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With the wave of NFT project announcements in the video game industry over the last few months, it is only a matter of time before another studio or publisher joins the hype. However, EA appears to be easing up on its take on NFTs or non-fungible tokens.
EA held its Q3 2022 earnings call on Tuesday, where CEO Andrew Wilson was once again asked about the company's view on making NFT part of its business. Wilson gave quite a lengthy response but the gist is he sees the rising adoption of NFTs similar to how previous new concepts like 3D and AR/VR came into the gaming industry.
Wilson added that collectability, which is a major selling point for NFTs, is expected to remain an important aspect of EA's products and services. "Whether that's as part of NFT and the blockchain, well, that remains to be seen," Wilson said (transcript via Motley Fool). "We'll evaluate that over time, but right now, it's not something that we're driving hard against."
Simply put, EA does not seem to be dismissing the possibility of dabbling with NFTs in the future. But Wilson's latest response on the subject is notably different from an earlier statement. In a financial call for Q2 in November, the CEO appeared to be more optimistic about potential NFT projects from EA. "I think that in the context of the games that we create and the live services that we offer, collectible digital content is going to play a meaningful part in our future," Wilson said at the time.
The slight change in EA's tune about NFTs is not entirely surprising, though. Over the previous months, other video game companies and personalities, such as Ubisoft and Square Enix, have announced NFT projects, and they were all met with a mostly negative response from both gamers and NFT critics.
While Ubisoft recently doubled down on its NFT plans and Square Enix's seems unaffected by the gamers' feedback, other studios quickly backed out of their blockchain efforts following public outcry. "STALKER 2" developer GSC Game World and "Worms" developer Team17 immediately pulled the plug on their NFT projects after getting backlash from fans. In Team17's case, several studios it worked with before as a publisher also spoke against incorporating NFTs into video games.
Photo by Guglielmo Basile on Unsplash
