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'No one is doing NFTs' says Blizzard president Ybarra

More publishers are exploring NFTs, but it doesn't appear that Blizzard will be among them.

Ozzie Mejia

April 18, 2022 2:50 PM

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Over the past few months, gaming publishers have begun expressing curiosity about NFTs. Blizzard Entertainment does not appear to be among them. Over the weekend, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra responded to a report that the publisher was gauging interest in NFTs with a flat-out refute.

"No one is doing NFTs," Ybarra said on Twitter in response to a VGC report (via GamesIndustry.Biz. This comes in the wake of a recent survey in which one of the questions asked users about their interest in "play-to-earn gaming" and NFTs. The survey also inquired about other topics, including streaming, subscription services (not including World of Warcraft, presumably), cross-platform play, and the metaverse.

Ybarra's blunt statement comes in contrast to the interest expressed by other gaming publishers. Earlier today, Shacknews wrote about Square Enix embracing NFTs, in spite of the intense backlash they've faced from their fanbase on the subject. Ubisoft has followed the same pattern, announcing that it would continue pursuing NFTs in spite of the backlash that they received following their inclusion in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Ubisoft executives doubled down on their pursuit of NFTs, previously stating that critics simply don’t understand NFTs in gaming.

As noted in the GI.Biz story, Blizzard has previously explored other alternate revenue paths, including the almost universally reviled Diablo 3 real-money auction house, which was shut down nearly a year after the game's launch.

This isn't the last time we'll hear about NFTs in games and might not even be the last we'll hear from Blizzard on the subject. We'll keep watching these stories here at Shacknews, so come back for the latest updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?