Fierce fight rages as Minecraft developers challenge game industry’s NFT love affair

tech.hindustantimes.com:

A fierce divide has emerged between some of the world’s largest video-game publishers and their staff over the adoption of NFTs and blockchain technology. Now, a team of insiders wants to hold the industry’s crypto advocates accountable for introducing any damaging consequences.

Studios including Square Enix Holdings Co., Konami Holdings Corp. and Sega have indicated an openness to adopting nonfungible tokens and blockchain technology in their games, spying a potential for profit in an industry that has typically struggled to make money from the products it creates. Blockchain featured heavily as a topic of discussion at this year’s Game Developers Conference — a top-tier annual gathering for creators — with companies promoting a decentralized future where players can buy a sword in one game, and play with it in another.

But the gulf in opinion between leadership and the employees who actually create the games is vast. Proponents supporting the introduction of digital ownership into games visualize players amassing inventories of tradeable merchandise, or turning their hobby into a side hustle. But many developers say NFTs are an exploitation of gamers’ trust, creating tiered communities in games that benefit the wealthiest players while failing to address the risks of crypto scams and inherent environmental costs. Publishers such as Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Team17 Group Plc were forced to roll back or entirely abandon NFT projects this year after staff showered leadership with hundreds of scathing comments.

Against this backdrop, an independent group of game developers, artists and staff from Minecraft maker Mojang Studios joined forces to draw up a pledge on digital ownership, which calls on studios to commit to being