Iron Pigeons Is Announced as Community Growth Brings New Risks

Background: The studio was still advancing its games and community preparations. After multiple rounds of licensing discussions, the Tyson partnership was finally ready to be announced. The community was nearing 10,000 members, and attention as well as impersonation scams were gathering.

Today: In the evening, the company formally announced a partnership with Mike Tyson and his partners at 1ofOne to create a collection of artwork and a trading-card deck called Iron Pigeons. The name was literal: Tyson really does keep pigeons. The announcement also paired that fact with his interest in the on-chain world and video games. The release was placed loosely at some point in March. Two other announcements came the same day. One celebrated the community nearing 10,000 and thanked its members. The other warned that scammers were multiplying with the crowd, using ever-changing methods to impersonate moderators and send phishing links. The team reiterated that it would never send private messages, directed people to support tickets, and showed them how to turn off member direct messages in server settings. It ended by stressing that members were responsible for their own actions and that the team would not be responsible if they were scammed. The narrator placed the three messages side by side: a champion, pigeons, and 10,000 people looked like a sure opening in that winter; March was far away, and no one was calculating what the market might look like then.

Impact and next steps: The partnership moved from pending licensing discussions to a public project, while the community faced both the welcome and the safety pressure that came with growth. Members knew the creative direction and approximate month, but had no exact release date. Turning off direct messages and using support tickets could reduce risk, but could not make each person’s safety decisions for them. The March market remained unknown.