Proof of Play shuts down as blockchain gaming keeps failing to deliver

Proof of Play, the studio behind browser-based crypto game Pirate Nation, is closing its doors — roughly a year after it already pulled the plug on the game itself. The studio was founded by Amitt Mahajan, co-creator of FarmVille, and raised $33 million in venture funding before the whole thing unraveled.

Launched in 2022, Pirate Nation combined card-driven ship battles and island base-building with crypto token incentives and NFT-based player-owned assets. Initial interest faded as the broader crypto gaming trend lost momentum and token prices collapsed. Last August, Proof of Play scaled back to smaller minigame experiences instead of the full game — and co-founder Adam Fern admitted on X that Pirate Nation was never going to be a mass-market breakout. The studio's closure also quietly buried its earlier claim that Pirate Nation could run forever as a "fully on-chain" game. On the way out, Proof of Play open-sourced much of the game's code and art for future developers. The PIRATE token remains tradeable, but it has dropped 99.8% from its 2024 peak.

Proof of Play is far from alone. The blockchain gaming space has been shedding studios and tokens for years. Axie Infinity — the Pokemon-inspired monster battler that pulled in millions of players during Bitcoin's 2021 surge — saw its in-game economy collapse, then suffered a $625 million hack attributed to North Korean state actors. Deadrop, from Midnight Society and streamer Dr. Disrespect, also shut down. Even major publishers are retreating: Square Enix wound down its NFT game Symbiogenesis last year, and Ubisoft just announced it will shut down Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles in October after already signaling it would move away from blockchain features. The core problem was never just execution — most gamers were skeptical of crypto gaming from the start, associating it with scams and pay-to-win mechanics dressed up in decentralization language.

With Proof of Play gone, the "fully on-chain games run forever" argument takes another hit. A handful of blockchain-linked titles like Gunzilla Games' Off the Grid are still standing, but the broader trend has so far failed to produce a single sustainable, mainstream success — and the graveyard keeps growing.