Summary
- Crypto MMORPG Ember Sword shut down in May 2025.
- The game previously raised over $2 million in venture capital funding, and approximately $203.785 million from selling virtual plots of land.
- Danish developer Bright Star Studios cited a lack of funding as the reason for the shutdown.
The crypto-based MMORPG known as Ember Sword has ceased operations following a fundraising effort that garnered over $200 million by selling virtual land plots. Until very recently, this game could be played on both desktop computers and mobile devices.
In 2018, the game known as Ember Sword began its development at Bright Star Studios, a company situated in Aarhus, Denmark. This studio conceived it as a blockchain-integrated title, where the native $EMBER token, built on Ethereum, would serve for purchasing and upgrading an array of items including cosmetics and equipment. The game’s economy was designed with a fixed supply of items to preserve their worth. In April 2020, Bright Star Studios successfully secured $700,000 in pre-seed funding for the project, as per records maintained by Wellfound. By August of the following year, the developer had sold virtual plots of land valued at approximately $203 million in the Solarwood Nation, one of Ember Sword’s four realms.
The development of Ember Sword was abruptly halted in late May 2025. Bright Star Studios made the announcement to cease operations on the game immediately. In a statement posted on the game’s official website, they expressed that this wasn’t the desired outcome for anyone involved. The closure was due to funding issues. Despite shutting down this project, Bright Star continues to hold faith in blockchain technology and its ability to enhance games, offering players genuine ownership, control, and worth for their time invested.
Ember Sword’s Shutdown Notice
Ember Sword garnered a massive $203.785 million through the sale of virtual land plots, which came from 34,791 individual contributors. In addition to this open land sale and the previously mentioned $700,000 in pre-seed funding, Bright Star secured an additional $2 million in venture capital investments in May 2021. As of data obtained from LinkedIn, Bright Star has at least 21 freelancers and permanent employees on staff. However, it remains undecided whether the closure of Ember Sword will also result in Bright Star’s shutdown.
Ember Sword Seemingly Won’t Be Issuing Refunds
For approximately six and a half months, starting from its early access launch on December 2, 2024, the crypto MMORPG known as Ember Sword was accessible on both mobile devices and PC. Unfortunately, before it closed down, players were unable to utilize the virtual plots of land they had purchased as this feature hadn’t been implemented yet. Regrettably, the game’s closure announcement did not offer any information regarding refunds for backers.
This isn’t the ending any of us wanted.
The future of Ember Sword raises doubts about the lasting success of cryptographic gaming and the application of blockchain technology within video games. Its sudden shutdown might also intensify concerns over the openness and durability of blockchain-based game markets.
Sources: Wellfound, Bright Star Studios
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2025-05-25 14:19