Ethereum’s ‘Ember Sword’ Is the Latest in a Growing Wave of Crypto Game Shutdowns
4 years after attracting $203 million in NFT land gross sales, Ethereum recreation Ember Sword has shut down, with developer Shiny Star Studios citing an absence of funding required to proceed its operations. It is the most recent instance of a rising development of crypto video games closing up store.
“We have been in the end unable to safe the funding wanted to proceed,” the sport’s official web site now reads. “We explored each doable means ahead. However in in the present day’s market—the place even a few of the most promising initiatives are shutting down—we couldn’t discover a path to maintain constructing.”
Massively multiplayer on-line role-playing recreation (MMORPG) Ember Sword rose to prominence in 2021 amid the metaverse growth—across the time that Fb rebranded to Meta. It had accomplished a lot of funding rounds, with one disclosed to whole $2 million, attracting funding from the likes of online game streamer Dr. Disrespect, The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin.
The undertaking additionally attracted distinguished gaming veterans as advisors, together with Rob Pardo, former chief inventive officer at Blizzard Leisure and lead designer of the enormously widespread World of Warcraft, in addition to retired esports participant Dennis “Thresh” Fong.
As metaverse mania hit its peak in 2021, there was a digital land seize, prompting high-value NFT gross sales in video games like The Sandbox and Decentraland. Amid this explosion of curiosity, Ember Sword itself attracted $203 million price of NFT land purchases by way of 35,000 gamers.
Ember Sword ultimately entered closed beta in July 2024, however the gameplay footage was met with a slew of commenters disenchanted with the product.
Late within the 12 months, the sport entered public early entry after transferring to Ethereum layer-2 community Mantle—its second transfer after beforehand leaping from Polygon to Immutable X.
Now, the sport is shutting down for good, with its servers going offline and Discord entry being restricted. The EMBER token has in the meantime plunged to near-worthlessness, with a market cap of simply $82,000 and a worth down greater than 99% from peak.
“This isn’t the ending any of us wished,” the location reads. “However we wished to sincerely thanks for being right here, for believing on this imaginative and prescient, and for serving to make Ember Sword one thing we’ll always remember.”
Sadly, this isn’t an remoted incident, however reasonably a part of a wider development of crypto video games closing this month.
Final week, cat-themed Solana shooter Nyan Heroes shut down, with developer 9 Lives Interactive additionally citing an lack of ability to safe funding as the rationale it needed to shut store. The hero shooter had simply accomplished its fourth play check by way of the Epic Video games Retailer, with the studio claiming multiple million gamers throughout the 4 intervals. A full model of the sport was deliberate to launch subsequent winter.
That very same day, it was introduced by way of Discord that cellular recreation Blast Royale’s improvement is ready to be discontinued, though the sport will turn into open-source for different builders to select up. On Monday, Ronin role-playing recreation Tatsumeeko was additionally discontinued as its creators stated they have been shifting focus onto their Discord-based fantasy life simulator referred to as Mission: Wander.
Different notable recreation closures in latest months embody Deadrop and The Thriller Society, with Gala Video games’ The Strolling Useless: Empires additionally introduced to close down on the finish of July.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
