MetaZoo has officially shut down

MetaZoo is, or was, a trading card game based on cryptids that came out in 2020. Much like Pokemon you can collect and bond with “beasties” (what they called cryptids and other folklore creatures).

I remember finding out about MetaZoo during the Pandemic. I was looking forward to it. It’s cryptid-themed. I joined the discord in high hopes and kept an eye on it hoping that one day I’d start collecting if I found a person to play with. The art was reminiscent of early Pokémon. It was cute.

Yesterday they announced, quite hurriedly, that they were shutting down on the 29th of January 2024. Much like a blurry bigfoot in a discount paranormal investigation, their social media pages were nowhere to be found. Wiped clean. Almost too fast if you ask me.

The founder cites logistical errors and the current economy as the main reasons why they had to shut down.

I’m surprised they managed this long. Most TCGS fail or just maintain a small niche community. Hell, I even saw them at my local Target. Some of you might ask why I never posted about them knowing my love of cryptids and that’s because at some point they decided to get into NFTs. NFTs are stupid as shit.

Any enthusiasm I had was gone with the wind.

Also Michael Waddell, the founder, isn’t the best guy either? It’s known that he’s bullied fans before or know that the company owes someone 50k? That would be their Dark Tower winners. Also, they treat their artists like shit?

Not to mention the power trip the mods went through on their discord, but hey they shut that down too. How convenient. Any criticism was met with bans or blocks.

I was disappointed with this. MetaZoo had such an interesting concept that could have expanded into other avenues. A show would’ve been cute. It just goes to show what happens when a company has no respect for themselves or their fanbase.

I hope the fans/game stores can try and get some money back from this mess.

Granted, I can’t say much on that one when Hasbro is doing the same shit if not worse.

Y’all I need a trustworthy TCG to back.

Here’s a few posts I found while digging around: