The MetaWorms NFTs have not received a very positive reception either, but it’s a fact that after Ubisoft and Konami, another publisher has started to get involved…

Team17 has teamed up with Reality Gaming Group to create licensed digital collectables based on the Worms franchise. The artwork will be uniquely computer-generated, sold, and protected by the blockchain. Reality Gaming Group has a “side chain” on the Ethereum main net, which supposedly means that the creation of custom NFTs requires less energy.

Team17 will donate a portion of the proceeds to Coin 4 Planet, an initiative to support more sustainability experiments. The company has backed the idea behind Refeed Farms, which supports worm farms that process food waste. Harley Homewood, Team17’s head of publishing, said, “Worms remains an iconic franchise in global gaming with tens of millions of fans around the world, so we’re really excited and proud to announce our partnership with Reality Gaming Group ahead of the release of highly limited edition artwork NFTs later this year.”

The Going Under development team, Aggro Crab, did not take kindly to this: they issued a statement on Twitter, in which Nick Kaman and Caelan Pollock (art director and writer/programmer respectively) condemned Team17 for their involvement with NFTs. (Team17 is the publisher of Going Under.) “We at Aggro Crab condemn Team17’s decision to produce and engage with NFTs. We believe NFTs cannot be environmentally friendly or useful and are just an overall f__king grift. This decision seems to have taken everyone off guard and likely came from the very top. We will not be working with them on further titles and encourage other indie developers to do the same unless this decision is reversed,” they wrote, stressing that Team17 employees and developers should NOT be harassed.

Team17 has not reacted (wow, how surprising), and Eurogamer pointed out that several teams within Team17 have heard about the move through the news, while others have expressed disappointment and with the NFTs still getting greenlit. According to the publisher, the MetaWorms NFTs are similar to licensing agreements for tangible merchandise (e.g. t-shirts). They have no plans to introduce NFTs or a play-to-earn mechanism into any of their indie games. That’s a pretty tone-deaf reaction from them…

Source: Gamesindustry