Activision Blizzard not working on NFTs, despite reports

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has rebuked claims that Activision Blizzard is looking to incorporate NFTs into its games.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Activision Blizzard was seemingly gauging players' interest in cryptocurrency and NFT products through a YouGov survey. However, in response to an article about this alleged move, Ybarra simply replied, "No one is doing NFTs."

So, I guess that is that.

NFTs have been a constant source of news in the gaming industry of late, with many controversial choices being made across the board.

Many companies have briefly flirted with the idea of including NFTs as part of their business model but have then gone on to make a swift U-turn on their decisions. This includes the likes of EA and Team17.

In February, Team17 revealed an "environmentally friendly" Worms NFT. However, as quickly as the very next day, the company hit the abort button and released a statement announcing, "an end to the MetaWorms NFT project".

But despite this general feeling of disdain for NFTs across the gaming community, there are several companies out there that are still keen to embrace the technology, with Nicolas Pouard (VP at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab) claiming players "just don't get it".

More recently still, Sega producer Masayoshi Kikuchi said the future of gaming will "expand to involve new areas such as cloud gaming and NFT", clearly not wishing to rule anything out.