Blizzard president insists "nobody is doing NFTs"

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Mike Ybarra responds to player concerns

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Update: Blizzard president Mike Ybarra says nobody at the company is "doing NFTs."

Ybarra clarified Blizzard's plans on Twitter in response to reports on a survey sent by the company in part to gauge audience interest in "emerging and future trends" including cryptocurrencies and NFTs. 

In a separate statement sent to GamesRadar+, Blizzard affirmed that:

"The company conducts surveys regularly on a wide range of emerging topics to better learn about the interests of our players, regardless of our involvement in such trends." 

Original story: 

The YouGov survey, seemingly sent to select Activision/Blizzard fans over the weekend, is seeking to gauge the interest of players in a range of "emerging and future trends in gaming", from cloud gaming, cross-play, and VR, to metaverse gaming experiences, play-to-earn gaming - wherein players can earn cryptocurrency - and NFTs (thanks, GameRant).

Although there has been an influx of gaming giants trialing controversial blockchain tech and NFTs in recent months - including Konami, Team17, and Ubisoft - some companies are now reconsidering their approaches. GSC Game World – developer of the upcoming Stalker sequel, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl – u-turned on a decision to introduce NFTs into the highly-anticipated game at the end of last year, whilst Sega is reconsidering plans to jump on the NFT bandwagon until it is certain "what will be accepted and what will not be by the users".  

In an interview earlier this year, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi said the publisher would have to "carefully assess" the future of NFTs in its products following "negative reactions" from players and said, "if it is perceived as simple money-making, I would like to make a decision not to proceed".

ICYMI, after suffering a hack topping $600 million in stolen cryptocurrency, NFT game Axie Infinity is now dealing with a loss of "play-to-earn" workers which, as Austin so wonderfully encapsulated earlier this week, has essentially "left the digital equivalent of landlords with a shortage of renters". 

Valve has banned all NFT games from Steam, but the Epic Games Store is still welcoming blockchain tech. 

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter. 

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