Pudgy Penguins clocks 500K downloads in two weeks
Pudgy Penguins’ new battle royale game, Pudgy Party, has racked up half a million downloads within the first two weeks of launching, and gamers are praising how subtle and well-integrated the Web3 elements are.
“It has just the right am [amount] of Web3 and doesn’t force you to buy tokens or NFTs from the start,” gamer Spike said in an X post. “I’ve played 300+ Web3 games and it’s safe to say @PlayPudgyParty is nothing short of a masterpiece.”
Several blockchain and gaming firms have recently told Magazine that the key to onboarding a mass wave of gamers onto Web3 is to make blockchain itself “invisible.”
This may be an element in Pudgy Party’s success with the official X account recently sharing that it has officially passed 500,000 downloads on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store since launching on Aug. 29. Co-developed by Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games, the multiplayer mobile title brings Pudgy Penguin characters into fast-paced mini-games while incorporating optional Web3 features like item ownership and trading via the Mythical Platform marketplace.
The Empirex founder Zorin said he “onboarded” his sister into Pudgy Party. “This is exactly how you onboard new users, make it fun to play,” Zorin said.
Spike explained, “The core loop is insanely fun, and the progression and collecting mechanics keep you coming back.”
While the PENGU token is still down from its July all-time highs, PENGU has bounced up almost 20% over the past seven days, trading at $0.03292 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.
CEO Luca Netz told Yellow Panther to expect new maps and gameplay, partnerships with big brands and influencers and a million-dollar tournament in Q4 with PENGU rewards.
Recent alpha on @PlayPudgyParty 🪩
Amazing interview done by @yellowpantherx with @LucaNetz
> Big Collab skins with influencers/celebrities
> New maps and gameplay
> Announcement of Pudgy Party tournaments in Q4 2025 with prize pool of up to a million dollars in $PENGU 💰… pic.twitter.com/20sRIIa7fE
— chefjames.eth (@ChefJames_) September 15, 2025
Pirate Nation shuts down this week, and the gaming devs didn’t hold back
The blockchain-based pirate RPG Pirate Nation is set to shut down forever this week, almost three years after launching.
The game developers were blunt about the reason for the closure. “The game has not attracted enough of an audience to justify continued investment and operation,” the official account said in an X post.“The reality is that running two chains no longer makes sense from a dollars-and-cents business perspective. We love Pirate Nation and believe we developed great onchain tech that was proven out through the game.”
“The demand for the fully onchain version of Pirate Nation simply isn’t there to sustain operation indefinitely,” it said again, just to hammer down the point.
Pirate Nation is a free-to-play Ethereum-based game where players captain pirate ships, explore the seas, collect loot and upgrade their vessels. While the main game is shutting down, parts will survive within the Proof of Play Arcade, and Founder’s Pirates NFTs will transition into identity NFTs with a final token allocation.
Community reactions were mixed. Gamer Loaf questioned whether the closure undermines the concept of onchain games. “They shouldn’t ever die — they could be open-sourced and live on a chain forever. Let people run their own infra, no?” Loaf said.
Meanwhile, Somnia Network founder Paul Somi said, “Sad to see this go. Building is hard. Much respect for making the tough decision.”
Pirate Nation is the latest in a string of blockchain game shutdowns. Tokyo Beast, a competitive NFT battler launched in June, shut down servers by Aug. 24 after just over a month of being live due to operational cost challenges.
Multiplayer strategy game Age of Dino will shut down by the end of September, after announcing in August that both the main game and its companion app will sunset.
MapleStory U claims a massive decrease in hackers
Avalanche-based MapleStory Universe is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in its battle against cheaters and hackers exploiting the game, according to the game’s developers.
The game has ramped up its enforcement against dodgy users and, in late August, sanctioned approximately 20,000 “abnormal” accounts, the developers said in a recent statement.
“Following these actions, macro usage has shown a clear and steady decline. With the Credit Level System raising the severity of penalties, it has become increasingly difficult for macro users and farming operations to return in the same way,” they said.
MapleStory added a Credit Level system to make the MapleStory Universe safer and more stable from those exploiting…
cointelegraph.com