Ember Sword has shut down after raising more than $200 million selling virtual plots of land. Up until recently, the crypto MMORPG was playable on PC and mobile devices.
Ember Sword started development in 2018 at Bright Star Studios, a company based out of Aarhus, Denmark. It was envisioned as a blockchain-based game, utilizing its own $EMBER token—based on the Ethereum blockchain—for purchasing and upgrading a wide variety of items, ranging from cosmetics to equipment. The in-game economy had a fixed supply of items in order to maintain their value. In April 2020, Bright Star Studios raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding for the game, according to fundraising records maintained by Wellfound. By August of the following year, the developer sold $203 million worth of virtual plots of land in the Solarwood Nation, one of Ember Sword's four worlds.
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Ember Sword's development came to an unceremonious end in late May 2025, with Bright Star Studios announcing plans to shut down the game with immediate effect. "This isn't the ending any of us wanted," reads the notice on Ember...
