Traditional Games Entering NFT: Internal Doubts Abound, Users Especially Discontent

Original Title: 《The Crypto Revolution Is an Existential Crisis for Video Games》

Original Author: Patrick Klepek

Translation: Wait, TouchGame Network

For game developer Fred, the past two years have been a good time to look for a job. The "stay-at-home economy" during the pandemic has made video games more popular than ever, but at the same time, cryptocurrencies and NFTs have also entered the mainstream. Almost everyone is talking about related topics, but Fred is not only indifferent to NFTs but also firmly opposed to them.

"The world is too cruel, there are always people trying to over-commercialize something pure and essential to the human experience, like games."

Fred previously interviewed at a new studio founded by veteran game developers, but during the interview, he encountered an awkward moment: the interviewer told him that the development team was likely considering integrating blockchain technology into the game. Fred said that the studio did not mention any related information on its official website, and if it had, he would not have applied at all. He experienced this kind of situation twice just last year.

"They didn't say it outright at the beginning; they waited until about halfway through the phone interview to mention 'controversial things'—that is, using blockchain in games."

On another occasion, a company emailed Fred after his interview, including links to several articles, such as "Would Karl Marx Support the Existence of Blockchain?" Fred politely declined the job offer, stating that he would not consider joining any projects related to cryptocurrencies. In response, the CEO sent him an article extolling the bright prospects of blockchain technology and asked him why he rejected cryptocurrencies while supporting the use of dollars.

Recently, EA, Zynga, Behaviour Interactive, and Ubisoft have all considered whether to use cryptocurrencies in their games. Developers from these companies revealed in interviews that management's related decisions have sparked significant controversy internally. Many developers pointed out that cryptocurrencies not only fail to bring additional value to games but may also threaten their motivation and methods for making games.

"Play-to-earn"

Although Fred is clearly opposed to cryptocurrencies, there are still game companies willing to hire him. However, Fred said that in addition to factors like projects, pay, and benefits, he also considers their corporate culture and ethics when job hunting, and cryptocurrencies are a red flag. Now, Fred works at another company founded by veteran developers and is not involved in any NFT-related projects.

Cryptocurrencies have been around for over a decade, but it seems that only in the last year or two have many executives in the gaming industry developed a stronger interest in them. Ubisoft launched its own NFT platform, and several companies announced support for NFTs, but they canceled their plans after facing strong opposition from players. Almost all players united against NFTs, as many believe the "play-to-earn" concept could fundamentally change the intention behind why players play games.

Game companies like Ubisoft have shown great interest in promoting NFTs.

In a sense, the auction house in Diablo III was an early "play-to-earn" system, allowing players to buy and sell weapons and items for cash, but Blizzard's experiment was not successful. Former Diablo III game director Jay Wilson said in 2017, "We were concerned about these consequences before, but the auction house in World of Warcraft seemed to validate this concept. Clearly, we made some mistakes."

The interest among companies is largely driven by economic motives, but they are also very cautious in their approach, leading to situations like those Fred experienced, where companies do not openly discuss these matters in public but have different conversations privately.

Some companies tend to be straightforward about their plans in the cryptocurrency space; for example, Square Enix has promised to vigorously promote blockchain games, and EA is among them.

In early November last year, EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated during the company's earnings call that NFTs are "part of the future of the gaming industry," and EA mentioned "NFT" and "blockchain" in numerous job postings. On December 9, in an EA internal chat group, an employee raised the question: "It seems EA has opened positions related to NFTs; does this align with EA's core commitment to environmental protection?"

Wilson responded, "While NFT-driven games are on the rise, most transactions at this stage are speculative—items lack utility and are almost entirely disconnected from the player community; both parties merely believe their value will increase over time." Wilson stated that this is not what EA wants. "In exploring NFTs, our goal is to provide players with items that have utility through the gaming experience, while also symbolizing their status and connection to the community. Compared to most other companies in the digital collectibles space, we want to offer more value to players."

Regarding environmental concerns, Wilson said, "We have seen that many technological advancements are reducing the environmental impact of blockchain." Like many game companies, EA has committed to protecting the environment by reducing carbon emissions, while most cryptocurrency projects currently cause massive carbon emissions, harming the environment. The vast majority of cryptocurrencies use "Proof of Work" blockchain, which requires a significant amount of energy to process transactions. To quell public criticism, companies like Ubisoft have chosen to use more energy-efficient "Proof of Stake" blockchains.

