Quick take:
- Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has rubbished initial reports suggesting the company could introduce NFTs.
- The video game developer ran a survey over the last few days to gauge user interest in Web3 related products.
- However, most of the respondents submitted answers that showed they are not interested in NFTs and in-game P2E features.
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has revealed the company has no plans to jump on the NFTs bandwagon. The video game developer ran a survey over the last few days to gauge user sentiment towards non-fungible tokens.
However, the community returned negative feedback on NFTs and in-game play-to-earn items, prompting the entertainment giant to pull off the plug. Reports had emerged in the previous weeks suggesting Activision Blizzard may be planning to introduce NFTs to its popular AAA game title Call of Duty.
Popular NFTs and Web3 leaker Ralph said the company’s plans to overhaul the Call of Duty UX/UI, including the incorporation of global calling Cards & emblems, avatars and, Statistics indicated the company may be considering NFTs.
The survey would suggest that he was right, but then upon the user feedback, Blizzard has decided against pursuing the potential applications of NFTs in its gaming ecosystem.
Ybarra replied to a Twitter user who posted about the NFT poll, saying “No one is doing NFTs”.
Nonetheless, Blizzard’s stance seems to contradict a statement made by Microsoft when it announced its $69 billion purchase of the gaming giant in January.
At the time, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella committed: “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
Nadella noted that his company buying Activision Blizzard was an important step for the gaming industry amid the intersection of game development and Web3.
“[This will usher] in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”
Therefore, while Blizzard’s latest statement on NFTs appears to completely rule out NFTs, its new parent may have other ideas, and it may all come down to who’s really calling the shots.
Nonetheless, the CEO of Microsoft’s newest department, Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, seems to agree with his colleagues at Blizzard after recently calling NFTs speculative and exploitative.
“What I’d say today on NFT, all up, is I think there’s a lot of speculation and experimentation that’s happening, and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitative than about entertainment.”
Spencer, however, added that not all NFTs are necessarily exploitative, leaving the door open for the company to take a different approach to the trendy gaming technology.
Stay up to date:
