’OpenSeason’ Crypto Game Shuts Down—Devs Pivot to Risky ’Nude Gambling’ Metaverse Play
Crypto's latest 'play-to-earn' experiment just swerved into a NSFW ditch. The team behind OpenSeason—a blockchain-based hunting sim—abruptly pulled the plug on their game this week. Their new roadmap? A pivot toward adult-themed gambling mechanics wrapped in tokenomics.
Because nothing screams 'mass adoption' like combining degenerate trading with degenerate behavior.
The move follows a familiar Web3 pattern: when your utility token tanks, double down on vice. Early testers report the new model involves wagering crypto on... anatomical accuracy in procedurally generated avatars. Classy.
Meanwhile, traditional finance bros are still trying to explain why their SEC-approved ETFs can't compete with this level of 'innovation.'
What happened to OpenSeason?
OpenSeason was a battle royale shooter game with crypto-native memes implemented into the game—like Bored APE and Milady avatars, and a Doge-themed world.
Fractional Uprising Studios developed the PC game—which launched on the Epic Games Store—and released NFT access passes and a token alongside it. But Krypticrooks, who co-founded the studio, said development was paused due to funding issues—with OpenSeason joining a growing list of crypto games that have shut down this year alone.
“It is tentatively not in production. The server costs are too expensive,” Krypticrooks told Decrypt. “We could turn it back on whenever, but we don’t really have any backers at the moment. Basically, we’re just taking another direction with Booby Bot.”
For the record, while the Core team from Fractional Uprising is behind Booby Bot, the game isn't branded as being from the studio. Still, Krypticrooks said, there is a chance that Booby Bot implements a use case for the FU token—which is now down 95% from its all-time high price.
Krypticrooks explained that the pressure a token brings to a game studio was one of the major reasons that OpenSeason and Fractional Uprising failed.
“This is what crypto wanted. They wanted a non-VC-backed game token, and that’s exactly what we were,” he told Decrypt. “But I don't think that’s truly what the community is asking for, because all they did was extract value from our token.”
“I think they want a way to make money,” he added.
In an attempt to keep the token alive, Fractional Uprising burned 82% of its token supply in December, which it believed WOULD help the coin’s health. FU Money (FU) hit its all-time high market cap of $17.44 million just four days later. But within a month, the token had dropped almost 58% to $7.33 million, and is now dramatically lower at just $934,000.
Fractional Uprising was trying to juggle the development of an indie game with supporting a crypto token that investors expect to keep rising in value and utility—a uniquely difficult challenge, the co-founder said.
Krypticrooks said there were quality control issues due to bringing in remote developers to work on the game, which took a lot of time and attention to address, including a firing spree. Meanwhile, the community kept pressuring the studio to pump the token’s price.
“It’s like, ‘Dude, I’m on the phone from 6 or 7 am until sometimes midnight, dealing with different development issues, and working in Blender, working in Unreal Engine, working in Adobe suites to solve issues; and then managing a team, managing marketing,” he said. “Adding a token is just a fucking nightmare, really."
For Booby Bot, the team has decided to simplify things. It’s just AI-generated naked women, a grid of squares, and a hope that horny degen gamblers throw money at it.
“Hopefully in the not-so-distant future," Krypticrooks said, "we have some people laughing about making money showing tits."
