EA no longer “driving hard” on NFTs

Last year the company called NFTs “the future of our industry”

Electronic Arts’ (EA) CEO Andrew Wilson has reeled the company’s position on NFTs back in, after previously calling them the “future”.

As transcribed by PC Gamer, the statements were made in the Q3 FY22 earnings call for EA, and outlined how the company appears to be going back on previous commitments and attitudes towards NFTs.

Wilson began: “I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry in the games and experiences that we offer our players. Whether that’s as part of NFTs and the blockchain, that remains to be seen.

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“And I think, the way we think about it is, we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can, and so we’ll evaluate that over time. But right now it’s not something that we’re driving hard on.”

Battlefield 2042
Battlefield 2042. Credit: EA.

In an earnings call from November of last year, Wilson took a very different approach to NFTs, calling them “the future of our industry.”

“I think that in the context of the games 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.

“I think we’re in a really good position,” added the EA CEO, “and we should expect us to kind of think more innovatively and creatively about that on a go-forward basis.”

EA has not entered the NFT space as of yet, but multiple game companies have attempted it to less-than-noteworthy success.

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Battlefield 2042 bad reviews
Battlefield 2042. Credit: EA.

The NFT project related to Stalker 2 was cancelled just one day after it was announced,  and Ubisoft’s quartz NFTs were reported to have sold less than one per cent of the NFTs minted.

Nicolas Pourt, a VP at Ubisoft, recently made a statement about the company’s NFT plans, saying:

“I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second, just a tool for speculation.

“But what we are seeing first is the end game,” they added. “The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself. So, it’s really for them. It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.”

In other news, Team17 has announced it is cancelling the recently announced Worms NFT project, following backlash from players and partnered developers, thus joining EA in walking back NFT plans and statements.

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