One of the first licensed crypto-backed games, which appeared years before the current craze for video games and non-fungible tokens, has closed leaving those who invested with little to show except for a bunch of worthless NFTs.

As spotted by Kotaku, F1 Delta Time shuttered a couple weeks ago. Launched in 2019, the game used the open-source blockchain Ethereum and was based on players collecting and trading F1 cars, drivers, and components. It was considered a fairly big deal for the enthusiasts in this annoying trend, especially as it used the official F1 license, and it was also the source of the most expensive NFT sold in 2019. One F1 Delta Time car went for over $100,000. I wonder how much it is worth now... probably a lot less.

Related: 5 Things I Would Want in Games More Than NFTs

While F1 Delta Time rode some hype with its promise of "play to earn" and as an early example of how blockchain-powered games might work it seems the experiment has failed. The game announced that it was closing on March 15 leaving players scrambing as it was due to shutter only a day after. The game's developer Animoca was unable to renew its F1 license, and with the title's closure this leaves those players who spent their hard-earned on cars and other in-game items with virtually useless tokens.

F1-Delta-Time_1-1-1_product-shot-1
Someone spent $113,000 on this NFT car.
via racefans.net

Their NFTs may still exist but without being able to use them in this game or many others, their value is practically worthless. The developers are aware of this and in an update said: "All other F1 Delta Time assets can be swapped for Proxy Assets, which will be used in the future to obtain NFTs for products across the REVV Motorsport ecosystem".

While games shutting down is in itself not unusual or uncommon, players usually spend money on in-game items to enhance their experience but with F1 Delta Time pitching their in-game items as investments, and the game as a way to earn, it looks as if the main premise didn't work out making all of this now reading as a cautionary tale.

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