Quick take:
- Former Nintendo president says he’s neither for nor against NFTs.
- Reggie Fils-Aime was talking to CNET about the metaverse, gaming and on-fungible tokens.
- The gaming vet said that blockchain needs to offer a better value proposition to the player than just being a monetisation tool.
Reggie Fils-Aime says he is neither for nor against non-fungible tokens (NFTs) according to a recent interview with CNET. The former Nintendo tech media outlet met with Fils-Aime at the recent PAX West event where he talked about NFTs, gaming, the metaverse, and the future of Nintendo.
On NFTs, the video gaming veteran expressed his fascination with the blockchain saying that as a piece of technology, he finds it interesting, especially if it can provide a better value proposition for the player.
“There needs to be something inherently positive for the player for this as technology to take off. So I’m not for or against NFTs. I want to see an example that really adds value and I have to say, I haven’t yet seen that example,” Fils-Aime said.
NFTs are digital representations of a music track, video clip, JPEG, collectibles or artwork that are stored on the blockchain.
They have been popularised by the emergence of NFT profile pictures, which every crypto enthusiast seems to be determined to use in their social media profiles. However, industry experts believe the long-term future of NFTs lies in their application in various verticals.
For instance, they have become popular in token-gated communities where members are required to purchase the platform’s NFTs to gain access. They are also becoming a part of the web3 gaming sector with some blockchain games allowing players to use NFTs they own as gaming characters.
Leading retailers and luxury fashion designers like Gucci and Nike have also forayed into the web3 space with their own NFT drops that are accompanied by digital merch and on some rare occasions real-life merchandise.
These are some of the use cases that give NFT enthusiasts higher value propositions for their collections. Although Fils-Aime did not go deeper into detail about the kind of value he wants NFTs to provide to players, the options that are already on the market might well be the reason he chose to stay on the fence.
Fils-Aime spent 15 years at Nintendo where he also served as Chief Operating Officer, before leaving the company on April 15, 2019.
In the interview, he also gave his views on the metaverse, expressing optimism in AR-based metaverse experiences over VR experiences.
“I do believe [the metaverse] is going to be gaming-led, I don’t believe that it has to have an element of VR. I actually believe that augmented reality is going to progress much further and much faster. I’m a much bigger proponent, in part because I’ve seen great AR experiences brought to the consumer. I haven’t yet seen that wonderful VR experience that I find compelling,” he said.
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