In response to Wilson's comments, employees reacted with various emojis, including 28 Christmas trees, 56 thumbs up, 160 thumbs down, 96 confused faces, and 115 stop signs… EA only allows employees to comment using emojis.

However, over time, Wilson's interest in NFTs seems to have waned. In February of this year, he stated during the company's earnings call that EA would gradually assess NFTs, and whether blockchain could be linked to collectible in-game items is still "to be seen."

"There seems to be more dislike than I imagined."

EA hopes to hire more employees familiar with cryptocurrencies, while mobile gaming giant Zynga announced last November that it had hired Matt Wolf as "Vice President of Blockchain." Zynga President Bernard Kim stated that the company's decision to enter this field and hire Wolf is to align with the trends in the gaming industry.

"As far as I know, there are people within Zynga who are deeply skeptical of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, while others like them." A Zynga employee who wished to remain anonymous revealed, "But games will eventually be taken down or shut down, and at that point, the NFTs players hold will become worthless. Additionally, considering the structure of cryptocurrencies, mining them can consume a lot of energy."

In Zynga's internal chat group, there is a channel specifically for discussing cryptocurrencies. In December of last year, during a department-level employee meeting, Zynga's Senior Vice President of Product, Game Design, and Data Analytics Andrew Ince pointed out that the company received "a lot of feedback about NFTs; many people were happy, but there was also quite a bit of negative feedback."

"NFT games, or games based on blockchain technology, are developing rapidly." Ince said, "Some companies are entering the NFT space for speculative reasons, which likely won't be sustainable. However, for games, it may have a transformative impact similar to in-app purchases. Therefore, we need to invest resources in research and development."

There was speculation that Zynga would immediately incorporate NFTs into games like FarmVille, but according to Ince, Zynga prefers to develop new games around NFTs and blockchain technology and then find ways to make these games more popular. Ince also acknowledged that the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies is indeed a concern, but he quickly shifted the conversation, stating that technology is evolving rapidly, and people shouldn't worry too much about it.

"From his tone, I realized that there seems to be more colleagues who dislike NFTs than I imagined." A source said.

Zynga spokesperson Kenny Johnston stated that the company cannot disclose or share details of internal meetings, so it would not comment on Ince's remarks. "We are forming a team to explore how to approach this field in a way that prioritizes the player community. Overall, employees' attitudes are positive, and our growth in the NFT space has not led to employee turnover."

On January 10 of this year, publisher Take-Two announced it would acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion. In a subsequent all-hands meeting at Zynga, company executives and employees did not discuss NFT projects. Interestingly, both parties to the transaction have a similar attitude towards NFTs. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has stated that he is a firm believer in NFTs and has called for players to be patient with them.

*At least for now, Zynga has not incorporated blockchain gameplay into its flagship game *FarmVille.

"Everyone hates it."

Dead by Daylight is one of the most popular multiplayer games in recent years, and Canadian developer Behaviour Interactive often adds horror characters from other brands into the game. In September last year, Behaviour announced that the character Pinhead from the Hellraiser series would soon join the game; however, in October, another collaboration project announced by the studio sparked widespread criticism from players, with the partner being Boss Protocol, a company that claims to "empower brands through blockchain to unleash their full potential."

According to Behaviour, through the collaboration, they planned to transform character models in Dead by Daylight into NFTs that could be used to unlock game content. Players of Dead by Daylight were concerned this meant NFTs would appear in the game and publicly expressed their opposition. Due to strong resistance from players, Behaviour quickly announced, "There will be no blockchain technology in Dead by Daylight, and there never will be."

However, Behaviour's collaboration with Boss Protocol continues. This has frustrated players and left many developers within the studio dissatisfied.

"Everyone hates it." A former Behaviour developer said, "We were completely unaware beforehand."

To quell the unrest, during an all-hands meeting in December, Behaviour's leadership expressed their opposition to NFTs. Just hours after that meeting, GSC Game World, the developer of Stalker 2, also announced the cancellation of its NFT plans, citing strong opposition from players.

