After unforeseeable problems with Elon Musk's public image, my publishers delayed my debut young adult novel about teenagers saving the future using NFTs. I rolled with the punches, fighting back against Musk's cult of personality with a bold new direction for the future of the 'chain in the second novel of my Non-Fungible Future series. Well. I had expected both books to be in your hands already (and on the bestseller list), but now my publishers are concerned by that report declaring "the vast majority of NFTs are worthless". Well then! As we say on the Infobahn: when Turing closes a crypto exchange, he opens an ICO. So in the wake of Cyber Monday, I now present to you a sneak peek at my third Non-Fungible Future novel, a mint read I call 'Worthless'.
]]>In a New Year’s message, Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda reaffirmed the company’s focus on blockchain technology with “multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development” despite the public backlash against the initiative. This echoes Matsuda’s New Year’s message from last January, where the company first expressed its enthusiasm for an NFT-fueled, metaverse future. More recently, Squeenix partnered with the “environmentally friendly” blockchain firm Oasys, probably to sidestep potential controversies about, y'know, the environmental impact of the technology.
]]>Grand Theft Auto Online players are forbidden from using the game’s roleplay servers for “commercial exploitation”, according to new guidelines set out by developers Rockstar which includes selling loot boxes, virtual currencies, corporate sponsorships, and anything to do with cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Sorry, crypto bros. The ban on crypto and NFTs echoes Mojang’s statement from this summer scuppering players who wanted to incorporate the controversial technologies into Minecraft.
]]>When I gave you a sneak peek at 1/1, my cyberpunk novel about teens saving the future with NFTs, I could not possibly have predicted that Elon Musk would become a controversial figure. No one could. But the infobahn baron played a role in my tale's thrilling conclusion, and so my publishers are unthrilled by recent developments. They're holding the novel's launch back so I can address 'the Musk issue' with a sequel released simultaneously. So as a Cyber Monday treat, allow me to top up your thrill levels with excerpts from book two: Original Content, a Non-Fungible Future drop.
]]>Halloween might be over, but island farming sim Coral Island appears to have generated a doppelganger on social media that has a hankering for NFTs. Coral Island’s developers Stairway Games have brought attention to the scam account, which uses the real game’s logo and key art but adds an extra web3 cryptobro twist by linking itself to the GameFi blockchain gaming platform. Stairway, as you would, are calling shenanigans.
]]>Square Enix are taking more steps to implement the controversial blockchain technology in their games. Squeenix have teamed with blockchain company Oasys, who describe themselves as “environmentally-friendly”. This is because of their less energy-intensive “proof-of-stake” mechanism compared to “proof-of-work” methods such as those used in Bitcoin mining. Oasys's plans fits with Squeenix’s intention to develop tokenised economies built on blockchain in their future games.
]]>The mysterious Everywhere was one of the most baffling game reveals of Gamescom Opening Night Live this year, and while the words 'metaverse', 'NFTs' and 'blockchain' weren't anywhere to be seen during Tuesday's showcase, it certainly sounded like it had something to do with at least one of them. Now, after the internet noticed the studio is currently hiring for three positions to form a “blockchain team”, developer Build A Rocket Boy have responded to the claims on Reddit. And the answer is... complicated.
]]>Update: As Eurogamer point out, it turns out Off The Grid features NFTs, with tradeable in-game items handled by a blockchain marketplace. A different kind of future tech dystopia than the one depicted in the trailer...
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Off The Grid was announced earlier this year, the first product of District 9 director Neill Blomkamp's partnership with Gunzilla Games. A new video released tonight offers a longer look at its setting, in the form of a Blomkamp directed in-engine cinematic, while also giving a sense of how the cyberpunk battle royale might feel to play. Watch it below.
]]>An NFT minter using the GameStop marketplace has admitted to minting developers' games without their consent or knowledge. The games, which are freely available on itch.io, were sold several hundred times before GameStop delisted them, and continue to exist on GameStop's servers regardless of the wishes of the original creators.
]]>Square Enix are threatening to overshadow the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7 by partnering with Enjin, a cryptocurrency platform, to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on the long-running JRPG series. To coincide with the anniversary, Squeenix will be releasing a digital collection of cards on Enjin’s Efinity network for owners of physical cards that are expected to go on sale in 2023. There's an NFT linked to a Cloud Strife action figure too. Feel free to watch the trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth below to take your mind off this woeful event.
