February 19, 2022

Gaming NFTs “no favorable effect on developers or users”

“If it smells like cash, Konami’s going to be there in a heartbeat!”.

As NFTs continue their perilous creep throughout the videogames market, PlatinumGames – the studio behind the likes of Bayonetta, Nier: Automata, and the impending Babylon’s Fall – has actually shared its own point of view on the problem, calling the spread out of the questionable tech “frustrating”, provided it conveys “no favorable effect on the developers or the users in any sense.”Platinum’s CEO Atsushi Inaba and vice president Hideki Kamiya talked about NFTs and blockchain innovation as part of an comprehensive chat with VGC, exposing that regard less of growing interest in the tech amongst videogaming publishers, the studio hasn’t “really been thinking about that.”

“I UNDERSTAND it’s a hot subject right now and it’s truly beginning to gain momentum… but the method [BY WHICH] It’s acquired momentum has actually been focused on success for the business, however with no favorable effect on the developers or the users in any sense. So that’s annoying to see occurring.”

“The individuals who are attempting to promote NFTs and partner with gaming businesses, their discussions appear very one-sided,” Inaba continued. “‘Hey, you’re going to make cash!’. But how does it advantage the user or the developer? If I want to invest my time on something, I want it to help making excellent videogames.”

It’s a position shared by Kamiya, who states he has “zero interest” in NFTs. “I think about myself a user at heart, more than a business owner,” he described. “It doesn’t have any advantage for users at the minute. In the future, if it’s broadened in a method that has a favorable side for users, then possibly I’ll start to be interested in what they do with it. But I’m not seeing that at the minute.” Asked if he was shocked by how rapidly the likes of Konami had leapt on the NFT bandwagon, Kamiya included, “Not truly. If it smells like cash, Konami’s going to be there in a heartbeat!”.

While gamers and numerous designers continue to view NFTs and blockchain with suspicion, if not outright hostility, publishers throughout the market stay insistent in their efforts to pass off the ecologically damaging and functionally unconvincing innovation on the public.

Konami, Atari, Ubisoft, Zynga, PUBG developer Krafton, and more have all revealed huge efforts focused on blockchain and NFTs, while others – consistingof Team 17 and Stalker 2 designer GSC Game World – have actually been required into awkward U-turns following instant, and completely foreseeable, fan reaction at their gung-ho NFT strategies. Some publishers, consisting of EA and Sega, have relatively backtracked from earlier NFT interest in current months as customer pushback continues to grow, however it’s clear the NFT fad is far from over.