Overwatch and Warcraft studio Blizzard ask its players about their interest in NFTs and ‘games to earn’ cryptocurrency games.
As seen by GameRant, several players were asked to conduct a YouGov survey over the weekend that mentioned the polarizing technologies.
Part of the survey asked participants how interested they would be if crypto and NFTs were introduced to Activision Blizzard products along with more conventional features such as cross-play, VR and subscription services.
UPDATE: In response to this story, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra has said the company will not launch NFTs.
ORIGINAL HISTORY CONTINUES: Activision Blizzard has not yet officially entered the NFT area. The company is set to be acquired by Microsoft, which framed the $ 70 billion deal as “building blocks for the meta-verse”.
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NFTs are unique non-exchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain (a type of digital ledger) that effectively allow users to own, buy and sell digital items such as in-game items or art.
Several gaming companies have already started selling digital items such as NFTs, including Konami and Atari, although this has attracted criticism from some due to the format’s high CO2 footprint and what many perceive as a cynical implementation.
According to the Game Developers Conference’s annual State of the Game Industry Report, which asked over 2,700 game developers about their work, the majority of respondents have no interest in NFTs.
One of the questions in the study, published in January, asked, “What is your study’s interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs)?”
70% of respondents answered “not interested”, while 21% said “somewhat interested” and 7% said “very interested”. Only 1% answered that they were already developing them.
One of Blizzard’s own senior designers has even publicly criticized the trend. Jorge Murillo tweeted in January: “… as a developer on the @PlayOverwatch team, I’m strongly against NFTs and will fight to make sure they’re not integrated into our game.”