Bitbender Leaves Gala Games; Trouble in the Land of Spider Tanks?

Gala bids farewell to BitBender

Jason Brink, also known as BitBender, has been a long time fixture at Gala Games. In fact, he has often been the main spokesperson for the organization, and is often seen joining discussions with players in the Discord chat on a daily basis!

And though he is leaving Gala Games, BitBender says that he is not leaving the Gala ecosystem. His new venture, LFG Incorporated, is a studio devoted to developing and expanding the web3 world, with a focus on GalaChain and the GALA ecosystem.

They say they will focus on bringing new projects to GalaChain and the Gala Node ecosystem by providing services to their partners. These services will include things such as blockchain education, assistance with integrations, tokenomics design, community building, and more.

Apparently, a number of other people have also resigned from Gala to join LFG Inc., making this a potentially significant blow to Gala Games, at least in the short-term.

And while BitBender's departure will be felt in the Gala Games community, the fallout from the Spider Tanks fiasco is possibly an even bigger story!

Is Spider Tanks Dead?

Spider Tanks, the play to earn, MOBA-style, tank-battling game, officially released on Gala Games back in 2022.

And though Spider Tanks seemed like it had a chance to succeed, development here just kind of stopped completely. In fact, they haven't made a game update since September of 2023, and not a single word about development on their Discord server since March of this year (2024)!

Things became clearer when Gamedia, the development company behind Spider Tanks, recently released an official statement.

In this statement, Gamedia claims that Gala Games neglected their duties towards Spider Tanks, particularly in the area of marketing, player service, and repeated, delayed payments to Gamedia.

Gamedia also claims that they have two other games in the works, known as STODA and Wizards & Warriors – both of which Gala Games reportedly agreed to add to the Gala ecosystem, but ultimately, never signed the  contracts. Gamedia says that they funded and began development on these games based on the verbal assurances from Gala.

With many unfilled, empty promises from Gala Games, Gamedia finally decided that they could no longer continue developing Spider Tanks. This resulted in a lawsuit from Gala which includes a fight over the IP rights to Spider Tanks.

In their statement, Gamedia also call out Gala for over-aggressively expanding their footprint by launching Gala Music and Gala Film, as well as for spending millions on “fruitless celebrity partnerships, jets, and real estate”!

Gamedia has made public some of their legal documents related to this ongoing dispute between Spider Tanks and Gala Games.

And though Spider Tanks is still officially open, there will be no updates, changes, or even bugfixes in the foreseeable future. No matter which side wins this argument, it seems likely that Spider Tanks is well on its way to becoming a truly abandoned game.

What about Gala Games?

Gala Games has a number of game releases under their belt already. However, some of these releases have gone nowhere, or even died immediately after launch. This includes Grit, a western-themed shooter, and Echoes of Empire, a multiplayer, space-based strategy game.

And a number of their other games seem to be in limbo, or are progressing very slowly. Mirandus suffered major turmoil earlier this year, as apparently the entire dev team was fired and replaced! Meanwhile games such as Superior, Fortitude, and Battlestar Galactica have seen little to no development news as well!

Gala Games is too big of a behemoth at this point to fail due to hiccups such as these. Their GALA token has a market cap of $1.3 billion, their GalaChain is up and running, with many of their games and apps migrated over, and they still hold regular sales for NFTs and Nodes for various parts of their ecosystem.

And though the user numbers aren't huge, they do have released, active games such as Common Ground, Champions Arena, and Legends Reborn. And both Gala Film and Gala Music seem to be growing at a steady state.

But Gala Games will have a bloody nose from these recent announcements and the airing of their dirty laundry. And their history of conflicts with developers may make it harder for them to attract new projects in the future.