Despite my aversion to NFTs, there are two kinds of NFT stories that I like in regard to major companies. The first is when someone rushes in to reassure us that they are NOT investing in NFTs. The second is when someone plays around with the idea, realizes the mistake they’re making, and changes their mind.
As far as that second case goes, there are plenty of instances where well-meaning people really don’t know what they’re getting into. NFTs are not the easiest thing to decipher, especially when they were first making headlines, so some people legitimately do have questions (and if you’re one of those people, I HIGHLY recommend this video by Folding Ideas).
Wanting to fully understand NFTs is perfectly fine, it’s the smugness that bothers me, really, the assumption that people are just making noise and not, you know, making valid points about how harmful NFTs are and the rampant theft that runs alongside them.
A few months ago, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson was somewhere in the middle, I think? He wasn’t going all in the way other gaming companies like Ubisoft and Square Enix have, but he did describe NFTs as “the future of our industry.”
That’s not the case anymore. Kinda.
What EA’s CEO said before
Back in November 2021, PC Gamer reported that Wilson had called NFT and play-to-earn games “the future of our industry,” however, it was, at the time, “still early to figure out how that’s going to work.”
“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,” 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.”
PC Gamer also reported that EA had job postings that included NFT and blockchain in their descriptions.
Recent EA job listings include “NFT” and “blockchain” in the descriptions, suggesting that the company is at least aware of the genre’s surge in popularity. A post for a senior director of the company’s competitive gaming brand reads, “We set the pace for EA’s investment in gaming subscriptions, our PC storefront and platform, competitive gaming (including FIFA, Apex Legends, and Madden NFL), as well as new business opportunities, including fantasy sports, blockchain and NFTs, and more.”
To add to this, according to Kotaku, EA was also in the middle of a messy dispute over FIFA licensing partially because they wanted to, quote, “explore other ventures within its FIFA video game ecosystem, including highlights of actual games, arena video game tournaments and digital products like NFTs.”
So yeah, despite Wilson saying it was “too early to tell” EA was definitely making moves toward NFTs.
What EA’s CEO is saying now
During yesterday’s investor call, Wilson was asked the following:
“I wondered if you could just talk a little bit about when you think about the expansion that’s going on in the video games industry in the last year or so and we’re seeing a lot of user-generated content and platforms around that start to proliferate. We’ve seen a lot of venture capital funding into blockchain and NFT gaming, wondering how you’re thinking about those channels eventually and it’s easier to build from within? Is it better to buy once there’s some established players there?”
Admittedly, Wilson’s response is very long, but the entire transcript is here (but you do have to sign up for the service to read it/listen to it). That being said, here’s the important part:
“Around the NFT and where VCs are investing, again we see this also happened our industry. We start with 3D, we start with AR/VR, we’re now seeing with MCs. There’s always something in and around our industry that is driving a lot of external investment.
The way I look at this is, collectability is really built on four key metrics. It’s around high quality content, it’s around scarcity, it’s around proof-of-authenticity and it’s around a group of people that find value in that content.
And we’ve seen that happen in the real world and we’ve seen that happen in a virtual world. We’ve certainly seen that happen in and around our games for some number of years. And I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry and the games and experiences that we offer our players.
Whether that’s part of the NFT and the blockchain? Well, 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’re going to – we will evaluate that over time. But right now, it’s not something that we’re driving audience.”
TL;DR: he’s gone from “this is the future” and “we should look into putting it in FIFA and having it in job listings” to “collectability will be important to our industry but I dunno if NFTs is it, so she’s currently not on my vision board.”
Cool.
Of course, there’s a chance he can change his tune again if there’s a high enough incentive (money), but for now, it sounds like EA isn’t throwing their hat into the NFT ring, at least, not to the point of getting another “this is the future” quote.
(Image: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
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