Blast Royale
Closed eight months after its token launched, then gave away its code
A free-to-play top-down mobile battle royale for iOS and Android with NFT equipment and a play-and-earn token, made by the London studio First Light Games.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private token sale (seed) | 2022 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neil McFarland | — | "Sky" | Oct 2026 | |
| Anil Das-Gupta | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Promises vs reality
Target
The closure report described a planned release. The follow-up search did not establish that a usable source release was published.
A bounded follow-up search did not establish execution; absence of a result does not establish failure.
A missed promise is a missed promise. It is not evidence of fraud, and this page does not treat it as any.
Timeline
2018
Its co-founder dates the company to 2018 and describes it as having started as a free-to-play games company before moving into blockchain games.
13 April 2022
The studio planned a beta for the third quarter of 2022.
20 March 2023
Its co-founder says anyone can play it, and that getting an NFT game onto the app stores had been a struggle.
6 November 2024
A pre-sale of the NOOB token at a stated fully diluted valuation of $10 million, with listing planned for 13 November. The press release describes the token as the studio token for this and future games.
25 April 2025
In a Discord message reported by PlayToEarn, it said the token launch had not helped as much as hoped and the in-game economy was not covering development costs.
19 May 2025
The studio says development is discontinued and the game will close on 30 June 2025.
30 June 2025
How it ended
Ran out of money
First Light Games announced in May 2025 that it was discontinuing development and that the game would close on 30 June 2025. PlayToEarn, reporting the studio's Discord announcement, said it had run out of funds and could find no investor to extend its runway, and that an earlier message had said the token launch had not helped as hoped and the in-game economy was not covering development costs. In-app payments were switched off, remaining scheduled tokens were to be unlocked, and the source code was released as open source from 1 June 2025.
What happened next
- Community takeover1 June 2025
The studio said the code would be released with no restrictions from 1 June 2025, and offered its developers, designers and marketers to anyone carrying the game forward. Whether any community version has since run is not established by any source found here.
Still alive
Open spot
Blast Royale is gone. Is your shooter still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
13 sources behind this page.
- 1NOOB on Base FAQ · Blast Royale documentation
- 2Blast Royale and Tatsumeeko: Lumina Fates closing down · BlockchainGamer.biz · May 2025
- 3Interview: Anil Das-Gupta talks about community, scammers and web3 adoption · BlockchainGamer.biz · Mar 2023
- 4Blast Royale to Launch $NOOB Low FDV Community Offering (LCO) for First Gaming x Meme Token · Brave New Coin (press release) · Oct 2024
- 5FIRST LIGHT GAMES LTD people · Companies House (UK)
- 6Neil MCFARLAND: appointments · Companies House (UK)
- 7Blast Royale Raises $5 Million In Seed Round Led by Animoca Brands and Mechanism Capital · crypto.news · Apr 2022
- 8Blast Royale Game to End Development · GAMES.GG
- 9LinkedIn profile: Neil McFarland - Sky | LinkedIn · LinkedIn, as shown in Brave Search API results (self-published profile) · user-editable
- 10Blast Royale Is Shutting Down and Going Open Source · PlayToEarn · May 2025
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- 11Blast Royale secures whopping $5 million in seed round · PlayToEarn · Apr 2022
- 12X account lookup: @_AnilDG · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 13Blast Royale Shuts Down Just Months After Token Launch — But Its Code Lives On · Web3Gamer · Jul 2025
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.