Solana-based PVP game Eternal Dragons shuts down

In a recent Medium post, web3 game developer Trailblazer has announced it’s sunsetting deck-building PVP game Eternal Dragons. 

Set up by an experienced founding team (ex-EA, King, Microsoft) that raised $8.2 million in March 2022, Singapore-based Trailblazer originally launched the game on browser, but more recently redesigned and moved it to mobile to attempt to scale the audience.

Despite two years of work from the 23-strong team, Eternal Dragons didn’t reach product-market fit, in part due to the complexity of building and rebuilding a web3 game for a browser/crypto and then for a mobile/mass audience, as well as having to handle issues such as legal compliance and player manipulation to gain rewards.

This isn’t to say there wasn’t progress. “The data showed steady progress in the right direction, which was encouraging. However, it also delivered a clear signal: the performance baseline achieved during these months was not strong enough to continue investing in this game. And we had invested a lot in it already.”

As well as the VC investment, Trailblazer raised some funds from the original NFT mint. It commented that development costs were eight times what it raised from the NFTs.

Hence the grown-up decision was take to shut down development and cancel the game. As with some other well-run projects, Trailblazer will use remaining funds for a buyback program for NFT holders. The NFTs launched on Solana – back in its initial glory days in early 2022 – and the floor price got as high as $300, but now it’s $20. The buyback offer ranges from $12 to $120 depending on the rarity of your dragon.