gaming

Proof of Play studio closes after Pirate Nation fails to sustain crypto model

Proof of Play, the blockchain studio founded by FarmVille co-creator Amitt Mahajan, shut down this week roughly one year after ending support for its flagship game Pirate Nation. Pirate Nation launched in 2022 as a browser-based card-driven ship-battle and island base-building game that layered NFTs and a PIRATE crypto token on top, but player interest and token/NFT prices collapsed. The studio has open-sourced much of the game's code and art, and its closure highlights the broader inability of crypto incentives to produce a sustainable mainstream gaming business.

• Proof of Play raised $33 million in venture funding before winding down operations this week.
• Pirate Nation officially launched in 2022; the full game was shut down in August in favor of smaller minigame experiences before the studio closed entirely.
• The studio had claimed Pirate Nation could run "fully on-chain," but the game never reached mass-market traction and core crypto features failed to retain players.
• The PIRATE token remains tradeable but has dropped about 99.8% from its peak price reached after its 2024 rollout.