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Take-Two CEO “a big believer” in NFTs, says blockchain “very useful"Completing the set
Completing the set
Earlier this week, Ubisoft and EA’s CEOs said they saw NFTs and the blockchain as part of the future of gaming. Now Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has joined in,telling GamesIndustry.bizthat he’s “a big believer” in NFTs - albeit with caveats.
“If you believe in collectible physical goods, I don’t know why you wouldn’t believe in collectible digital goods,” Zelnick tells GI. “And blockchain authorization, which is what an NFT really is, is one way – not the only way – to authenticate the fact something is singular is rare.”
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition TrailerWatch on YouTube
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition Trailer
“For an NFT to be valuable and durable, it has to be found at the intersection of rarity and quality, of rarity and value. And there’s rarity for sure in all NFTs, but I’m not sure there’s value.”
But he’s still ultimately signalling the same thing as the rest: that these technologies are a likely part of Take-Two’s future. He states that blockchain is “a very useful technology” that “hasn’t found that many uses yet outside of cryptocurrency, but it will.”
It’s worth remembing that when Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot said that theywant to be “key players” in blockchain gaming, and when EA’s Andrew Wilson said thatNFTs and play-to-earn were “part of the future of our industry”, they were talking to investors and analysts. The main purpose of those calls is to assure investors that the companies will do pretty much anything to make more money. For that reason, you’re not going to get as much nuance from them as you would were they talking to a journalist, as Zelnick was doing ahead of Take-Two’s own earnings call.During that call, NFTs and blockchain were not discussed at all.
For more of Zelnick’s thoughts, including his withering opinion of the metaverse,read the full interview on GamesIndustry.biz.
