Four years after raking in a staggering $203 million from NFT land sales, Ethereum-based MMORPG Ember Sword is finally calling it quits. Developer Bright Star Studios blamed a lack of funding for pulling the plug, saying they “explored every possible way forward” but just couldn’t make it work in today’s rough crypto market, where even the flashiest projects are folding.

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Source: Embersword

Ember Sword rode the 2021 metaverse hype wave, launching amid Facebook’s Meta rebrand and attracting big-name investors like streamer Dr. Disrespect, The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin. The game also scored advice from gaming legends like Blizzard’s Rob Pardo and esports star Dennis “Thresh” Fong.

Back in the metaverse gold rush, Ember Sword’s NFT land sales blew up, with 35,000 players snapping up digital plots totaling $203 million. The game finally entered closed beta in July 2024, switching blockchains twice, from Polygon to Immutable X, then to Ethereum’s layer-2 Mantle, before launching public early access later that year.

But the honeymoon didn’t last. Early gameplay clips sparked disappointment among players, and the game never quite regained momentum. Now, servers are shutting down, Discord access is limited, and the EMBER token has nose-dived over 99% from its peak, with a market cap barely scraping $82,000.

“This isn’t the ending any of us wanted,” the official site mourns. “But thank you for believing in the vision and making Ember Sword something we’ll never forget.”

Crypto Gaming’s Mass Exodus - More Titles Shut Down This Month

Sadly, Ember Sword’s shutdown isn’t a one-off. Crypto games seem to be dropping like flies this month. Cat-themed Solana shooter Nyan Heroes also folded recently, citing funding woes despite over one million players in its tests. Mobile game Blast Royale is discontinuing development but going open-source, and Ronin RPG Tatsumeeko is shifting focus to a Discord-based project called Project: Wander.

Other recent crypto game casualties include Deadrop, The Mystery Society, and Gala Games’ The Walking Dead: Empires, slated to shut down by July’s end. Looks like the crypto gaming hype cycle might finally be hitting its pause button.

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