BLOCKLORDS
The Steam release was followed by a closure report that summer
A medieval grand-strategy MMO from MetaKing Studios in which players farmed, fought and ruled as NFT heroes who married, had heirs and passed traits down a dynasty, with an LRDS token and a companion on-chain game on Base.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- Steam release to closure
- Estimated
Steam release (2026-03-31) to closure report (2026-08-06); dated endpoints, rather than project lifespan.
- Steam user reviews that are positive
As shown on the game's Steam page on 24 September 2026. At the closure the shutdown report gave 35% of 65.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed round | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Johansson | — | Founder, Stealth (since May 2026) | Oct 2026 | |
| Nicky Li | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Promises vs reality
Target · target Dec 2023
A release came, but late: the game was released on Steam on 31 March 2026, more than two years after the 2023 target. In August 2024 the chief executive still called the game a very rough alpha, with the battle system in development. It was closed about four months after the Steam release.
Of 68 user reviews on Steam, 35% were positive.
Commitment
The token launched in July 2024. Which of the described uses were built, and how far, is not established by the sources found here. The closure announcement said nothing about the token's future.
By the closure the token's market value was reported at about $1.15 million, and one exchange had delisted it in July 2026.
What shipped
- · Jun 2024
- · Jul 2024
- · Mar 2026
A missed promise is a missed promise. It is not evidence of fraud, and this page does not treat it as any.
Timeline
2018
The shutdown report dates work on the game to 2018. The chief executive put the first conversation about it at '2019 or 2020' in a 2024 interview. The two accounts are not reconciled.
25 May 2022
The studio said the money would fund development and marketing, with hero NFT mints that summer, an early-access launch, and the full game in 2023.
24 July 2024
Launched with a player airdrop. The chief executive said the first day's trading volume was over $40 million and that, had it launched in January, it 'probably would have worked out five times more'.
31 March 2026
24 June 2026
The studio's last post on its Steam news feed.
20 July 2026
Coinsavi removed the token and stopped withdrawals, ahead of the closure announcement.
6 August 2026
The game's account, renamed BLOCKLORE, announced the closure and a switch to a node-based canvas for AI generation. No shutdown date was given.
How it ended
Pivoted away
About four months after the game's Steam release, its official account, renamed BLOCKLORE, announced that the studio was closing the game and redirecting its work to a node-based canvas for AI image and video generation. No shutdown date was given, and the announcement did not say when servers would go off, what would happen to assets players held, or what would become of the LRDS token.
What happened next
- Aftermath6 August 2026
The game's domain now hosts BLOCKLORE, described as a canvas for generating and editing images, video and audio, operated by Metaking Studios OU.
Still alive
Open spot
BLOCKLORDS is gone. Is your strategy game still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
9 sources behind this page.
- 1Blocklords' David Johansson on launching LRDS token, dealing with bots and the permadeath of all your NFTs · BlockchainGamer.biz (Steel Media) · Aug 2024
- 2MetaKing Studios Raises $15M to Launch Web 3 Strategy Game Blocklords · CoinDesk · May 2022
- 3MetaKing Studios Pulls the Plug on BLOCKLORDS, Rebrands as BLOCKLORE AI Canvas · eGamers.io · Aug 2026
- 4LinkedIn profile of David Johansson · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 5About Us | BLOCKLORE · Metaking Studios OU
- 6Gaming Company MetaKing Studios Raises $15M Seed Funding to Create MMO Blockchain Game Blocklords · NFTgators · May 2022
- 7BLOCKLORDS Announces 300k $LRDS Community First Gamedrop to Celebrate TGE · PR Newswire (release issued by the studio) · Jul 2024
- 8BLOCKLORDS on Steam · Valve (Steam)
- 9Steam news feed for BLOCKLORDS · Valve (Steam), posts written by the developer
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.