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Alongside a handful of other early blockchain games, the summer of 2023 marked the 5th anniversary for TCG Splinterlands. But as our monthly updates on the most popular blockchain games have made evident however, it has struggled recently.
During 2023, Splinterlands has seen a decline in DAUWs from over 150,000 to a level as low as 50,000, while its SPS token continues to hit all-time-low prices.
So it’s no surprise to read the developer’s recent blog update about significant staff reductions and restructuring plan.
It states that “Over the past year or so, the company has been prioritizing short-term revenue over long term sustainability with the hopes of buying time until the market recovers and avoiding difficult decisions like the cuts being announced today. I want to assure the community that this will not be the case going forward.”
Outlined in more detail, the first major plan is to split up Splinterlands into two entities, with a new venture called Invennium Corp, which will be led by Jesse Reich. Its job will be to focus on all non-core Splinterlands products, most significantly Genesis League Sports and the Invennium platform.
The continued development of Splinterlands and tower defense game Soulkeep will remain under the Splinterlands team, led by Matthew Rosen, but both entities will be fully owned by parent company Steem Monsters Corp.
With separate funds and teams, the intention is to provide each project with the attention they need, rather than neither being facilitated for or developed well.
Furtermore, looking at the Splinterlands roadmap, the developer is also proposing an important change to the ownership of its forthcoming Rebellion card set. Instead of Splinterlands owning and selling the cards, it plans to hand over the ownership to the SPS DAO albeit on the assumption that the DAO hires Steem Monsters Corp to distribute the sets through the Splinterlands game platform, similar to the game’s previous Riftwatchers set.
In order to fund the development of Rebellion and the wider Splinterlands game platform, the SPS DAO will be asked to pay Steem Monsters Corp $250,000 from its treasury and split all revenue from the pack sales 50/50 with Steem Monsters Corp. Rebellion is described as adding an entirely new mechanic to the game, offering increased player agency and more engaging gameplay.
To close off, there’s also an assurance that there will be no plans to release any new products until the team has fulfilled and delivered on all promises already made.
With “enough funds and low enough expenses, we can really focus on building great products without needing to rush things out before they are ready or launch presales for new products years before they are expected to be released,” the post explains.