Take-Two has a cautious view on the opportunity in NFTs, and has caveats and caution around the crypto sector’s speculative side.
Take-Two, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, has its eye on the potential opportunities presented by non-fungible tokens.
“We’re highly convinced there’s an opportunity for NFTs to fit with Take-Two’s offerings in the future,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick reportedly said via Nintendo Life.
Zelnick didn’t offer a full endorsement of the NFTs, however.
“We believe in rare goods, we believe in collectibles. The concern we have is that there’s speculation going on,” he said. “We want to make sure that consumers always have a good experience every time they engage with our properties and losing money on a speculation is not a good experience, so we’re going to stay away from speculation.”
There’s a growing controversy that’s putting the gaming industry and the NFT industry on a collision course.
Gaming and NFTs
Many gaming companies have already jumped on the NFT bandwagon.
NFTs are a controversial new feature that has major implications for the gaming industry. In December last year, Ubisoft became the first major gaming company to launch in-game NFTs. After major backlash from gamers who did not support the move, Ubisoft doubled down, claiming that NFTs were a major change that would take time.
“This experiment is meant to understand how the value proposition of decentralization can be received and embraced by our players. We know it is a major change that will take time, but we will stay true to our three principles,” Ubisoft’s Blockchain Technical Director Didier Genevois told Decrypt.
The three principles are: using tech responsibly, only using energy-efficient proof-of-stake blockchains, and focusing on “meaningful value propositions” for players.
Elsewhere, Square Enix is also bullish on the future of gaming and NFTs.
In a letter for 2021, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda said blockchain games will be an area that the company should focus on in the future. The company first signaled its intention to explore NFTs in November 2021.
Featured photo source picjumbo.com
