Yield Guild Games is walking away from game publishing. The crypto gaming company announced it’s shutting down YGG Play, its publishing arm, and cutting 35 jobs. The reason? A brutal crypto market and an equally tough video game publishing business that just weren’t sustainable anymore.
The company pointed to the major market crash on October 10 as a turning point. That event “fundamentally altered retail market psychology,” YGG said, and they don’t expect the Web3 games publishing market to recover anytime soon. Tough call, but they framed it as a market decision, not a product failure.
Co-founder Gabby Dizon: “I am proud of what this team achieved under such tough conditions.”
So what’s getting shut down? YGG Play’s website, its web app for launching games, and its community rewards site. All marketing support for third-party games is ending too. The browser games LOL Land and Waifu Sweeper are being taken down. Only the Web3 versions of GIGACHADBAT and Ragnarok Breaker will keep running.
Where’s YGG going instead? AI data. The company says it’s pivoting into the “AI data economy,” starting with gaming datasets. Their global community can generate behavioral data just by playing games — data that helps AI models understand human decision-making under pressure.
The restructuring extends YGG’s operating runway to four years. They’ve got $20.6 million in the treasury as of Q1.
This is part of a bigger trend. Crypto companies have cut over 5,000 jobs this year. Block Inc. led the way with 4,000 cuts in February. BitGo, Robinhood, Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, and Crypto.com have all laid people off, often citing a shift toward AI.
