Crypto and NFTs Still Trying to Undermine Video Games

This past week we saw a very strong stand against the scam that is crypto and NFTs when Microsoft, through their Mojang subsidiary, announced that NFTs and blockchain would not be allowed to interface with Minecraft in any way due to the speculative nature of the technology and the dubious practices of its proponents.

This follows on… a bit late, but at least it happened… from companies like Valve not allowing crypto on its Steam platform to CCP walking back their rather obvious desire to hook blockchain in EVE Online.

This has been a good trend, since we kicked off the year with things like the buffoonish declaration from the president of Square Enix about serving an audience that wants games to be work rather than fun.

And you would think, with crypto crashing hard for the last couple of months, companies might want to bail out of the who thing, or at least keep a low profile.  And some clearly are… while others, not so much.

Epic Games Store

First up is Tim Sweeney.  I really don’t know that much about him other than he is a smart guy, that Fortnite has made him rich, that he hates giving money to Valve, Apple, and Google, but doesn’t mind handing it over to Sony and Microsoft, and that he wants to dislodge Steam with his own Epic Games Store.

Oh, and he comes across as somebody who really wants to be the good guy, even when he is clearly reading from the wrong script.

So, naturally he was out there after the Minecraft announcement, replying directly to that announcement on Twitter, declaring that the Epic Game Store would not be banning cryto and blockchain on its platform and that developers should be free to do anything that is legal.

Naturally, when previously asked if Epic itself was going to get into crypto, he said they wouldn’t be touching NFTs, the market being mostly scams.

I remember when Valve said they didn’t want to get into dictating what kind of games developers could put up on Steam.  They have since quietly dropped that stance and spend quite a bit of time banning titles that do not meet their own standards.  Nobody will think you’re a hero if you let scams and garbage into your store.

GameStop

It is 2022 and I am honestly surprised that GameStop is still a thing.  But there was that who stock market thing that I still don’t quite understand, save for the fact that I am sure somebody got rich out of it… and not anybody who wasn’t wealthy already.

Anyway, having survived that GameStop went hard into crypto and NFTs recently, selling things like callous rip-offs of famous photographs from 9/11.

True to the trend for the company in the last few years, this strategy to go all in on crypto just as it was crashing might not be going as planned.

Square Enix

While SE had to assure people that they wouldn’t be injecting blockchain into their beloved titles like FFXIV, they were still bound and determined to get in on this crypto fad.  And so the plan became to sell collectibles with associated NFTs.

Why you need an NFT is you have a physical item seems like a tough question to answer, but at least they didn’t go with their initial “all work and no fun makes Square shareholders richer” plan.  There is no play to earn video game in the mix.

Entropia Universe

I like Entropia Universe, if only because it has been running the play to earn game for almost two decades now and never needed blockchain, crypto, or NFTs to make its way.

It is still, by all reports, a tedious and unfun game to play unless you are willing to spend money, but at least it was a shining example of why play to earn needs crypto the way a fish needs a bicycle.

But, apparently, if you’re already in the play to earn space and see a bandwagon to jump on, you do it.  And so they will be auctioning off five unique in-game eggs that… somehow are not supposed to be about speculation.  I guess I have to give them credit for at least understanding scarcity and fear of missing out… and for no doubt getting that blockchaining all the things is a bad idea.  Still, they couldn’t resist at least a taste of that NFT hype.

Atari

I have been over the degradation of Atari before.  They were minting a cryto currency two years ago.  Still, I got an offer from them to buy a limited edition T-shirt to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company and was completely unsurprised to see the company’s current logo and focus.

Two of these are correct

People have been abusing the decomposing corpse of Atari for more than 30 years.  They sure as hell are not making any games, just recycling whatever part of the company’s history can be turned into a buck.

Anyway, even in the wake of crypto’s big fall, you still have things you can throw your money at if you want to help destroy the environment and enable various scams.