In brief
- Forgotten Runiverse is the latest blockchain game to close its doors.
- The team behind the game cited that financial infeasibility as the reason for shutting off servers.
- The closure continues a trend that has seen numerous major crypto games fold due to lack of funding or players.
Forgotten Runiverse, the fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) on Ethereum scaling network Ronin, is going offline until further notice.
The team behind the game—which is part of the Forgotten Runes project—cited financial infeasibility, though maintained that they are not abandoning the project.
“Over the past months, we’ve faced a number of overwhelming challenges,” the Forgotten Runiverse team wrote on X. “While our team worked tirelessly and was initially able to overcome many of these obstacles, we’ve reached a point where it no longer makes sense financially to maintain the game in a live environment in its current state.”
The open world spawned out of the lore from the Ethereum NFT collection Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult, and launched globally last year after hosting a stress test which asked users to “crash its servers.”
But less than a year after launch, its free-to-play, browser-based game servers will be taken offline on Tuesday. All account and progress data will remain securely preserved, the team said, but the game will be inaccessible as the team evaluates a potential path forward.
“We will share updates if/when we have them,” the team wrote. “The Runiverse isn’t gone, merely resting.”
The MMORPG’s shuttering continues the trend of crypto games that have been forced to close their doors as funding dries up and games struggle to garner adoption. Last year, numerous high-profile blockchain games including Deadrop, Nyan Heroes, and Pirate Nation shut down, and the carnage appears to be continuing into 2026.
As a result, crypto gaming enthusiasts were not entirely surprised on social media, with mixed replies ranging from disappointment to praising the team for their efforts.
Forgotten Runiverse, which had raised funds from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and others, was at one point approved for development across Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.
A representative for the Forgotten Runiverse did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
