Nyan Heroes
Four playtests, then the studio closed before the full release
A free-to-play hero shooter in which cats piloted mechs, built in Unreal Engine 5 by the Singapore studio 9 Lives Interactive with an optional Solana layer.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- Players across four playtests
- Estimated
Studio-reported players across four reward-bearing playtests at May 2025 closure; counting method unspecified, not independently measured.
- Wishlists across Epic and Steam
- Estimated
Studio-reported total across Epic and Steam at May 2025 closure; wishlist counts were not independently checked and are not purchases.
- Token price against its 2024 high
On the day the closure was announced the token traded at about $0.006, against a high of $0.45 reached in May 2024, the month it launched. It fell about 40% on the day itself and its market value dropped below $1 million.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 round | 2022 | ||
| March 2024 round | 2024 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Fu | — | Not established | Sep 2026 | |
| Andrew Cain | — | Not established | Sep 2026 |
Promises vs reality
Target
The studio closed about six months before the planned launch, saying the funding to finish the game could not be found. The game never left playtest.
Commitment
The token launched on schedule in May 2024 and was airdropped to players who had earned points in the playtests. The rest of what it was sold on, marketplace fees, buybacks out of studio revenue and awakened in-game items, all depended on a finished game and a marketplace that never arrived.
Within a year of launch the token traded about 98.5% below its high, and its market value was under $1 million on the day of the closure.
Commitment
Four playtests did run, so beta access existed to be given. Whether holders of the collection actually received it, or the merchandise and other benefits, is not established by any source found here.
Commitment
This one held for as long as the game did. The playtests were free to play on a mainstream storefront, needed no wallet and had no NFT integration, and the token launch did not change that. It is the rare case here of a blockchain game keeping the chain genuinely optional.
The further blockchain features described as coming never arrived, because the game did not.
What shipped
- · Mar 2024
- · Mar 2024
- · May 2024
- · Apr 2025
A missed promise is a missed promise. It is not evidence of fraud, and this page does not treat it as any.
Timeline
2 August 2021
The studio was established in 2021 under the name Rude Robot Studios, drawing staff from Electronic Arts, Bungie and Ubisoft. The earliest dated public trace found for the game is its own account, created on 2 August 2021. A trade outlet dates the game's announcement to 2022.
2021
One source dates the collection to 2021, before there was a game to play, and describes holders as getting beta access, merchandise and other benefits. Another dates the project's first Solana NFT sale to 2023. No proceeds figure was ever published.
14 March 2024
The CEO described an Unreal Engine 5 shooter with blockchain-based asset ownership. The announcement came two weeks before the public playtest.
April 2024
By April, a limited demo had let players pilot cat-controlled mechs. GAMES.GG reported the team’s download and daily-player counts; mission registrations and connected wallets were separate measures.
21 May 2024
Launched on an exchange with an airdrop to players who had earned points in the playtests. Its highest price, about $0.45, came in the month it launched.
26 April 2025
Fun Fact: Nyan Heroes is built on Solana
16 May 2025
A single long post announced it. The studio said the latest build had not driven the player numbers it needed, and that talks with publishers, investors, grant programmes and possible acquirers had not produced the capital to finish the game. The token fell about 40% that day.
Read the full post
It's been about 1 month since our 4th playtest. We're incredibly grateful for the positivity and support that you have shown for our latest release and all of our prior playtests. Unfortunately, despite the amazing progress that we made over the years, the latest product failed to drive the player numbers that we'd been hoping for, and with the current challenges in the web3 market, we couldn't secure the funding required to keep the studio going. We are proud of what we've achieved to date. Thanks to your support, more than a quarter of a million players have wishlisted the game on Epic and Steam, and over a million players have joined us across four playtests. Your enthusiasm helped us top Epic Games trending and most played charts on numerous occasions and have featured in traditional media outlets including IGN, Business Insider and Game Rant. Despite these accomplishments and discussions around publishing, new investments, grants and acquisition - we weren't able to secure the required capital to see the game to completion. This is not the outcome we were hoping for. The industry is in a tough spot right now and Nyan Heroes will unfortunately be closing its doors. In our time together, the team has achieved incredible progress and demonstrated that its possible to do amazing work while fostering a culture of fun and creativity. We're collectively heartbroken that we wont be able to bring our cat-inspired universe to completion. Thank you to everyone who supported us in our journey.
How it ended
Ran out of money
9 Lives Interactive announced on 16 May 2025 that the studio was closing, a month after the game's fourth playtest and about six months before the full launch it had planned. It said the latest build had not driven the player numbers it needed and that talks with publishers, investors, grant programmes and possible acquirers had all failed to produce the capital to finish the game. Its chief executive said afterwards that a sale of the studio or the intellectual property was being explored.
What happened next
- Aftermath16 May 2025
On the day of the closure the chief executive told an outlet by email that a sale of the studio or of the intellectual property was being explored and that some discussions were under way, while cautioning that a decision could take time. Whether any sale followed is not established by any source found here.
Still alive
Open spot
Nyan Heroes is gone. Is your shooter still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
11 sources behind this page.
- 1Nyan Heroes is shutting down · BlockchainGamer.biz (Steel Media) · May 2025
- 2Solana Game 'Nyan Heroes' Reveals Token Launch Amid Play-to-Airdrop Push · Decrypt · May 2024
- 3Solana Shooter Game 'Nyan Heroes' Shuts Down Amid Funding Issues · Decrypt · May 2025
- 4What Is Nyan Heroes? The Solana Shooter Game and NYAN Token Explained · Decrypt
- 59 Lives Interactive Secures $3M Funding for Nyan Heroes · GAMES.GG · Mar 2024
- 6Nyan Heroes pre-alpha reaches Epic Games players · GAMES.GG · Apr 2024
- 7Nyan Heroes Developer 9 Lives Interactive Raises $3M Funding to Support Global Launch of its Web3 Hero Shooter · Metaverse Post · Mar 2024
- 8Web3 Shooter Nyan Heroes Shuts Down Despite 1M Players and 250K Wishlists · PlayToEarn · May 2025
- 9Most recent posts from @nyanheroes · twitterapi.io
- 10Search of @nyanheroes posts across the shutdown, 14 to 25 May 2025 · twitterapi.io
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- 11X account record for @nyanheroes · twitterapi.io
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.