Blaseball is closing down and some staff are being laid off
Blaseball, the supernatural baseball browser-based betting league that became a brief social phenomena in 2020, is closing down. Its developers The Game Band announced the news yesterday, writing that the cost of running the game, "literally and metaphorically, is too high." An undisclosed number of staff are also being laid off.
"It is with a heavy heart we announce that we are not going to run the Coronation Era as planned and are making the decision to end Blaseball today," begins the announcement.
"The short of it is that Blaseball isn’t sustainable to run. Since Blaseball’s inception, we’ve been fighting against the amount of work it takes to keep Blaseball true to itself while financially supporting the team and keeping our staff healthy. We’ve tried countless solutions to make it work, and we’ve come to the conclusion that this fight isn’t one we can win in the long run. The cost, literally and metaphorically, is too high. So we are making the decision to end it here instead of changing Blaseball into something unrecognizable.
"Part of this loss is many of our incredible team members," it continues. "Our team size has to change to give us enough runway to even begin to make something new." Those laid off will be given "severance, healthcare extensions, and job search resources" to help find new work.
As a game, Blaseball was fairly simple: you signed up via its website, chose a team, and bet in-game currency on the results of matches. What made it different was its rich fiction, including teams such as the Charleston Shoe Thieves ("Your kicks are my kicks") and the Baltimore Crabs ("Claws up!") and players such as Jessica Telephone and Blood Hamburger, and the supernatural twists that allowed for wild rule
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