Team17, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have different approaches.

We reported yesterday that Team17 announced the MetaWorms NFT project, to which Aggro Crab (Team17 acted as a publisher for this studio) immediately reacted with condemnation. And they were not alone, as there was criticism of the NFT plans within the company, so it was not just online that there were voices of condemnation. No wonder Team17 backed down!

In a statement sent to Gamesindustry, they said, “Team17 is today announcing an end to the MetaWorms NFT project. We have listened to our teamsters, development partners, and our games’ communities, and the concerns they’ve expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space.” (They are not alone: in December, GSC Game World announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 would have NFTs, which was met with a lot of criticism, and they have withdrawn their idea…)

Last year, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson called NFTs the gaming industry’s future. Still, in the company’s recent quarterly financial earnings report (which revealed that Battlefield 2042 was performing below expectations, but no specific numbers were displayed), he said that while the technology brought outside investment to the games industry (similarly to 3D or VR), he added that collectability based on the four main metrics (quality, rarity, authenticity, and perceived value) has been part of the games industry for a long time, and thus had a role to play before the arrival of NFTs. In his view, it will not change, but the nature of collectables will in some ways.

“I believe that collectibility will continue to be an important part of our industry in the games and experiences that we offer our players. Whether that’s part of NFTs and the blockchain remains to be seen. And I think, the way we think about it is, we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can, and so we’ll evaluate that over time. But right now, it’s not something that we’re driving hard on,” Wilson said.

But Nicolas Pouard, vice-president of Ubisoft’s strategic innovations lab (who is also the point man at Quartz and Digits for this position), said: “I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers believe it’s first destroying the planet and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] see first is the end game. The end game is about allowing players to resell their items once they’re finished with them, or they’re finished playing the game itself. So, it’s really, for them. It’s beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.”

Neither do we get his snub mindset.

Source: Gamesindustry, PCGamer, PSL