NFTs and Blockchain Of Little Interest To Most Game Devs Says GDC

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) had conducted another iteration of its State of the Game Industry survey, which helps provide a glimpse within the gaming industry as a whole. Through this survey, an interesting piece of information was revealed for those interested in blockchain technology: As little as 23% of video game developers have displayed interest within the blockchain and NFT space. The survey in question had an excess of 2,300 respondents within the gaming industry at large. As it stands now, only 2% of the survey’s respondents are actively involved in projects with blockchain or NFT technology.

Notable Anti-Blockchain And NFT Sentiments

Compared to the survey of last year, the amount of interest that had been lost within the blockchain and NFT space is noteworthy. Last year, the metrics showed that 27% of game developers were interested in cryptocurrencies, with 28% showing interest in NFTs.

Another metric is whether or not game developers believe that blockchain technology is even appropriate for the gaming space, and only 17% of the respondents believe that. A staggering 61% of game developers are against the integration of blockchain technology in gaming, with the rest either being undecided or boasting no opinion one way or another.

Unions And Harassment

A bit more uplifting news is that 53% of the respondents support the idea of unionization within the gaming industry. The respondents also agree with 91% that significant problems within the gaming industry as a whole include toxicity and player harassment. The survey showed that 68% of the respondents declared that their companies had addressed the harassment that these respondents had either experienced or witnessed themselves. With that in mind, 20% of the respondents stated that the companies outright didn’t respond to their claims of harassment, with another 11% claiming they could not be sure, one way or another.

NFT Games Seemingly Maturing

Important news regarding the integration of blockchain and NFTs includes a new patent that Sony had acquired. The patent in question was submitted back on the 7th of May, 2021, with the patent being published on the 10th of November, 2022. The patent is aptly titled “Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger.” It strongly suggests Sony is already in the testing phases to see if they can implement it in their games.

Another notable event is Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, giving a public statement about the State of NFTs in gaming. He commented on the lack of success NFT games have when compared to the mainstream heavyweights, advocating the problem isn’t with the public, but instead with the games.

Buterin’s view on the matter is that these play-to-earn games need to be fun to play in and of themselves, without NFTs being a factor, before NFT games could be successful. He explained that a large number of first-generation NFT games only banked on the financial aspect to bring them success.

Recently, Ubisoft has announced the cancellation of one of its in-development games, Project Q. This game was speculated by many to be an NFT title, as it launched within proximity of Ubisoft Quartz, the company’s proprietary tools for the sale of NFTs within their respective games.