Behaviour was reluctant to publicly express its stance, while companies like Ubisoft announced not only their support for blockchain projects but also their active development of proprietary technology. In January 2022, a Behaviour employee requested that company leadership share more details during a meeting.

"First, let me clarify that we are not making NFTs, nor will we in the future." Behaviour's Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Maria Claude-Bennard, responded, "We haven't even expressed any stance in the media or on social media, even though all our competitors have done so, like Ubisoft and many other companies. That's what I want to say: our games will not feature any NFTs now or in the future."

"She reiterated our position in her own words." Behaviour's PR head Stephen Ross said, "Last fall, Behaviour publicly shared this position with several media outlets, and we fully understand the player community's concerns about NFTs; there will absolutely be no blockchain technology in Dead by Daylight, now or ever. We do not sell NFTs."

Ross pointed out that "the studio's position remains unchanged," however, Behaviour has not withdrawn from the Hellraiser NFT project.

"No insults or personal attacks allowed."

Game developers rarely speak to the media, but on the topic of cryptocurrencies, more and more developers are beginning to voice their opinions publicly. For example, when the UK publisher Team17 announced its Worms NFT project, many employees publicly expressed their opposition and disclosed other issues within the company regarding pay, working conditions, etc. According to earlier reports from Bloomberg, there were hundreds of negative comments from employees on Ubisoft's internal social platform regarding the company's NFT plans.

As the cryptocurrency craze rises, many projects adopting cryptocurrencies have attracted massive investments. Some companies even directly purchase games in the development stage and then incorporate cryptocurrencies into them.

Recently, Gala Games announced its new title GRIT, describing it as a new tactical battle royale game set in the American frontier. The teaser released by Gala is almost identical to the one first revealed in April 2021, with the only difference being the text "Coming soon from Gala Games" at the beginning.

According to the original plan, GRIT was set to launch its early access version on Steam at the end of January this year, but the development team suddenly announced a delay in the release date. After partnering with Gala, the development team posted a statement on the GRIT Discord server stating that "insults and personal attacks are not allowed" and that they do not encourage players to make comments related to NFTs or cryptocurrencies when discussing the game—this certainly piqued curiosity about the topic.

"As of now, it's too early to focus on whether we will add NFTs to the game." The GRIT development team stated, "We have not released any information on that topic; if everyone throws out various speculations based on practices from other games, that is clearly unconstructive. Please do not try to guess our thoughts; we are implementing plans and will release information here at the appropriate time."

"Businesspeople like NFTs because they think adding NFTs to games requires little effort, and then they can make a lot of money. That's the lifestyle they want." A developer working for a large game publisher said, "But I can tell you that almost all developers do not want to do this; we are particularly opposed to it… Those who promote NFT projects seem to only see the benefits of NFTs while forgetting that everyone hates them."

"You work hard to earn the trust of gamers, which is one of the hardest things in the world. You can't destroy that trust just to sell a bunch of pictures; it's not worth it. In life, many things are more important than the rise and fall of money. Some experiences are priceless, and their value does not need to be proven with money."

"They will understand in the future."

Previously, Ubisoft executives responsible for NFT projects stated, "Players do not yet understand what a digital secondary market can bring them; it's really beneficial, they just don't understand it now." In other words, Ubisoft believes that players do not understand how cool NFTs are, but they will in the future.

"In their view, if we disagree with their perspective, it's because we are too stupid." Ubisoft Senior Game Designer and Ubisoft Paris union representative Marc Roucher said, "As far as I know, Ubisoft will continue to use this ×× technology."

Zynga's Vice President of Blockchain Matt Wolf stated that the company hopes to hire a "tokenomics designer," but the company will allow employees to opt out of NFT projects in the future. Wolf acknowledged that those interested in cryptocurrency products might focus more on profit than gameplay. "We do not want to provide players with something they do not want, so we will not assume that they want a deeply engaging gameplay experience."

This is Zynga's honest assessment of its ambitions in this field, acknowledging the tension between its financial goals and those of developers and players, a tension that may continue for some time. Gamers may not like crypto, but game executives are very curious about it, and that curiosity has not dissipated.

"These comments are infuriating; they want to change the essence of games." A developer said, "We play games to pass the time and have fun, but some people believe that the purpose of playing games is no longer to enjoy but to make money… If you want to monetize your gaming time, you will find that the actual monetary value of playing games is almost worthless."