG dubbed Anterris. The Evaverse token is down over 99% from its all-time excessive.
Battlebound beforehand raised $4.8 million in seed funding again in 2022 from traders together with a16z and Dapper Labs. It gained one other $3 million by promoting NFTs.
The corporate had the finances for what’s usually known as an “AA sport” or the equal of two indie video games, however it didn’t have the means for extra bold tasks (“AAA” video games can have budgets of over $100 million every).
Evaverse screenshot
The closure comes “regardless of the current traction we’ve been constructing for 4 years with a lean, scrappy workforce, extending our runway so far as potential whereas attempting to safe our subsequent funding spherical,” Battlebound wrote in a submit.
“We excelled at doing extra with much less and staying afloat whereas creating above our weight. Finally, we’re in the identical place as many studios earlier than us, closing our doorways on account of remarkably difficult market dynamics,” the submit continued.
Screenshot from Anterris sport in improvement
On LinkedIn, Battlebound CEO and founder Adam Hensel mentioned: “Hundreds of gamers participated in our last playtest, and watching them take pleasure in years of laborious work makes all the things value it.”
Hensel had beforehand labored at League of Legends writer Riot Video games for 4 years, most lately as a senior technical artist.
It actually sucks to see yet one more bold sport studio unable to boost funds to proceed a mission. Different blockchain-powered or crypto-optional video games like Dauntless and Everlasting Dragons have additionally been cancelled up to now yr. Blockchain sport tracker BigBlockchainGameList discovered that 60 crypto video games have been discontinued in Q1 of 2024, however admits that monitoring this may be “imprecise and [a] lagging indicator” for “basic ecosystem traits.”
Midnight Society, the studio behind the bold (but in the end unreleased) NFT-optional shooter Deadrop, introduced its shutdown in January after severing ties with its co-founder following public controversy and struggling to boost additional funds.
Metaverse video games aren’t actually my factor, however Anterris regarded prefer it was shaping as much as be a comfortable fantasy RPG.
Funding spherical sizes for Web3 gaming over time, from Game7
New blockchain sport bulletins decreased 36% final yr in comparison with 2023, in response to Game7, a research-from-crypto gaming group and analysis agency. Which means issues are slowing down, however that’s not essentially a nasty factor for crypto gaming.
Chart of Web3 gaming funding from Game7
