Blizzard President Promises No NFTs Following Consumer Survey That Gauged Interest

Several individuals began sharing photos and information from an Activision Blizzard consumer survey that gauged interest in a variety of gaming-related issues, including NFTs, via Twitter a few days ago (non-fungible tokens). VR, AR, cloud gaming, metaverse, and play-to-earn were among the other alternatives.

The survey apparently even ended with a link that redirected users to the Blizzard shop, further angering some folks

As if the mention of the NFTs wasn’t enough. We’ve already documented the harsh criticism that Ubisoft and GSC Game World received for their NFTs projects, with the latter being forced to abandon its so-called STALKER Metaverse in a matter of days.

Such a controversy would be disastrous for the present Blizzard Entertainment. Once regarded as one of the most successful game studios, Activision Blizzard has struggled due to multiple controversies (Diablo going mobile, then more recently the workplace culture scandal that engulfed most of Activision Blizzard), disappointing game releases (most notably Warcraft III: Reforged, but also live service juggernauts like World of Warcraft and Overwatch losing steam), and significant delays (Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV won’t be released until 2023.

Fortunately, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra (a former corporate vice president at Xbox) has stated unequivocally that the firm has no intentions to use NFTs in its games.

Even if you don’t believe him, would-be Activision Blizzard buyer Microsoft spoke openly against NFTs through Phil Spencer, who was promoted to CEO of Microsoft Gaming earlier this year.

What I’d say today on NFT, all up, is I think there’s a lot of speculation and experimentation that’s happening, and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitative than about entertainment.

I don’t think it necessitates that every NFT game is exploitative. I just think we’re kind of in that journey of people figuring it out.

And I can understand that early on you see a lot of things that probably are not things you want to have in your store. I think anything that we looked at in our storefront that we said is exploitative would be something that we would, you know, take action on. We don’t want that kind of content.

Of course, given the FTC’s involvement in the assessment, the big deal (worth roughly $70 billion) is far from certain to happen.

In the meantime, Blizzard is working on a fantasy survival game based in a new universe, in addition to the aforementioned Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. Following rumors, it was revealed that the project has been in development for nearly four and a half years, implying that a public revelation is not far away. The game will be played from the perspective of a first-person shooter.

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