NFTs in gaming

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. NFTs can be created by anybody, and require few or no coding skills to create. NFTs were mostly tied and represented by a randomly-generated image, although they also feature various "unique" pieces of digital data as well, such as videos, sounds, or even social media posts. NFTs were involved in a highly speculative market of blockchain, because they were made to be artificially scarce with their "uniqueness" and transactioned between parties at high prices, hence the name "non-fungible".

However, like cryptocurrencies, NFTs have received scrutiny from the general public due to several shady and harmful effects, including environmental impact, art theft and scams.

Why They're Not a Friendly Technology

 * 1) To get the cat out of the bag, NFTs (despite there being eco-friendly NFTs) mostly used Ethereum, which is proof-of-work. This is unhealthy to the environment as according to many sources  blockchain systems are known for using up lots of electricity via computers/mining rigs. The worst thing is that some companies and people know about this yet they do nothing to stop it since it does not affect their wallets.
 * 2) Most if not all NFTs schemes advertised in gaming heavily emphasize "play-and-earn" aspects of NFTs in an attempt to incentivize gamers to invest into NFTs in a very similar manner to a Ponzi scheme.
 * 3) The features NFTs promise to bring to gaming (like buying in-game assets and transferring them to other games) are either redundant or impossible. This article explains it all.
 * 4) After loot boxes, microtransactions and even ads, it is yet another example of how greedy the video game industry has become.
 * 5) * In January 2022 for the brand's 50th anniversary, Atari combined the worst of both worlds with NFT loot boxes.
 * 6) * Unsurprisingly, EA of all companies supported NFTs and even claimed them to be the future of gaming. They backed out of them later on.
 * 7) While some of the art or skins is amazing, many of them are ugly or terrible, AI-generated poorly and are even on par with amateur digital art (i.e Microsoft Paint as most people think) despite having such talented artists that they hire frequently to make them.
 * 8) In fact, even good companies such as Capcom and Square Enix support this type of practice despite the former's downfall from 2011 to 2018. This proves that the practice is very insufferable.
 * 9) Hell, even mobile game companies who abuse MTX, ads or any money-making facility to death are not immune to NFTs as Gameloft made NFT tokens based on Asphalt 9, which in turn already contains microtransactions and loot boxes. Another example is when AbstractArt, a Russian company behind the popular mobile game Music Racer, released Music Racer 2000 on Steam (similar to the original mobile game) but the cars are NFTs. Some devs even incorporate NFTs through money scam apps.
 * 10) Even worse now, this feature is being incorporated into consoles! A company named Polium announced a "Web3 gaming console" where in addition to games, you can buy/sell NFTs, and also has a "multi-chain wallet" feature. The console's announcement was heavily mocked and panned by many gamers for its concept and aim, as well as the (previous) logo itself (for being too similar to the GameCube logo with modifications), which is likely a foreshadowing of the console's failure.
 * 11) Most of the art is just the exact same thing with minor changes people have seen which shows that they couldn't even bother trying to create any original ones.
 * 12) Many of these reasons above alongside cryptocurrency, blockchain and scams led to declining sales (since May 2022) of not only NFTs but also most of the cryptocurrency and blockchain as a result (such as GameStop NFTs ), while at the same time, there was a decline of carbon emissions in some areas.
 * 13) * Some of these things are also applied to pretty much anything relating to the characters in general.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Some companies have gone for NFTs that are more eco-friendly. An example would be when Ubisoft used Tezos for their NFTs instead of Ethereum (but even using NFTs in general is considered bad by many due to reasons above and Ethereum still dominates most of the NFTs market which is still resulting impact to environment).
 * 2) As previously mentioned (also regardless of being harmful), some of the art can sometimes be nice even if they're somewhat the exact same thing that anyone had seen before.

Companies that support NFTs

 * Atari
 * Capcom
 * Eden Games
 * Epic Games (despite claiming to be against NFTs, welcoming NFT games to be released on Epic Games Store)
 * Gameloft
 * GameStop
 * Konami
 * Krafton (the creators of PUBG)
 * No Gravity Games
 * Voodoo
 * Piko Interactive
 * Sega
 * mh:awesomegames:SNK
 * Sony Interactive Entertainment
 * Square Enix
 * Take-Two Interactive
 * Ubisoft
 * Z&K Games (under their official Scary Teacher Twitter account)
 * Zynga

Companies that oppose NFTs

 * Aggro Crab
 * Blizzard Entertainment (following a fan survey that asked about NFTs, president Mike Ybarra assured that the company was not making an NFT game)
 * Ghost Town Games
 * Hazelight Studios
 * Itch.io
 * Mediatonic (Fall Guys developer) (mocking the Twitter NFTs profile picture feature, aswell as NFTs flaws over right-clicking)
 * mh:awesomegames:PlatinumGames
 * Microsoft
 * Xbox Game Studios (Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox Gaming, is skeptical of NFT's)
 * mh:awesomegames:Mojang Studios (Prohibited Minecraft NFT creations via updated Usage Guidelines.)
 * Playtonic Games
 * Rockstar Games (mocking NFTs through The Contract DLC of GTA Online where Lamar Davis called them "non-fuckable tokens")
 * Running With Scissors (made a "Going Postal" level entitled "Crypto Hater" as part of Update 1.0.8 for mh:awesomegames:Postal 4: No Regerts)
 * Valve (banned NFTs/blockchain games/apps from being published on Steam)

Companies that backed out of NFTs

 * Electronic Arts
 * GSC Game World
 * Team17
 * MOB Games

Videos
TJ77Nvvth_w Ga672rxV-RE PKI87pufwbc nluywMdd0vs