Sam Bankman-Fried’s game Storybook Brawl is shutting down

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—by Protos Staff

Storybook Brawl, the second-favorite game of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) after League of Legends, will be shutting down its servers on May 1, according to a tweet from the game’s Twitter account. 

The casual strategy game developed by Good Luck Games was released almost two years ago, in June 2021, and acquired by FTX and SBF in March 2022. Shortly after the acquisition, SBF went to Twitter to expand on the reasoning for why FTX Ventures had purchased the game development studio, saying “FTX is excited to support web3 gaming,” and “we’re excited to explore what the intersection of NFTs, crypto, blockchain, and gaming looks like.”

Apparently this was not the future for Storybook Brawl that gamers wanted: almost instantly the Steam reviews plummeted from “Highly Positive” to “Mixed Reviews.” A chart shows that until the end of March 2022, reviews had been almost exclusively positive — but once SBF announced the intention to integrate it into web3, incorporating cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the game was slammed with negative reviews.

Read more: HiveEx, Genesis Block, and SBF’s trading desk network

After FTX and Alameda Research declared bankruptcy in November of last year, not only did many of the remaining gamers stop playing Storybook Brawl, but the developers stopped releasing streams, no longer offered contests, and stopped announcing updates. It’s unclear what the founders are doing now, as both still list their roles at Good Luck Games as their present job on LinkedIn.

But this might not be the end for Storybook Brawl, which may end up having a truly storybook ending: with bankruptcy courts and lawyers picking through the nuclear-bombed rubbish bin that is “FTX assets” (largely just illiquid cryptocurrencies), a playable video game with a modest audience will likely attract a buyer.

It’s very possible that within a few years, Storybook Brawl will be relaunched and ready-to-play once again.

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