Despite raising millions from the crypto community, stewards of virtual pet franchise Neopets said on Tuesday they are shelving Web3 plans to go back to basics.
As the game settles into a “new, unified entity,” calls have been made to “move over from the Neopets Metaverse game” and focus resources more closely aligned with the game’s “values,” according to a statement.
A frosty reception to NFTs from Neopians led to the pivot of blockchain, with the game’s leadership now making it their “priority” to appease Neopets’ dwindling player base. Launched in 1999, Neopets is a browser-based virtual pet website that allows players to feed, nurture, and care for a collection of fantasy critters.
At the end of June, Neopets’ JumpStart Games studio, headquartered in LA, was shut down by owner NetDragon. The franchise was then handed over to Dominic Law, a Neopets diehard who was previously employed by NetDragon. The game is now managed by a new company, The Neopets Team (TNT).
JumpStart, like others before it, had not generated substantial revenue for the franchise, TNT said in a statement. TNT said Neopets had “been at a loss for more than a decade” and was in dire need of a bailout, designed to pull out users dissatisfied with their Web3 vision.
“This decision was not taken lightly, but for the best reason: we want to design a game that is more in line with what the community has been asking for,” said a statement from the Neopets Metaverse Twitter account.
Blockworks has reached out to TNT and Neopets Metaverse for comment.
Neopets went from metavers to metaworse
The Neopets Metaverse debuted in November 2021 – the heat of the last bull market – with the launch of 10,000 unique “collector boxes”. The boxes delivered Neopet NFTs issued on Solana.
A foray into the metaverse offered to transform the game from its native 2D state to 3D, packed with well-rendered character models with verifiable ownership.
The first tranche of 1,250 boxes sold at a fixed price of one SOL ($240 then, $26.40 today), though the overall average price ended up being about double that.
After the dust settled, the Neopets Metaverse had racked up over $2 million in NFT sales. Fourteen months later, the company had raised another $4 million from crypto funds including Polygon Ventures, Hashkey Capital and Blizzard Avalanche Ecosystem Fund, along with Chinese MMORPG operator NetDragon.
“The funding was more than enough money to build a fun game around it,” MyMetaverse CEO Simon Kertonegoro told Blockworks. “For them to take this money…and break their promises to the community is sadly far too common.”
Some NFTs from Neopets are still available on Solana Marketplaces (image source)
Neopets NFTs can still be found on Solanart, Magic Eden, and Fractal. Owners will receive ongoing support, Neopets Metaverse said. Bottom prices vary widely from as little as 0.84 SOL ($22) to 8 SOL ($210).
TNT says it is now focusing on developing “World of Neopets,” an open-world 3D spin-off of the original browser game without Web3 entanglements.
Andrii Yasinetsky CEO and co-founder of NFT data analytics company Mnemonic told Blockworks that there was no point in adding NFTs without a “clear vision” of how they would add value to the gaming community in a “meaningful way”.
“My general feeling is that types of games like Farmville and so on are more likely to find added value from NFTs in their ecosystems,” he said. “There’s also a concept of skins, which could be NFTs, there seems to be a market for that.”
Other dotcom brands that have attempted a Web3 rebirth include LimeWire and Napster.