- Proof of Play studio, which raised $33 million in a seed round, is winding down operations.
- The team said it failed to build a viable product and business model.
- The developers open-sourced their work, and Shiba Story Go was sold to a third party.
Proof of Play, the studio behind the GameFi project Pirate Nation, announced it is shutting down. The team admitted it was unable to build a viable product.
Proof of Play entered the market in 2022. In September 2023, it closed a $33 million seed funding round with participation from backers including a16z crypto and Greenoaks.
The company’s goal was to develop games in which blockchain is a core component. The developers aimed not just to tack on NFTs as part of gameplay, but to integrate the technology at the level of core mechanics.
The studio’s flagship project was Pirate Nation. It is a browser-based pirate RPG in which actions and assets were recorded via smart contracts.
Its infrastructure was built on two networks — Apex and Boss. However, the project’s costs turned out to be higher than expected. As a result, in August 2025, the team announced it was shutting it down.
“When we started, we believed that games using blockchain technology could help usher in a new, decentralized internet. Ultimately, we were unable to build a product and a sustainable business that would validate this hypothesis at scale,” the team said.
The studio’s statement says the developers did their best to open-source as much of their projects’ code and other materials as possible to support the sector’s development.
In addition, in March 2026, the company launched the mobile game Shiba Story Go. The note says it was acquired by an unspecified third party, and the project will continue to develop independently.
This is one of many crypto projects that left the market in 2026. Read more:
Сообщение Web3 Game Developer Proof of Play Announced Its Shutdown появились сначала на INCRYPTED.