The King of Fighters Crypto appears, gets insulted, vanishes

Not even Rugal would invest

SNK delivered a double dose of news pertaining to its foremost fight franchise The King of Fighters this week, not only offering up a new trailer for The King of Fighters XV‘s Team Orochi, but also stealth-dropping The King of Fighters ’98 Final Edition onto PlayStation platforms. It seems, however, that there was a third piece of KoF news that day… Though you might not find it for looking.

On Tuesday, eagle-eyed fans spotted a new Twitter account advertising something plainly called “The King of Fighters Crypto” (or “CryptoKOF”). This endeavor — not developed by but allegedly “authorized by” SNK — appears to be a blockchain/NFT project based upon the crossover fighting series. According to the Twitter page, The King of Fighters Crypto would see “The return of the king, to fight again in the metaverse arena.”

You already know what happened next. Like so many similar announcements before it, CryptoKOF was immediately hit with insults and comments of disdain from the King of Fighters community, leading the Twitter page to go private within mere hours of its initial discovery. While this is not SNK’s first dabble in the NFT market (the company already has a deal with online market OnBuff to sell NFTs based on SNK properties), it is yet another example of the gaming community turning toward the blockchain market and telling it — quite succinctly — that it is not welcome here.

And the horse you rode in on, fellas.

For more reading on NFTs/blockchain technology and gaming, check out Jonathon Holmes’ report.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse