NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens,” emerged as a gaming trend a year ago. Some companies rose to several billion dollars in value virtually out of nowhere. Streamers, YouTubers, and developers suddenly jumped on the bandwagon. Even big and well-known publishers like Ubisoft were convinced by NFTs. Some voices even talked about crypto gaming being the future of video games. A few games even made a killing. A lot has happened in the industry in the past year. And several events as a replacement for E3 served publishers and developers to show their new ideas. But now that many companies have presented their plans for 2022 and 2023, one topic is completely missing: crypto gaming.

Nightingale was one of the highlights at Summer Game Fest and is one of the most watched trailers:

Not a single NFT game at the events

This was shown at the events: On June 9, the 2022 event marathon kicked off with Summer Games Fest. The flurry of trailers showed off heaps of new games and even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made a small PR appearance for his role as DC hero Black Adam.

A few interesting games were definitely there, such as Metal Hellsinger or the remake of The Last of Us for PS5 and PC. But above all, Summer Game Fest was a huge horror show, literally: Summer Game Fest 2022 was the purest horror event – What this means for the gaming year. But there was no sign of NFT games. Not one game advertised that you could earn anything in it. Also in the unconventional indie shows: nothing. For lovers of smaller games, however, there was plenty to see, such as one of my personal gems: Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria:

The biggest show at the end was the Xbox & Bethesda showcase, which scored with really fat announcements. New gameplay for Starfield, the new co-op shooter Redfall and even a presentation of Diablo 4, which probably no one expected.

Why is no one showing NFTs? The shows have been fun, even if you sit at the tickers until all hours of the night like we do at MeinMMO, typing your fingers to the bone. For us the shows are hard work, but always nice, especially as a review.

And now I look back and see no NFT games, but I don’t miss them either. Why none of the publishers or even indie developers dare to talk about it anymore is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s because the crypto market in general is struggling right now, or because some big influencers have made gross mischief with the technology. NFTs and crypto have lost credibility. The background is actually interesting, but is just based on speculation. For many gamers, crypto is something they just don’t want to see in their hobby. That’s why there’s been so much headwind in recent months. It looks like it has been effective.

TitanReach, for example, died before it was even released, and some close developers in the industry also took a stand. Naoki Yoshida, the head of Final Fantasy XIV and something of an icon in the MMORPG field, spoke out against NFTs in his game.

Warren Spector, the creator of Wing Commander, System Shock and Deus Ex, also thinks NFTs and the metaverse associated with them are a bad idea. From him it is said:

NFTs are ridiculous. I don’t understand why anyone would want to be involved in that. Ownership of virtual goods that could be instantly reproduced in unlimited quantities. Who thinks that’s a good idea?

It’s getting quieter around crypto gaming, but it’s here to stay for now

There has been quite little news around the crypto market, crypto gaming and NFTs in recent weeks anyway. The Reuters agency reported on a crash in the crypto market, which apparently hit some investors hard. The CEO of Mythical Games, a company that wants to push blockchain gaming, hopes for a positive development with the help of Web3. This is the new trend that many are now switching to, and it’s probably also somehow related to crypto gaming.

The market remains interesting for a lot of developers and users who hope to see the future in the technology. MMOs in particular are often the target of crypto technologies. After all, the special items that are unique in themselves can be traded here. The interested players then naturally get in early to get potentially valuable content still cheap. Since NFTs and co. have great potential, work is constantly being done on new ways to implement the technology. Some big names in gaming are planning new ways to implement it, such as Peter Molyneux (Black & White, Fable, Dungeon Keeper) or Ultima developer Richard Garriot, who has a new NFT MMORPG in the pipeline.

In the gaming community in general, however, the topic is hardly ever brought up or discussed. If, then in the form of memes or sporadic statements. Whether crypto gaming will become important again? I don’t know. If I have to paint monkey pictures in Paint sometime in 20 years to earn my money, you’ll know about it.