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Simulation Game ‘Infected’ Leaves Base for Solana Over Transaction Bottlenecks
The team behind the popular simulation game ‘Infected’, a speculative pandemic-simulation game that recently gained viral traction, has announced its decision to migrate from Ethereum’s Layer-2 network Base to the Solana blockchain. This move was prompted by the inability of Base to handle transaction volume during the game’s launch and broader concerns about the scalability of EVM-based chains.
According to the developers, ‘Infected’ crashed on Base due to the latter’s failure to accommodate the surge in transactions following its massive popularity. The game attracted a staggering 130,000 sign-ups within 48 hours, which led to a spike in gas prices and failed transactions. This issue significantly impacted the game’s momentum and user experience.
The team has framed this incident as part of a larger, ongoing limitation across all EVM-compatible chains. Despite previously believing Layer 2 solutions were the future of Ethereum scalability, the developers now view these bottlenecks as structural and unresolved in the near term.
The shift to Solana was driven by two key advantages: culture and user base. The team drew a contrast between Ethereum’s technically advanced but builder-focused ecosystem and Solana’s more user-oriented approach. Furthermore, they highlighted that Solana’s developer community is more closely aligned with current consumer behavior as seen in the success of other Solana-native applications such as Pump.fun and DAOs.fun.
The developers also emphasized that many players requested a version of the game built on Solana to avoid the need to bridge assets. In their post, they stated “If they are on XRP, we’d go to XRP. If that was Bitcoin mainnet, we’d go there. But today’s users are on Solana.”
The team has also indicated that future games will launch on Solana, aligning with what they see as the best available infrastructure for high-volume, consumer-facing applications.
Jesse Pollak, Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet, responded to Infected’s announcement, stating that while he respected teams building on any platform, he felt compelled to clarify what he described as factual inaccuracies. According to him, Base did not crash – the chain hummed along just as it should. He emphasized that technical issues experienced during Infected’s launch were related to frontend problems, which the game’s team had previously acknowledged and discussed with Base. However, the Infected team denied this claim.
This move by the developers of ‘Infected’ marks a significant shift in the gaming industry, as more platforms are expected to follow suit in their quest for scalability and better user experience.
Source: https://cryptopotato.com/simulation-game-infected-leaves-base-for-solana-over-transaction-bottlenecks/
