Blockchain tech—not the metaverse—was the talk of this year's DICE
The video game industry is always dreaming of new digital futures. Once one innovation passes, it's time to start conjuring the next one, and when there's a lull between the console generations, different trends elbow each other for a rent-free apartment in the minds of industry executives and developers.
DICE 2022 has been a chance to tour those apartments, admire the layout, and check the corners for unwelcome insects. We knew going into this event that buzzwords like "blockchain," "the metaverse," and "hybrid work" would be top-of-mind for attendees. What we didn't quite know was where the priorities of said attendees would lie. And after a year of investor excitement and backlash from developers and players alike, blockchain tech, its proposed upsides, and its worrying downsides, was what got people talking.
Is a year of pushback having an effect on how executives are thinking about this new tech? Yes. But there's still plenty of whet appetites for what the evangelists are advocating for—even if some of those promises come with possibly upsetting consequences.
If there's one reason crypto chatter ran high over buzzwords, it's that there are a number of concrete business plans and mechanics that can be debated or discussed. Meanwhile, Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo was able to take the stage and quip "I don't really know what the metaverse is" in a chat with Epic Games chief creative officer Donald Mustard (though Russo's commentary was more of a dig at Facebook-parent Meta rather than Epic's proposed metaverse ambitions).
Russo's surprising divergent on blockchain tech may have decently summed up the positive impressions we gathered from DICE attendees. He described himself as being a longtime crypto fan, but
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