Slack began as a failed video game — and that’s the whole point
Before Slack became the backbone of remote work, it was something else entirely: a video game. Not a good one, either. In fact, it was a game that almost nobody wanted to play.
The story of Slack is one of those rare origin tales where a spectacular failure in one industry becomes a world-changing success in another. It’s a reminder that the best ideas often come from the ashes of the worst ones.
The game that flopped: Glitch
Back in 2009, a small team led by Stewart Butterfield — the same guy who co-founded Flickr — was working on a massively multiplayer online game called Glitch. It was quirky, colorful, and ambitious. Players could collect resources, build things, and explore a whimsical world.
There was just one problem. Nobody played it.
Glitch launched in 2011 after years of development. By 2012, the team pulled the plug. The game had failed to attract a meaningful audience, and the money was running out. Butterfield later described it as “a spectacular disaster.”
From game chat to workplace chat
Here’s where the story takes a sharp turn. During Glitch’s development, the team built an internal chat tool to communicate with each other. It was fast, searchable, and — most importantly — it worked better than anything else on the market.
When Glitch died, the team realized they were sitting on something far more valuable than a failed game. That chat tool became Slack.
Butterfield and his team pivoted hard. They rebranded, redesigned, and relaunched the product as a workplace communication platform in August 2013. Within a year, Slack had tens of thousands of daily active users. By 2015, it was valued at nearly $3 billion.
Today, Slack serves millions of users worldwide. It’s used by startups, Fortune 500 companies, and everyone in between. And it all started with a game that bombed.
Why this story matters for founders
There’s a lesson here for anyone building something new. Failure isn’t always the end. Sometimes it’s just the beginning of something you couldn’t see yet.
Slack’s origin story is a case study in pivoting — the art of recognizing when your original idea isn’t working and having the courage to try something completely different. Butterfield didn’t cling to Glitch out of pride. He let it go, and in doing so, he built something bigger.
What made the chat tool so good?
- Speed: It was built for real-time communication, not email lag.
- Search: Every message was indexed and searchable instantly.
- Integrations: It connected with other tools developers already used.
- Simplicity: The interface was clean, not cluttered with features nobody needed.
These weren’t accidental. They were the direct result of building a tool for a specific, demanding audience: the game developers themselves. When they opened it up to the world, the world showed up.
The legacy of a failed game
Glitch is mostly forgotten now. A few screenshots and archived videos remain. But its DNA lives on in Slack. The same team, the same culture, the same obsession with making communication effortless.
It’s a strange legacy for a game that nobody wanted to play. But it’s also a beautiful one. Sometimes the thing you build for yourself turns out to be the thing the whole world needs.
Next time you send a message on Slack, remember: you’re using the ghost of a dead video game. And that’s exactly what makes it work.
