GDC Is Full Of NFT Conferences, Stirs Anger In Game Dev Community

by W

in All, Industry, News

Reading Time: 2 mins read

As this year’s Game Developer Conference ( GDC ) goes on, it looks like many developers are upset at the conference’s seemingly unilateral support of NFT integration, with multiple talks trying to get more game developers on board.

A quick look at the GDC 2022 website shows a whole 16 NFT segments, with multiple ones being flagged as sponsored panels for the event, with ceremonious titles like “Transforming games with the blockchain economy” and heralding it as a “Sea-change for F2P games”.

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While corporate arms of major companies like Square Enix and Ubisoft typically voice their support for NFTs in games, it’s an open secret that actual developers are largely against the matter, and many have taken to Twitter to express their distaste for the fad.

“As game devs, the fact that NFT and blockchain talks are allowed at GDC should leave us embarrassed”, writes UI/UX designer CortanaV. “Time slots taken up to pitch vaporware that’s killing the planet and scamming people out of money cheapens GDC and our craft”.

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Summary of the NFT gaming proponents at this GDC panel so far: pic.twitter.com/f4Sk9ahIVL

— Kyle Orland (@KyleOrl) March 23, 2022

Of course, it’s not just reviling NFTs- some members of the community also see it as a double-standard, since GDC had previously rejected other more relevant topics for the conference.

“I’m reminded of all the GDC talks I pitched and got rejected. Like fundamentals of paid media marketing for indie devs, and introduction to branding. But NFT talks? STEP RIGHT UP”, writes Glenn White from Epic Games.

NFTs are the effort-ful hot topic of the gaming sphere, as more investors and fanboys try to push the blockchain into games despite having no idea how most of it works.

Senior Gaming Editor for Ars Technica Kyle Orland likens it to a pyramid scheme, even describing supporters of the fad as being excited to “be landlords”:

“I’ve said this before but for play-to-earn gaming to work the money you “earn” has to come from somewhere and in the end that money comes from people who got into the game later than you, just like any pyramid scheme…“, he writes.