EA says NFTs will be an "important part about the future of our industry"

In an earnings call this week, EA boss Andrew Wilson called NFTs and so-called "play-to-earn" games were an "important part about the future of our industry", but added, "it's still early to figure out how that's going to work".

The major publishers are slowly dipping their toes into the "play-to-earn" concept, which typically sees players earn cryptocurrency for playing a game.

Ubisoft also announced plans in its own earnings call this week to introduce NFTs and leverage the blockchain in future games.

The technology is still in its infancy and remains controversial. NFTs and cryptocurrencies have been pointed at for their huge environmental impact due to the energy consumption associated with mining.

It also remains largely unregulated, which could be an issue given that a major lure of NFTs and cryptocurrencies are their speculative value. A rare in-game item, for example, could be later sold for a significant amount of a given cryptocurrency which would be exchanged for traditional forms of currency.

Add to that, Valve banned blockchain, crypto and NFT games from Steam last month, which is a major hurdle that publishers will have to get past.