Gamers Anger Over NFT Introduction Growing
Last month already, we reported on the growing anger of gamers over companies trying to incorporate NFT (non-fungible tokens) into their virtual worlds. Back then, because of the massive revenue stream coming from popular games and the witnessed growing popularity of non fungible tokens, French gaming giant Ubisoft Entertainment probably thought it was a good idea to combine NFTs and blockchain technology with existing Triple-A game titles, in a project called Ubisoft Quarts.
In the shooter game Ghost Recon Breakpoint, certain NFTs were available for free, but only for players who had already reached a certain level in the game. Gamers, the company said, could keep the items or sell them on third-party markets. In other words, whoever had invested the most time (and probably money) in the game, was rewarded and could make more money.
The backlash from gamers on social media was swift and furious.
Nicolas Pouard, an Ubisoft vice president, declared at first that:
We’re moving from a business model focused on just a game to a business model focused on an ecosystem in which every player can be a stakeholder.
After seeing social media reaction, Mr Pouard admitted that “maybe we under-evaluated how strong the backlash could have been.”
How does it benefit the gamer?
Case closed you would think. Fast forward a month or and international gaming developers have apparently learned nothing from the French failure and tried their own hand at introducing in-play rewards in the form of NFTs. Once again, the anger on social media is spread far and wide.
Speaking to the New York Times this weekend, a 22-year-old gamer named Matt Kee explained why he was angry that one of his favorite games, Kingdom Hearts, said it was pushing into NFTs. Matt said:
I just hate that they keep finding ways to nickel-and-dime us in whatever way they can
"Crypto Enthusiasts Meet Their Match: Angry Gamers" by Mike Isaac and Kellen Browning via NYT https://t.co/NmjT43IS46
— Ralph Castelberg (@ralphcastelberg) January 15, 2022
I don’t see anywhere mentioning how that benefits the gamer, how that improves gameplay. It’s always about, ‘How can I make money off this?’
Another gamer, 18-year-old Christian Lantz who lives in Ontario, Canada, even joined a group of angry gamers on Reddit after his favorite game, STALKER (another shooter game, this time set in a post-apocalyptic Ukraine, with references to Chernobyl), said it was making a similar move.
I love seeing gamers being united against NFT 😌 https://t.co/FLlLRyY6jW
— RE_lover (@REsi_Lover) January 14, 2022
Christian said:
The studio was abusing its popularity. It’s so obviously being done for profit instead of just creating a beautiful game.
For now, it doesn’t look like the gaming studios are changing their plans though, just as the gamers continue getting angry about it.