Well-liked Free Steam Game 'Storybook Brawl' Review-bombed After Announcing Plans To Integrate NFTs

Yet another indie game is tanking its reputation by dabbling in NFTs. This time, the target of some gamers' ire is Storybook Brawl, a free-to-play card autobattler similar to Hearthstone. Developers Good Time Games announced they had been acquired by FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, earlier last week. According to Good Time Games, FTX viewed Storybook Brawl as "an opportunity to be the vanguard for the ethical integration of gaming and crypto transactions in a way that hasn’t yet been done in this space."

As is usually the case with these types of announcements, the developers couldn't provide players with a concrete explanation of how NFTs would be used in the game. Resetera highlighted screenshots with the game's Discord where the developers are unable to explain how NFTs would be integrated, only saying that it would be "ethical" and "fun."

The backlash was immediate from the game's community. Moderators of the game's decently sized subreddit /r/StoryBookBrawl resigned. On Steam, the reviews almost instantly flipped from positive to "Overwhelmingly Negative." One player with over 131 hours logged into the game wrote, "The developer was recently bought out by a crypto company (FTX) that plans to use the game as a testbed for NFT monetization strategies. No thanks."

The Discord is going great. pic.twitter.com/veXRO1esPn

— Brendan Sinclair (@BrendanSinclair) March 22, 2022

Many reviewers prior to the developer's acquisition by FTX gave effusive praise for the game when it was in early access. "I will start this review at the end. Here goes: This is the best auto-battler on Steam currently," went one review written in December.

As of now, it looks like Storybook Brawl has largely alienated its fanbase with the move. There may still be time to cancel the merger and win back fans, as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 did after fans erupted in a similar protest, but it could be that the damage has already been done.