The Head of Xbox Weighs in on NFTs
NFTs are, well, a controversial topic to say the least. There have been several attempts to bring its blockchain technology into the gaming space, and players haven’t reacted too well to any of them. While the technology certainly has potential (after all, it’s a way of doing something that no program before has ever done: let players “own” digital goods), there aren’t a lot of options for solid NFT-powered experiences on the market.
And it seems that players aren’t alone in this skepticism. Famously, Steam banned them entirely from its marketplace. Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox brand, doesn’t seem to view the technology too fondly – though he’s not closing that door forever.
In a discussion with Axios, Phil Spencer had this to say:
“What I’d say today on NFT, all up, is I think there’s a lot of speculation and experimentation that’s happening, and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitive than about entertainment,”
That comment on “exploitation” is likely in reference to a few NFT projects based around purchasing a piece of computer-generated art, in the hopes of selling it for a higher price down the road. Ideas like that have been compared to pyramid schemes, since the role of participants is to find an everlasting chain of people “dumb enough” to keep buying the NFT at increasingly high prices – only for the person at the end of the chain to be left with a “worthless” piece of art that they can’t make a profit on. Eventually, critics say, someone gets burned.
“I think anything that we looked at in our storefront that we said is exploitive would be something that we would, you know, take action on,” he added in the Axios discussion. “We don’t want that kind of content.”
Despite this, there are plenty of people more optimistic about the future of NFTs. A few companies have looked into the technology themselves, to… well, varying results. But the interest is certainly there. Do you think a good NFT-based project could ever come about? Is there still room for the concept to grow? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below!