Game developers aren’t interested in NFTs or crypto

According to an industry-wide report, developers aren’t interested in NFTs of cryptocurrency

2700 game developers were surveyed ahead of the 2022 Game Developers Conference (which takes place March 21 – April 1). 72 per cent said their studios had no interest in cryptocurrency as a payment tool while 70 per cent weren’t interested by NFTs.

The report goes on to say 27 per cent of developers are at least somewhat interested in cryptocurrency at their studio and 28 per cent are at least somewhat interested in NFTs

Just 27 of the developers surveyed are currently using crypto as a payment method within their games, and the same amount are actively developing NFTs.

The GDC State of the Game Industry 2022 report is here: Devs weigh in on NFTs, unions, and morehttps://t.co/RMtBBPFkph pic.twitter.com/FaGGHFt73i

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“I personally am quite interested in NFTs and cryptocurrency, but many people in my studio and friend circle do not like them and won’t develop for them. I think NFTs need to get a better reputation when it comes to the environment and art theft first, then it might be an interesting way to give digital content unique value,” said one developer.

“I’d be lying if I said I don’t think NFTs are, at best, stupid, and at worst, predatory and ecologically dangerous. Cryptocurrency, I think, can also be a sensitive thing to deal with. Both have had an immense amount of scams pop up in a very, very short while,” added another.

Elsewhere in the report, it says 83 per cent of developers are not currently developing for the metaverse, while 17 percent believe Fortnite is best positioned to deliver on the promise of the metaverse, followed by Facebook (8 per cent) Minecraft (8 per cent) and Roblox (6 per cent).

A third of developers think the metaverse concept will never deliver.

The report follows a lengthy Twitter discussion kickstarted by Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda who said “I’m surprised by so much negative sentiment by gamers about NFTs. Can we chat?”.

Summing up the conversation, Shinoda said: “Gamers don’t trust the devs. They see ‘NFT’ and think ‘this is another way to squeeze a dollar out of us.’ The games that win will be the ones who GIVE to the community, not TAKE.”

“Crypto miners have bought up a lot of hardware resources and driven up prices, which left a bad taste in peoples’ mouths,” he continued. “Game quality in blockchain isn’t there yet. More than anything, people want it to be fun.”