Due to their Web3 experiment failure, Aether Games officially closed permanently last month. This studio is a major game developer brand that tried to combine blockchain with trading cards, but ultimately couldn't maintain their vision.

Interestingly, they actually had quite substantial capital. Aether Games managed to raise over $10 million in funding and even obtained an exclusive license for the IP The Wheel of Time. With that level of resources, things should have gone smoothly. But in reality, there were serious internal issues—ranging from financial mismanagement errors, problematic organizational structure, to difficulties in integrating blockchain mechanics with traditional game development they were pursuing.

Cards of Eternity, the blockchain-based card game they developed, failed to gain the expected traction. In the end, on December 15th, they announced their closure and released a fairly transparent post-mortem report about their failure.

The case of Aether Games serves as an important reminder for the Web3 gaming industry. Apparently, having lots of money and good IP alone isn't enough if execution is chaotic. Many other major game studios interested in entering Web3 need to learn from this failure. Combining blockchain with traditional gaming turns out to be more complex than expected, and requires more than just enthusiasm to make the business model work.