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Sid Meier believes gameplay is 'critical' to making NFTs work

Legendary game developer Sid Meier criticized the implementation of NFTs in games in a recent interview.

Donovan Erskine

February 28, 2022 10:10 AM

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NFTs have become increasingly popular in the tech and entertainment space, as it feels like a new publisher or development studio is taking a crack at Non-Fungible Tokens. Sid Meier, known for founding Firaxis Games and developing games like the Civilization series recently spoke about NFTs in an interview, where he disapproved of their current implementation in video games.

Sid Meier was speaking with BBC News about monetization in the video game industry when he talked about how NFTs are being used by developers and publishers. His primary criticism is that the monetization model does very little to improve the player experience. “People can assume that a game is going to be fun and what it needs for success are more cinematics or monetisation or whatever - but if the core just is not there with good gameplay, then it won't work.”

Meier went on to discuss how the quality of the gameplay itself is paramount to making monetization features like NFTs successful.

We’ve seen NFTs come to gaming in a big way as of late, but they’re often met with backlash. While Ubisoft has defended its use of NFTs in Ghost Recon, Team17 ended up canceling its own plans just a day after announcing them. As we continue to monitor how NFTs are impacting the video game industry, stick with us here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_