MechaFightClub NFT games ‘indefinitely paused’ due to US ‘regulatory limbo’
MechaFightClub, an NFT game from Solana-based Irreverent Labs, is halting development indefinitely because its makers believe the crypto’s future in the US is too uncertain right now amid regulatory challenges.
“We don’t see a clear path forward to launch the economy from the US,” said Irreverent Labs CEO and co-founder Rahul Sood Decrypt of the decision to stop development.
“Moving it to other jurisdictions would require much of the senior team to move out of the US for a period of time,” he added.
MechaFightClub (MFC) was a planned cockfighting video game that utilized artificial intelligence and would see mechanical roosters battle it out in “Cocktagon”. Sood told Decrypt that the closure was Irreverent’s own decision, but that it will not sell the MFC brand because it is “too close to the soul of our company.”
He added that the game had reached “alpha” status, which usually means it’s playable and feature-rich, but still lacks significant content and polish. Sood said that MechFightClub may “appear again in the future in a different form,” but that the team has not decided yet.
The company shared the news of MechaFightClub’s shutdown Thursday night along with the promise that it will buy back all mechabot NFTs for 18 SOL each—roughly $365 apiece—from May 15th to June 29th.
Before the announcement, the NFTs were selling for around 7 SOL, less than half of that price, on the NFT marketplace Magic Eden. The MFC NFTs have since been hidden from sale on Magic Eden.
SEC’s crypto crackdown
Irreverent Labs claimed in a open letter that the game was “trapped in regulatory limbo.” In recent months, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stepped up its enforcement actions against crypto startups and platforms in the country, alleging widespread violations of securities laws.
“The regulatory and operating environment surrounding blockchain in the United States has changed drastically over the past two years,” Irreverent Labs wrote in its letter.
“We are an American company and a lack of clarity makes it difficult for blockchain companies to operate here,” Irreverent Labs added. “In the current regulatory confusion, we simply couldn’t create an in-game economy without worrying about regulatory ramifications.”
At Irreverent’s One hundred years podcast this week, just days before news of MFC’s shutdown, Sood said he believes SEC Chairman Gary Gensler “owes his job to Elizabeth Warren” and argued that Gensler and US Senator Warren want to “kill crypto because they think the whole is a scam”. .”
Now that MFC is shutting down, Sood Irreverent Labs is turning more fully to artificial intelligence instead. Sood told Decrypt in a direct message that Irreverent has made a “significant breakthrough” in its AI model, which it said can create short-form videos from images. The studio plans to release it later this year under new branding.
The hope for MFC was short-lived, but fervent – just a year ago, the company announced a hefty $40 million funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with Solana Ventures, CAA founder Michael Ovitz, Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, Infinity Ventures founder Brian Lu and others investing.
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Decrypt reached out to Andreessen Horowitz for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
VC firm general partner Arianna Simpson wrote Last year, she initially thought the game “sounded weird”, but then invested because she thought the team was “serious” and “skilled”, and had a good sense of humor along with a thriving Discord server community.
Now that community is winding down – but at least rooster owners can part ways with their robo-chickens and try to find fun elsewhere.
