The Take-Two CEO has revealed he is “highly convinced” by NFTs in gaming and the opportunity to fit them in with the company’s future offerings, which includes Grand Theft Auto 6, Red Dead Redemption, and more.
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, have become a divisive subject in the gaming world. These digital pieces of art live on the blockchain and the most expensive NFTs can sell for millions of dollars.
Many gamers aren’t fans of NFTs, however. Ubisoft received a bunch of backlash for their launch of Ubisoft Quartz, and fans were left skeptical when Nintendo revealed their interest in creating NFTs.
Now Take-Two are showing a similar interest in NFTs, in a move that isn’t likely to go down so well with players of their games.
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke a bit about NFTs and how he sees opportunities for them in future Take-Two titles.
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“We believe that NFTs are real, and why wouldn’t they be? We believe in digital goods and we’ve been selling digital goods for a very long time,” he said. “We believe in rare goods, we believe in collectibles. The concern we have is that there’s a speculation going on.
“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. However, we’re highly convinced there’s an opportunity for NFTs to fit with Take-Two’s offerings in the future.”
How exactly NFTs could work in games such as GTA 6 — which was only announced earlier in February 2020 — is unclear. Gaming NFTs are often looked at through the possibilities with in-game cosmetics, but whether GTA could follow this route is a big question.
That’s for Zelnick and the rest of Take-Two to figure out, however. The main issue will be doing it in a way to appease their players — and avoid backlash.