]]>NFTs and blockchain can provoke either groans or extreme enthusiasm, but Mojang Studios have come down firmly in the groan camp when it comes to people using the technologies in Minecraft. In a statement published to the Minecraft site, Mojang said they were addressing community concerns about their position on NFTs and blockchain. Mojang said their position on the technologies is that “integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow”.
]]>Inspired by Ready Player One's critical acclaim and the unstoppable rise of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, I'm writing my own dystopian young adult novel about teen rebels who stick it to The Man using the power of the blockchain. While I'm still working on it, publishers and movie producers have already shown great interest. So allow me to treat you, reader dear, to some samples and worldbuilding notes from 1/1, the first drop of the Non-Fungible Future saga.
]]>I recently had the chance to grill Gabe Newell – Valve president and co-founder, plus brain tech enthusiast – about the Steam Deck. What followed did indeed start with a look at Valve’s portable PC, including the lessons learned from the company’s past hardware attempts, but it soon swerved into a wider-ranging discussion on cryptocurrency, NFTs, consolidation issues affecting the games industry and whether there might be whole new Steam Decks in the future. Come and read the full Q&A below.
]]>From Ubisoft to Konami to the Epic Games Store, games companies are doubling down on NFTs as fast as others are backtracking on them. Valve, on the other hand, aren’t likely to get involved any time soon, owing to “a lot of criminal activity and a lot of sketchy behaviours”. That’s according to co-founder Gabe Newell, who recently spoke to us about his concerns around crypto.
While indie game store Itch.io declared NFTs a scam, Newell is more open to the “underlying technology of distributed ledgers” – but says there are just too many bad actors using that technology for nefarious endeavours, namely fraud and money laundering. Steam banned games with NFTs and cryptocurrency last year.
]]>Last week, Team17 announced Worms NFTs and then, amid an enormous backlash from their audience and business partners, cancelled them the following day. Now several staff at the publisher have spoken out about low pay, overwork, and management failures in a new report by Eurogamer.
]]>Whether you dislike NFTs, don't understand them, or think you can make money from them, you can't escape the NFT discourse. Game stores are no different. Valve have banned games with NFTs or cryptocurrencies from Steam, the Epic Games Stores welcomes NFTs, and now Itch.io has weighed in. In response to people asking, the folks behind the excellent indie games store have stated their beliefs plainly: "NFTs are a scam."
]]>Ubisoft were the first huge games company to excitedly launch a line of NFTs then be told by almost everyone no, don't do that, it sucks. Well done, almost everyone! In a new interview, Ubisoft's blockchain boys have said people "don't get it".
]]>With NFTs in games proving unpopular with almost everyone who doesn't plan to get rich by fleecing other players, even appearing to support them is controversial. This is a situation Riot Games found themselves in after a lighthearted tweet about one of the Valorant wizards visiting an art exhibition on a day out. Turns out, the picture seen by Killjoy is an NFT. Cue Riot scrambling to make clear it was unintentional and say, literally, "Whoopsie!"
]]>Mostly, I want people to shut up about NFTs and cryptocurrency and the metaverse and play-to-earn games. Maybe if we turn away and pretend they're not there, it'll all burn out when scammers grow tired of being scammed by other scammers. However, one of the few people I do want to hear talk about it all is Yanis Varoufakis, who was Valve's in-house economist before becoming Greece's finance minister then an MP. In a wonderfully long new interview, he is not impressed by much of the hype, and it is DELIGHTFUL.
]]>Konami's first auction of NFTs concluded over the weekend, with idiots collectively spending the equivalent of £119,000 ($162k) in cryptocurrency to buy 14 database entries pointing to Castlevania artwork, music, and videos that anyone online can see for free. On one hand, thank god it was only £119,000 because if it was the millions that some ugly Twitter avatars have sold for, every other mercenary games company would ramp up their own NFT initiatives. On the other, oh god £119,000 is still so much money for basically nothing.
]]>Sega has registered a trademark for the term "Sega NFT" with the Japan patent office. Sega indicated in an early 2021 Twitter post that they intended to sell NFTs last summer, although the company's president later said that if the move was seen as "simple money-making, I would like to make a decision not to proceed."
