A Solana gaming story that shows how challenging on-chain gaming really is:
@staratlas 👇
• 2020 - the vision
AAA game: a massive on-chain space MMO
not just a game, but a full sci-fi metaverse with ships, factions, economy, and player ownership
• pre-launch - foundation
led by
@at_mwagner (not from traditional gaming)
ambition was enormous from day one
• 2021 2022 - hype
NFT ships generate millions
team scales aggressively → ~235 people at peak
• 2022 - shock
FTX collapse hits hard
~$15.5M lost from treasury, plus other major damage from the same period
• 2023 - reality
multi-million monthly burn
AAA scope proved too heavy to sustain
→ layoffs ~120 people cut (~73%)
→ team goes from ~167 → ~45
• 2023 2024 - pivot
focus shifts to survival shipping
SAGE (on-chain gameplay)
mobile app
economy first
at times in October 2023, it reached ~15% of Solana daily transactions
• 2025 today - rebuild
SAGE Labs stays live
Holosim adds another playable layer
the product becomes more real, even if slower than the original dream
• ahead - direction
C4 and Zink now look like the next big steps
focus is on cheaper gameplay, deeper systems, and the next major releases
building games is hard
building AAA games is harder
building them on-chain is a different level entirely
many would have walked away
credit to Star Atlas for still being here, still building, and doing it the right way
hopefully the future of Solana gaming is built by teams like this 🎮