Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been dominating many conversations on social media recently, and arguments are being made for and against their presence in gaming content. If you"ve been online in gaming spheres lately, you may have seen takes about the potential use of NFTs in games like Mario Kart. It"s all a bit crazy right now, honestly.
Now, in an interview with Axios, Xbox chief Phil Spencer has detailed his thoughts on the matter. While they don"t shut the doors on NFTs in gaming completely, it"s clear that Spencer is not a fan of the idea, at least not in its current state. The executive stated that:
What I"d say today on NFT, all up, is I think there"s a lot of speculation and experimentation that"s happening, and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitive than about entertainment.
[...] I don"t think it necessitates that every NFT game is exploitive. I just think we"re kind of in that journey of people figuring it out. And I can understand that early on you see a lot of things that probably are not things you want to have in your store. I think anything that we looked at in our storefront that we said is exploitive would be something that we would, you know, take action on. We don"t want that kind of content.
Spencer"s take is important given the state of NFTs in gaming right now and Microsoft"s impact in the area. While Valve seems to share a mindset similar to Microsoft and has currently banned all blockchain-based games from Steam, others like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts are in favor of experimenting with them. It remains to be seen how the plans of the aforementioned companies will materialize and evolve in this particular domain with the passage of time.