]]>Konami, the Japanese company best known for squandering every shred of goodwill they built through series like Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid, are getting into NFTs. Of course they are. Should've guessed. While publishers like Square Enix, EA, and Take-Two are still contemplating NFTs, I am not remotely surprised that Konami are one of the first notable names to actually start selling useless digital junk. Next week, they will hold an auction for NFTs of videos, artwork, and music from early Castlevania games. Konami, man.
]]>Square Enix have ushered in the new year with a joyous message for those who play games to "have fun”. Sorry, but those who "play to earn” are key to their business model going forwards. NFTs, blockchain, and the 'metaverse' are the future of fun. Whatever that means.
]]>Update: GSC Game World have announced on Twitter that they're cancelling plans for NFTs in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
"Based on feedback we received, we've made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2," reads the post. "The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team. We're making this game for you to enjoy - whatever the cost is. If you care, we care too."
]]>Peter Molyneux's 22cans studio have sold around £40 million of NFTs for their "blockchain business simulator" Legacy, before it's been released. The town management game has its own cryptocurrency, of course, and this weekend they sold NFTs of virtual land for real money. The hope for crypto land barons is that they would be able to earn money back from other players through in-game business partnerships.
]]>Yesterday, Ubisoft announced their intention to bring the first NFTs to their games in the form of three cosmetic items for Ghost Recon Breakpoint. As part of the announcement they produced a 79 second trailer describing how the system, dubbed "Ubisoft Quartz", would work.
After around 24 hours, the video has 200k views, 1300+ likes and 35,000+ dislikes.
]]>Well, they've done it. After declaring their desire to be "key players" in blockchain gaming, Ubisoft have announced in-game NFTs on a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz. They're cosmetic items called Digits, and they're coming to Ghost Recon Breakpoint later this week.
]]>Earlier this week, Ubisoft and EA's CEOs said they saw NFTs and the blockchain as part of the future of gaming. Now Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has joined in, telling GamesIndustry.biz that he's "a big believer" in NFTs - albeit with caveats.
]]>Previous generations worried that humanity would be hurried towards its demise by nuclear war. My fear is that our destruction will be brought about by FIFA players opening Ultimate Team packs to "earn" NFTs.
Yes, EA CEO Andrew Wilson followed in Ubisoft's footsteps by saying that he thought NFTs and play-to-earn would be "an important part of the future of our industry."
]]>Not content with pivoting to free-to-play games that their audience doesn't want, Ubisoft also want to be one of the "key players" in blockchain gaming according to CEO Yves Guillemot.
]]>A group of developers have written an open letter to Valve asking them to reverse their decision to forbid games containing NFTs and other blockchain technologies on Steam. NFTs are great, they say, arguing that they "make games more decentralized, democratic, interactive, player focused systems."
]]>Do you enjoy the feeling of having pins hammered into your head? Then allow me to introduce you to: our modern reality.
Today's pin to the brow is that you can now buy NFTs based on Dead By Daylight's in-game models of Hellraiser's Pinhead. I can tell the difference between pleasure and pain, and this is pain.
]]>Valve appear to be laying down some new rules for games on Steam, specifically games that involve trading or receiving cryptocurrancy and NFTs. The change has been shared by SpacePirate Games, developers of Age Of Rust, who say they were notified this week about the new prohibition. Over in the Steamworks portal, a new type of content that cannot be published on Steam has been added. "Applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs."
]]>Will Wright, the legendary designer behind games from SimCity to The Sims, has opened up about his mysterious new game. It's named Proxi, and it's some sort of world-building AI simulation game inspired by "how the brain stores memories". Normally news on a new Will Wright game would be cause for celebration but ah jeez he's fallen for NFTs, oh no.
]]>Somehow, I hadn't seen any of Devolver Digital's E3 presentations until last night. I'd heard them described as "wacky", which usually means "complete mind poison" in the world of PR, and so never bothered to find out what all the fuss was about. Reader, I was a damned fool.
Last night's Devolver show delighted me more than every trailer so far this week put together, quite frankly. It was a brilliant bit of cinema, and an unexpectedly sharp note of satire, too. If you haven't seen it already, then please take this as my stern recommendation to go and watch it immediately. In this year's ever-escalating narrative about the chilling figure of Nina Struthers, Devolver took on NFTs - and not in the way you might expect.
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