PANews reported on April 6 that according to Blockworks, Neon Machine, the developer of the crypto shooting game Shrapnel, is facing serious financial difficulties. So far, the company has spent nearly $86.9 million in operating funds, and its revenue in 2024 reached $21.7 million, but the high operating costs of about $33 million have prevented it from making a profit, with a net loss of $11.4 million.
Sources said that Neon Machine's monthly capital consumption is as high as 2 million to 3.5 million US dollars. It is currently in a state of cash exhaustion, has a large amount of outstanding debt, and owes millions of dollars to external suppliers. Neon Machine's new round of financing originally scheduled to be completed in early 2025 has also failed to land. Previously, the company completed a $20 million Series A financing in October 2023, led by Polychain Capital.
Not only that, the company's staff has also dropped sharply from nearly 100 people at its peak to only a dozen people. Currently, only a very small number of people are actually involved in the development of "Shrapnel". In order to extend cash flow, the company has implemented at least three rounds of layoffs and asked high-paid employees to voluntarily reduce their salaries by about 20%. The Seattle-based office was also closed at the end of March.
Despite this, the company still claims that it is "in its strongest state ever" and plans to launch Shrapnel simultaneously around the world by the end of 2025. However, several people close to Neon Machine are skeptical about whether the game can be successfully launched, saying that the project has not been completed and the funds have been exhausted.
In addition, according toPeople's Daily Online-Jinbao , Lingjing People's Game Laboratory held talks with the main creative team of "Shrapnel" (tentative Chinese translation: Shrapnel), and the two parties reached a preliminary cooperation intention on issues such as the minting and distribution, compliant circulation, and market operations of game digital assets in the Chinese market.
