After hinting that they would be going big on NFTs and the blockchain, Electronic Arts now seems to be backing down.
Three months ago, the gaming company called NFTs and blockchain ‘the future of our industry’.
“I think that in the context of the games we create and the live services that we offer, collectible digital content is going to play a meaningful part in our future,” CEO Andrew Wilson said.
“So, it’s still early to tell, but I think we’re in a really good position, and we should expect us to kind of think more innovatively and creatively about that on a go-forward basis.”
The company promised to make big investments in the field, and even ran some job listings for experts.
Now, the maker of FIFA, Madden NFL, Need for Speed and other popular titles sounds uncertain about that future.
In an investors call following its Q3 2022 earnings report, the CEO suggested that the future may not be as clear as they initially thought, adding that EA is not ‘driving hard’ on NFTs.
“I believe that collectibility will continue to be an important part of our industry in the games and experiences that we offer our players.
Whether that’s as part of NFTs and the blockchain, that remains to be seen. And I think, the way we think about it is, we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can, and so we’ll evaluate that over time. But right now it’s not something that we’re driving hard on.”
Andrew Wilson, EA CEO
He went on to compare NFTs as other promising technologies like 3D and VR, that have not taken off as expected despite their hype.
This new non-committal attitude by EA goes against the industry trend. Other gaming companies like Ubisoft have promised to go all in. The French video game company recently invested in the PvP game Frontier.
