Solana Foundation President Lily Liu (릴리 류) said publicly that "gaming on a blockchain is not coming back".

TheBlock reported on Thursday that if she is right, the billions of dollars invested in blockchain gaming could be recorded as one of the industry’s worst investments.

Liu’s remark was prompted by a recent Polymarket post claiming that Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, was pulling out of the metaverse business. Liu later posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that "blockchain gaming is not coming back".

Blockchain gaming has been expected to boost the potential of Web3 and the metaverse by letting users own and trade digital assets on blockchain networks. Bitcoin and Ethereum had cost and speed issues for gaming, and Solana drew attention for its speed and low fees that could support real-time gameplay and frequent transactions, TheBlock reported.

But the results have been poor. a16z, Framework Ventures and Animoca Brands poured billions of dollars into the sector, but GameFi token values plunged after the 2021 bull market. The play-to-earn game Axie Infinity drew global attention at the time, but the hype has since faded.

The lack of gameplay is cited as a key reason blockchain gaming failed. Critics say it relied on paying users with tokens instead of creating gameplay strong enough to attract core gamers and sustain communities.

Liu’s remarks also drew pushback. An X user who identified as a game designer, Tinine (티나인), said that if Liu meant play-to-earn games built around scam tokens, they should not return. Tinine added that such vague comments are not good for game development teams and communities and said Solana is a platform that is good for everyone to build on.