The developer of the “Pokémon-like” game Untamed Isles, Phat Loop Studios, has cited the collapse of the crypto market as the cause of its investors’ exodus.
Phat Loop Studios, the business criticized last week for canceling the crypto and Kickstarter-funded MMORPG game Untamed Isles, denies claims that they misappropriated backers’ funds by investing in cryptocurrencies.
Following the announcement of a “hiatus” of their open-world video game that plays like Pokemon, the company came under fire last week. Some in the community accused the developers of using game development funds to wager on the cryptocurrency markets.
The project’s creators, who raised more than $841,000 NZD ($525,000 USD) on Kickstarter, said in a statement released on Wednesday that all funds raised “were spent by the company building the game.”
After “many investors” withdrew recently “because of concerns about both the economic market and the crypto market,” the company claimed that the reason for the pause was “the company expending its available funds.”
The project had been on track to release in October, according to the initial notification regarding the postponement. However, Grant said that the project’s production had been suspended because the company couldn’t “financially keep up with the expectations.”
Grant claimed that the “economic landscape” for cryptocurrencies had changed, making it difficult to continue working on the project, which had employed “more than 70 workers” and taken “more than two years” to create.
“The crypto market crash meant that investors that were lined up earlier this year pulled out” who was necessary to “make it through to our runway to launch,” said Grant.
NFT implementation was originally intended to be a part of the game’s launch, however, plans for this were later abandoned in favor of an optional external marketplace.
This infuriated many people who questioned the validity of blaming the project’s failure as a justification for the crypto market meltdown if it was built on the tenet “game first, crypto second.”
Although it is unclear how much cryptocurrency was actually intended to be integrated into the project, Mr. Grant remarked that “until the crypto situation is resolved – and we’re confident it will be at some stage – then we have to hibernate development on this project.”
