The majority of game developers have no interest in NFTs, survey finds

70% of developers have no interest in implementing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in their games, a new wide-reaching survey has found.

The Game Developers Conference’s annual State of the Game Industry Report has been released, which asked over 2700 game developers about their work.

One of the questions asked: “What is your studio’s interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs)?”

70% of respondents replied “not interested”, while 21% said “somewhat interested” and 7% said “very interested”. Only 1% answered that they were already developing them.

Another question asked: “What is your studio’s interest in cryptocurrency as a payment tool?”

The results were similar – 72% not interested, 21% somewhat interested, 6% very interested and 1% already using it.

According to GDC: “When asked how they felt about the possibility of cryptocurrency or NFTs in games, a few [developers] called it the future of gaming.

“However, a vast majority of respondents spoke out against both practices – noting their potential for scams, overall monetization concerns, and the environmental impact.”

The survey also provided examples of some responses, including positive ones such as: “I think this is going to be a massive shift in the way we think about digital goods and ownership/monetization.”

However, the majority of provided responses were negative, with one developer answering: “How this hasn’t been identified as a pyramid scheme is beyond me.”

“Why do we need them?” asked another. “What benefit does it have putting these systems into our games? Who is using these things? It feels like a very small audience.

“And also, these technologies are still not using sustainable energy and are a target for money laundering. As a developer I feel deeply uncomfortable that there is a push for these.

“It feels entirely fuelled by greed for more money because we read stories about crypto millionaires, when in reality all of it is extremely unstable and unethical.”

Numerous game companies have already started selling digital items as NFTs, including Konami and Ubisoft, though this has attracted criticism from some due to the format’s high carbon footprint and what many perceive to be cynical implementation.

Square Enix was the most recent high-profile games publisher to express its enthusiasm for the technology trends.

In a New Year letter published during the holiday break, president Yosuke Matsuda committed to making blockchain and NFT games a part of its games portfolio.

Last week Sega registered a trademark for ‘Sega NFT’, while Prolific video games voice actor Troy Baker announced that he was teaming up with Voiceverse NFT, which claims it will let people buy AI voices as NFTs which can then be used in any game.