Contentious Card Game MetaZoo Shuts Down After Years Of Combatting 'Scam' Allegations

MetaZoo, a trading card game project that was once apparently so hyped that it met its initial Kickstarter campaign funding in 15 seconds, has shut down after just a few years on the market.

Creator Mike Waddell made the sudden announcement in the MetaZoo Discord yesterday.

According to Waddell, "logistical and product gridlocks" were the culprit behind MetaZoo's closure. However, some viewed the closure as the logical end for MetaZoo, as it's faced allegations of being a scam for years.

MetaZoo was billed as a card game featuring cryptids, though designs on the cards had a heavy resemblance to early Pokémon artwork. It launched during the pandemic and immediately made huge splashes with investors. It notably got famed DJ Steve Aoki on board as an equity partner, and the money in the project seemed to be bountiful, at least at first.

However, a series of business practices that many perceived as shady, including a disastrous attempt to capitalize on the NFT craze of 2022 and its Discord moderators reportedly banning anyone who criticized aspects of the game, gave off the impression that MetaZoo was a pump and dump scheme intended to attract investors while offering little of substance to the consumer.

As such, the death of MetaZoo hasn't exactly devastated those following the game. Instead, many are joking about the product's demise being an inevitability.

It's unclear if anyone behind MetaZoo had nefarious intent from the start since that is purely speculation for now, and its end could simply be the result of poor business rather than the back half of a scheme.

However, any answer to the question of MetaZoo's legitimacy will likely be of little solace to the players, who are left to speculate if the value of their cards will go up now that the company is no more.