Blizzard Says It’s Not Working On NFTs In Response To Survey Asking About The Subject

Blizzard is not working on implementing NFTs into its products, according to a tweet from Blizzard president Mike Ybarra.

“No one is working on NFTs,” Ybarra stated on Twitter in response to a Video Games Chronicle article about a recent Blizzard survey gauging player interest in regards to things like NFTs and “play to earn” games, among numerous other subjects.

NFTs, for those who are fortunate enough not to have heard about them yet, are essentially data, such as an image or in-game item, stored on the blockchain in the form of a digital ledger. A number of video game companies have expressed interest in using NFTs in games, with Ubisoft having recently added NFT weapons to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Players can earn these items in-game through playing, and then can sell those items to other players using the blockchain. That is also where the term “play to earn” comes from, in that players can earn digital goods through playing and then theoretically take those items to other games or sell them via the blockchain.

In addition to the carbon footprint and the environmental cost associated with using the blockchain, many critics are against the idea of play to earn as it essentially turns video games into jobs in which the objective is to accumulate digital goods and then sell those goods for real world profits.

Ybarra isn’t the only member of Blizzard who has touched on the subject of NFTs. World of Warcraft lead encounter designer Matt Villers tweeted in appreciation of Ybarra’s response, going on to state that “play to earn schemes” are actively harmful, “not just to a particular group of players or games, but to the very concept of play as an essential part of the human experience.” In January, Overwatch senior designer Jorge Murillo tweeted that “as a dev on the @PlayOverwatch team, I am strongly against NFTs and will fight to make sure they aren’t integrated into our game.”

Blizzard and its parent company Activision are currently in the process of being acquired by Microsoft in a $69 billion deal, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition comes in the wake of Activision Blizzard having been the subject of multiple sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits and subsequent investigations.