São Paulo-based game studio Jungle announced it would be moving away from its web3 plans and refocusing its flagship game, For The Win (FTW), solely on a free-to-play mobile model.
This pivot marks the end of Jungle’s brief venture into blockchain gaming, following a $6 million seed funding round and high expectations surrounding the studio’s ability to merge traditional gaming with blockchain technology.
With this shift, Jungle is now distancing itself from the blockchain and moving forward with a more conventional approach to mobile gaming.
What is Jungle?
Jungle is a game development studio based in São Paulo, Brazil, founded in 2022 by Joao Beraldo, Giulio Ferraro, and Lucas Kertzman. The team initially garnered attention with a bold vision: to create mobile-first games that would bridge the gap between traditional free-to-play mechanics and blockchain technology.
Jungle’s first major project, For The Win (FTW), was a fast-paced mobile first-person shooter designed to incorporate blockchain features, allowing players to own in-game assets as NFTs.
With $6 million in seed funding from prominent investors like BITKRAFT Ventures and Framework Ventures, Jungle aimed to create a new type of gaming experience that blended the growing appeal of blockchain with accessible mobile gameplay. Despite this promising start, the team has now shifted focus after realising the challenges associated with blockchain integration.
Why is Jungle moving away from web3?
Since February 2025, updates from the studio had become increasingly sparse, and community engagement appeared to slow down.
The official announcement made through a Discord message, explained that the studio had been facing a number of challenges in integrating blockchain into the game. These included issues with securing continued funding, community pressure, and the technical difficulties of maintaining blockchain features at scale.
In the message, Jungle admitted that the web3 experiment, which included plans for Solana-based NFTs and an on-chain economy, ultimately proved too difficult to sustain.
After weighing the trade-offs, the team decided that For The Win would have a better chance of success if it removed the blockchain layer and focused purely on its core gameplay.
What happens to For The Win?
Although For The Win will no longer feature web3 elements, Jungle is not abandoning the game.
As of April 2025, For The Win has reached over 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store, a strong showing for a game without significant marketing. Jungle plans to continue developing For The Win as a free-to-play mobile shooter, with new updates, content, and community-driven features, all without the blockchain integration that was initially promised.
However, the pivot raises questions about the future of the web3 assets that were tied to the game, particularly the Genesis NFTs. At present, there has been no official word on how Jungle plans to handle these assets or if any compensation or conversion options will be provided to holders.
Blockchain evangelist. Content creator & graphic design hobbyist. Loves gaming!