Solana Foundation Chair: Play-to-Earn has "died," Industry's Billions of Dollars Investment Could be One of the Worst Bets

BlockBeats News, March 21st, Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu stated that the blockchain gaming industry "will not return." She believes that although the industry once hoped to drive the development of Web3 and the Metaverse through on-chain assets and open worlds, the actual performance has fallen far short of expectations.

Solana was once seen as one of the most promising public blockchains to support large-scale blockchain games, thanks to its high performance and low-cost support for real-time interactions. However, projects like Star Atlas and Stepn, despite gaining attention at one point, the overall GameFi track has been on a continuous decline since its peak in 2021.

Market views point out that blockchain games have long relied on the "Play-to-Earn" and other token incentive models, but they lack the gameplay and content development capabilities that truly attract core gamers, resulting in insufficient user retention and ecosystem sustainability. Institutions including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Framework Ventures, and Animoca Brands have invested billions of dollars in the sector, but the returns have been poor.

However, some companies are still exploring transformation paths, such as Mythical Games and Gunzilla Games, gradually downplaying the blockchain elements and treating them as optional features rather than core mechanisms to improve user experience and market acceptance.