Gamers Against NFTs
(Image credit: Roger Brown from Pexels)
Investment Soars Despite Online Gamer Backlash
Blowback has come quickly for some new NFT projects within games, whereas other game-themed NFTs earn creators enough to produce more. Companies like EA slowly walk back projects, and Troy Baker pulls out of his endeavor with VoiceVerse. The Load Screen covers how gamers are winning this round of the NFT gaming wars while Konami and other investors play the long game.
Troy’s online backlash was swift as his project with VoiceVerse shined a light on both his plans and some questionable audio representation from the company. Troy tweeted that he was backing out of the partnership while directly mentioning the internet pushback but not the startup’s blunder. VoiceVerse now faces accusations of cloning their work, which is not good for anyone looking to capitalize on AI voice generation. The organization confirmed the lack of credit for using a Chubbiverse voice with a Voiceverse Origins apology tweet. That would be like Elon Musk slapping a Tesla sticker on a Ford all-electric and putting a video of it on Twitter. Sure, it’s an electric car but is it a good representation of his company’s work? Not at all.
Individual projects are not the only NFTs suffering losses. There are play-to-earn NFT games that struggle to maintain a profitable player base. Take Axie Infinity, a game about battling and growing Axotl-like creatures that can only breed seven times each. Players spend Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) for directly purchasing the Pokemon-style animals but need increasing amounts of Smooth Love Potion and AXS for breeding. Coinbase lists the Smooth Love Potion(SLP) at $0.0304, which has seen a recent bump but is nowhere near the $0.36 value in May 2021. The AXS trade for much more than SLP, but the SLP better represents player interest since it is used only for breeding. The problem may stem from the Axie breeding limit of seven that immediately devalues those used in the process, and the results are random for the newly minted Axie.
The story looks different for game-themed NFTs, which are NFTs derived from games’ images or sounds. Konami made enough with its initial 14 Konami Memorial NFTs that the company is likely to release several rounds more around other video game assets they control. Add in the residual money Konami could earn from additional sales of each NFT, and it will leave their investors seeing nothing but dollar signs. Although only the Castlevania – Axe Vs. Phantom Bat has been resold, but for a cost of 15 Ethereum (Eth), which could net Konami up to 1.125 Eth. Even at the current Coinbase price for Eth, that would be over $3,000 in passive income from the single sale. They will make a percentage from any future sales of Axe Vs. Phantom Bat or any of the other 13 NFTs part of the Memorial.
The rise and fall of NFTs and video games is rougher for other developers looking to cash in on similar nostalgia using their intellectual property. Take Team17 makers of the Worms franchise, who only wanted to produce MetaWorms NFTs based on their game assets. A Team17 news post announced the end of the NFT project after seeing plenty of backlashes from gamers and other developers. A former partner of Team17, developer Aggro Crab Tweeted that they condemned the decision because they “believe NFTs cannot be environmentally friendly, or useful.”
“We believe NFTs cannot be environmentally friendly, or useful, and are just an overall f***ing grift.”
Even Electronic Arts has backed down from an aggressive stance on NFTs, according to this Polygon article on EA CEO noncommittal to NFTs. In November of 2021, EA called NFT and blockchain games the future, as stated in this PCGamer article on an EA earnings call. Other news outlets focused on particular reasons for the turn of opinion, like Destructiod’s article titled EA disappointed with Battlefield 2042 launch, cools off NFT plan.
Gamers see NFTs as so problematic that the accidental showing of one by a developer can set off huge waves. Riot Games, in an official Valorant tweet directly apologized for displaying an NFT for a character named Killjoy. The company did not sponsor the NFT or sell it; they made the mistake of showing it as art.
Big investors rush into the NFT gaming market despite pushback from concerned gamers and citizens about the climate impact of NFTs. New stakeholders remain confident even after an NFT game disappears entirely while the creators pocketed over one million USD, as listed in this PC Gamer article on Unofficial Minecraft NFT game Blockverse disappears. GameStop proved this when the company made $100 million available in a fund for Immutable X a few days later, as noted by a Venture Beat article.
It is clear that some NFTs involving video games do not work well, but others are still quite profitable. Games based on NFTs that are play-to-earn need a huge player base to maintain growth and profitability, while NFTs derived from video game assets may have more value. Investing is always a risk, and some gamers do not think it is ethical to endanger the environment. The Cryptocurrencies used to buy NFTs also strain extremely limited PC parts needed for Crypto mining and next-gen gaming. The NFT gaming battle will continue if investors see even slight residual returns like Konami.
