Recently, I saw news about Aether Games finally shutting down. The studio that made Cards of Eternity actually had quite a lot of potential—receiving more than $10 million in funding and holding the prestigious IP license for The Wheel of Time. But in the end, they still fell.

Looking at their post-mortem report, the problem wasn’t just about the idea. There were complex internal issues, financial mismanagement, and an organizational structure that wasn’t solid. This is a major game studio trying to experiment with blockchain, but it turns out they couldn’t balance crypto incentives with proper game development.

What’s interesting is that Aether Games actually had enough resources to survive. But a combination of an overly ambitious visionary, a possibly misaligned team, and underestimating the challenges of the gaming industry—all became a ticking time bomb. This shows that money alone isn’t enough in Web3 gaming.

The Aether Games incident serves as an important reminder for the industry. Many game studios are interested in entering Web3, but they need to be realistic about the challenges they’ll face. Not all blockchain mechanics fit well with good game design. It’s a hard lesson, but one that startup and established players who still want to experiment in this space need to hear.