{"id":44332,"date":"2021-06-15T10:42:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=44332"},"modified":"2025-08-31T16:31:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T13:31:33","slug":"mail-ru-to-buy-playkey-which-failed-to-meet-its-ico-commitments-to-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/mail-ru-to-buy-playkey-which-failed-to-meet-its-ico-commitments-to-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail.ru to buy Playkey, which failed to meet its ICO commitments to investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mail.ru Group holding will acquire the cloud gaming service Playkey by the end of 2021. Four years ago Playkey raised $10.5 million in an ICO and did not fulfil the obligations promised to investors, reports<\/a> Forbes.<\/p>\n

The founder of Playkey is a 36-year-old Perm-born Egor Guryev. The service, through which users can play computer games via cloud servers, he launched in 2015 with colleagues from the telecom operator ER-Telekom, Alexey Lykov and Vadim Andreev.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the partners decided to launch a decentralized platform that would connect gamers with owners of powerful personal computers and mining farms. The company aimed to cut costs of renting and leasing professional servers. They planned to pay for the services of equipment owners in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

The management company of Playkey is LLC “Gaming Solutions”. Guryev’s stake in the ownership structure, according to Properm.ru<\/a>, is represented by Slovak PLAYKEY HOLDING.<\/p>\n

To conduct the ICO, Guryev registered a separate tokenizing company on the Cayman Islands. The service issued 60 million PKT tokens.<\/p>\n

Following the token sale in November 2017, Playkey attracted $10.5 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The funds were contributed by more than 2,000 private investors from various countries, as well as three funds \u2014 Uncharted Capital, Allrise and G2H2 Capital. The latter invested $1 million each.<\/p>\n

According to the white paper, the company was to present a decentralized platform in 2018. The tokens were to be the sole means of paying for gaming time and games on Playkey.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe PKT currency will be used as the unit of account for all transactions in the Playkey ecosystem and as the basis for interacting with other digital services\u201d, \u2013 the document states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Guryev, the team launched the platform in March 2019. But, according to correspondence in the Russian Telegram investor-support chat, by May 2020 the platform was still at the minimum viable product (MVP) stage and was being refined. Investors believe that this is why the token price has not risen.<\/p>\n

They also reported that Playkey did not launch a promotional campaign for the platform.<\/p>\n

In May 2021, Mail.ru Group announced its purchase of Playkey: by the end of the year the holding would acquire 100% of the service. A source familiar with the deal terms told Mail.ru Group that the group was interested in Playkey’s technology. It would allow the holding to develop its own cloud gaming service, MY.GAMES Cloud, launched in 2020.<\/p>\n

The parties did not disclose the deal value. Co-founder of the competing Loudplay service Vitaly Starodubov estimates it at $14\u201317 million.<\/p>\n

A source at Mail.ru Group says the company does not plan to develop a decentralized platform. Investors should direct claims to the legal entity that conducted the ICO \u2014 in the deal, it has no involvement, and the acquired asset has no obligations to it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMail.ru Group will develop My.Games Cloud on traditional infrastructure. Issues and claims regarding the ICO and the spending of funds by token holders should be directed to the company that conducted the ICO \u2014 there is no deal with it, and the obligations of the acquired asset do not extend to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In ForkLog, Playkey investor Pavel Parshikov said that the group of affected token holders has collected all available information about the ICO, including the white paper and screenshots of communications with project managers. They plan to prepare a pre-litigation demand to Egor Guryev outlining fraudulent actions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was Guryev who promised token use and, in his own name, said that the company was conducting an ICO. Going after the company that ran the token sale will not work here. The beneficiaries are specific individuals \u2014 they are the ones to answer for,\u201d Parshikov noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The investor estimates his own missed gains at $20,000, based on nearly 20,000 PKT tokens he owns.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI hope that soon Mail.ru will state that the decentralized platform and the PKT-based settlement scheme pose no risk, or that there will be a buyback and burn of tokens at ICO price,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the Playkey decentralized platform white paper [available to ForkLog], there is a disclaimer:<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo information contained in this document should be construed as an offer to enter into a contract with any company or person mentioned herein. [\u2026] All actions based on information in this document are performed at the risk and discretion of the person executing them. Playkey and its affiliates bear no responsibility for the consequences of such actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From a legal standpoint, the situation around Playkey is highly ambiguous, says Yuri Brisov, a member of the Legal Support Commission for digital economy of the Moscow branch of the Russian Lawyers Association.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFirst, the disclaimers used by ICO organizers do not work in 90% of cases. This was demonstrated by American courts in the MakerDAO case, Tezos<\/a>, which was touched upon briefly in the TON case. Practice shows that no matter how extensive the disclaimer a company uses, ICO participants always have the right to sue and often achieve positive results,\u201d he explained in a ForkLog commentary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brisov stressed that the legality of such disclaimers for the initial placement of utility tokens is unclear:<\/p>\n

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\u201cPlaykey did not register an offering prospectus on an exchange. If we are talking about a crowd sale, then disclaimers basically do not play a major role, as they conflict with consumer protection law. Therefore, the suit is likely to be heard in court and the disclaimer will not help.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Questions also surround which legal entity would be the defendant in the suit.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf Mail.ru bought the company with all its assets and liabilities, they would be liable. The other question is that they probably anticipated such lawsuits and obtained insurance from the sellers,\u201d Brisov said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Such indemnity exists under both Russian and English law, the lawyer said. It gives the buyer the right to “shift” lawsuits to the seller for pre-agreed risks. Sometimes part of the deal amount is placed in a dedicated account and paid to the seller only after a defined period in which no one sues the acquired company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLawyers at Mail.ru could not overlook such an obvious risk, so Mail.ru can probably feel secure,\u201d added Yuri Brisov.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At the same time, the founders of Playkey could face equal risk: <\/p>\n