Days after GSC World Games announced that they would be including NFTs in their upcoming game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. II, the company has now reversed course stating that they will no longer include NFTs in their game due to the fan backlash caused by the announcement. This statement follows shortly after the company posted a tweet defending their decision, only to delete said tweet due again to the fan backlash.
In the tweet, the company pointed to the fact that they are independent with no publishers making a complex open-world game. They went on to state that NFTs being the newest and popular marketplace, they felt would be easiest to introduce for gamers that wanted to take part without impacting players that wanted nothing to do with it. You can read their full statement below:
Shortly after this tweet was deleted, the company stated that “We hear you. Based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in STALKER 2.” They noted that fan interest in their game was paramount to them.
GSC Game World was not the only company attempting to introduce an NFT marketplace into their games as we have also covered Ubisoft Quartz which the company is introducing NFTs for various games through. However, GSC is arguably one of the smaller teams that had attempted this, which is why they were most likely receptive to fan backlash.
It is important to note that while many people might not like the inclusion of NFTs in their games for various reasons, NFTs have garnered large amounts of backlash due to environmental concerns. Buying and selling these tokens uses a large amount of energy consumption which has been a concern, and should a large number of video game developers adopt this trend we could see major ramifications.
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Shadow of the Erdtree will launch on June 21
This was originally a requirement when the game first launched.