Proof of Play studio, the developer of the GameFi project Pirate Nation, has announced its closure. The team admitted that they were unable to create a viable product.
Proof of Play entered the market in 2022. In September 2023, it closed a seed funding round of $33 million with participation from counterparties such as a16z crypto and Greenoaks.
The company's goal was to develop games where blockchain was a significant part. The developers aimed not just to add NFTs as part of the gameplay, but to embed the technology at the level of core mechanics.
The studio's key project is Pirate Nation. This is a browser-based role-playing game about pirates, where actions and assets were recorded via smart contracts.
Its infrastructure was based 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 its closure.
"When we started, we believed that games using blockchain technology could usher in a new, decentralized internet. In the end, we failed to create a product and a sustainable business that would prove this hypothesis on a large scale," the team stated.
The studio's statement says that the developers have tried their best to open-source the code and other materials from their projects to help the development of the sector.
Furthermore, in March 2026, the company launched the mobile game Shiba Story Go. The note mentions that it was acquired by a certain third party, and the project will continue to develop independently.
This is one of many crypto projects that left the market in 2026. For more details:
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