Proof of Play is shutting down
Proof of Play, the studio behind the fully onchain game Pirate Nation, said Tuesday that it is ceasing operations. The company said it "couldn't build a product and sustainable business that proved out this thesis at scale."
The thesis, according to Proof of Play, was that games using blockchain technology could help usher in a new, decentralized internet.
Code, art and IP are being released
Proof of Play said it is open-sourcing "as much of our code and art as possible so it can be helpful to future builders & agents." The studio has published the Pirate Nation Unity app, the game's smart contracts and an internal agent workflow tool on GitHub.
It is also releasing the Founder Pirates NFTs, Pirate Nation artwork, intellectual property and logos under a CC0 license, which waives copyright and places the work in the public domain.
The release is visible in the piratenation-art repository, described as an "Art archive for the Pirate Nation fully onchain game" and published under a CC0-1.0 license. The folders include Combat Cards, Founder's Pirate NFT, Logos and Voxel Game Assets.
Developer reaction and internal message
Game developer AzFlin reacted by writing that Proof of Play "CC0'd all their artwork and 3d models," calling it "a bunch of gold in there you can use for your own games" and pointing to a giant squid model in the voxel asset files.
Before the public post, the studio sent an internal channel message at 1:32 p.m. under the handle "Pirate Captain Amitt." It opened with "Some sad news today" and repeated the same shutdown explanation. Steve Bark screenshotted the message and wrote that it "was a bummer to read."
PIRATE token and what happens next
According to CoinGecko, the PIRATE token traded at about $0.001285 on Wednesday, up 10% over 24 hours and trimming its 7-day loss to 11%. Its circulating market cap stood near $940,000, with a fully diluted valuation of about $1.3 million. The token is down about 99.7% from its all-time high of $0.4757, set on July 18, 2024, weeks after Pirate Nation's token launch.
Proof of Play said the Pirate Nation Foundation is independent from the studio, will continue supporting PIRATE, and will keep its website online. The studio also said Proof of Play points "will not be redeemable for anything."
Shiba Story Go!, the studio's other game, "has been acquired by a 3rd party and will continue to operate independently," Proof of Play said, without naming the buyer.
From Zynga veterans to a narrower web3 gaming market
Proof of Play was founded by former Zynga executives. The company raised venture funding to build Pirate Nation as a fully onchain game and said in 2024 that it would launch a second blockchain to handle the game's transaction volume.
The wind-down comes as other web3 gaming projects have also pulled back, including Yield Guild Games' decision to sunset its YGG Play publishing unit and cut 35 jobs.