Yeah, I guess we've all been taken by surprise by the lack of positive price action of most alts, not just HIVE. I suppose people got burned enough times both on Hive but maybe more often broadly in crypto, to support long term a project they "couldn't see", even though maybe they trusted the core team (and they should have). The deteriorating situation from Splinterlands (but not only them) for a good while probably didn't help as a constant reminder of what could happen with a Web 3 game, even after being successful.

To be honest, I don't believe these alpha vial sales should have come sooner, as I don't think you would have been close to testing the game during the bitcoin halving run, no matter how much funds you would have had. And it is important the sentiment in the crypto markets when you launch, especially now when the narratives shifted away from Web 3 gaming, to a good degree. For that, it is good that you mentioned that the game could work at least partially for the Web 2 players, It is a shift some are trying to make now with a finished product, and it's definitely harder than with a new one.