Microsoft emphasizes that making money with digital objects such as NFTs is not compatible with the desired long-term gaming fun.
The initial hype with NFTs beeing build in into games seems to have subsided in the last months, but there are still many game manufacturers who are enthusiastic about Non-Fungible Tokens.
After all, one hopes to make a lot of money in the future with these digital ownership certificates based on the blockchain.
Virtual objects such as in-game items, avatars or other cosmetics could then be traded at high prices.
Looking at the Steam market place reveals that players are willing to pay a lot for popular skins.
The problem with this is that the enthusiasm for the topic has been rather one-sided so far, with negative reactions dominating the gaming community.
Game Studios such as Team 17 ("Worms") and GSC Game World ("Stalker") had to realize how unpopular such NFT plans are among players, where corresponding ambitions were turned off again after a storm of public outrage.
At Microsoft, a different path was immediately decided: In a blog entry, Mojang (developer of Minecraft and subsidiary of Microsoft) committed itself to a clear anti-NFT position.
Not only will the use of NFTs not be supported, it will even be explicitly forbidden in the future. This applies both to the integration of blockchain technologies in "Minecraft" client and server applications and to the sale of game content such as skins or mods as NFT.
Source:
official blog post
How about you?
How do you feel about NFTs pushing into the gaming scene?
For me personally, since games are already flooded with in-game shops and micro transactions, I really don't see the urge to implement additional possibilities to dump my money into.
I see NFTs as something that should be used instead of existing shops and microtransactions, not in addition to. Whether they are good or bad all depends on how they are used and how it affects the balance of the game.
That's about how I see it too.
Instead of shops and microtransactions, transform the already existing thing into a marketplace and NFTs. It's basically the same thing but with a different name.
NFTs in video games are the same as microtransactions with a prettier name. Any arguments against both apply interchangeably. Just a big no-no.
At least with NFTs you'll have the chance to sell them later on or trade with your friends. It's a tight balance to make it work though. If NFTs ever get into big games they gotta make sure that there's ample supply so you don't have people boting to buy them and pump the price up.