- ChronoForge is closing on December 30, 2025 after failing to secure novel financing.
- The project cost $4.4 million and laid off 80% of its staff due to financial difficulties.
- A major bug in multiplayer required 75% of the code to be rewritten, resulting in a year-long delay.
ChronoForgeblockchain-based multiplayer action RPG game from Minted Loot Studios will cease operations on December 30, 2025.after failure to secure additional financing. Closing takes place: a funding shortage that caused the studio to operate on personal funds and forced deep staff cutswhat in turn it undermined the usefulness of the symbol and the long-term viability of the project. Studio autopsies and industry reports detail the protracted financial challenges, technical failures and market problems that combined to end the project.
Financial, team and technical challenges
Minted Loot Studios confirmed the closure and cited the information prolonged financial difficulties and failed rescue talks with venture capital firms, publishers and blockchain networks– according to the studio’s autopsy, which was reported by the industry media.
Total project funding has reached $4.4 million, including an earlier raise of $3 million tied to the initial RIFT tokenwhile the company the original development budget was $2 million. Team since January employment reduction by 80% and from July the remaining employees worked without paydue to the failure of numerous discussions about acquisitions and partnerships, z some networks pull out mid-negotiation.
A stern technical failure required an almost complete renovation, developers said over 75% of the code was rewritten to fix a fundamental multiplayer flawa process that consumed most of the remaining resources and delivery delayed for over a year.
Two planned token funding events –scheduled for April and November 2024— were discontinued after multiplayer testing failed at the last minute. Although the game is achieved Early Access on the Epic Games Store with an Epic Rating of 4.2 and the studio became Nintendo Switch Approved Publisherthese milestones did not translate into sustainable financing.
Token utility, monetization and market context
Rift Foundation, main sponsor, has chosen not to launch the $CHRONO token because the game would lack ongoing utility without a viable live product; The foundation also said yes has exhausted its ability to finance a continuation.
Player complaints and a studio autopsy were highlighted basic problems related to design and monetizationand users described the title as “a dreary, shallow MMORPG” and criticized “brutal pay-to-win model– according to the autopsy.
Key monetization metrics included many playable races and classes requiring NFTs or in-game purchases (class access approximately 20,000 forge stamps, approximately $10), $5 inventory pages, NFT floor prices near $380AND $26 Founder’s Pass for participating in the leaderboard; these mechanics it hampered employee retention and weakened the revenue profile necessary to attract institutional capital recyclers.
The autopsy placed the ChronoForge failure in a broader context “crypto winter” which will hit in 2022–2023 and the collapse of compulsory royalty systemswhat he stated destroyed about 90% of Web3 game projects.
Until 2025, investors demanded fully operational high-performance games before deploying capital; shows comparative financing larger peers raise much more (one of the cited competitors exceeded $17.9 million).
“Without real, ongoing play, the token had no significant utility,” the postmortem noted, summarizing the Rift Foundation’s reasoning for pausing the token’s launch.
ChronoForge’s closure reflects convergence technical debt, aggressive monetization and tighter financing conditions which together made the sequel unsustainable.
For treasuries and institutional players, this case highlights the need for demonstrable usability and demonstrable stability of the product before committing capital to tokenized game projects. Next verified milestone: The studio’s operations end on December 30, 2025.
