“NFT stands for ‘Not for Tranquility’”
The EVE Online NFT and blockchain integration stance from developer CCP seems clear: it’s not happening anytime soon for the MMO.
CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson published a blog today detailing their stance on blockchain and NFT integration for EVE Online: or rather, the lack thereof. Like pretty much every major publisher who has investors and parent companies to worry about — constantly needling them for a stance — CCP eventually drew a line in the sand.
Pétursson starts with the very familiar “we’re aware of it” type statement we’ve seen time and time again from studio leads, noting: “Many of us at CCP have been following the new frontier that has been developing around blockchains and cryptocurrencies for the past few years. We’ve read your feedback and we also see what you see – blockchain tech has both a lot of untapped potential and a lot of work needed before being ready for EVE-scale games.”
At that point I wouldn’t blame you if you started to err on the side of caution. But then he gets right into it: “On that note, we have no plans to add blockchain technology into EVE Online’s global server Tranquility for the foreseeable future. For the coming years, development for Tranquility will focus on building exciting new opportunities on top of the robust foundation that has been laid over the past two decades.”
The CCP boss then re-iterates that NFT stands for “Not For Tranquility,” in case he wasn’t firm enough. While EVE could have embraced super-pricey NFTs and auctioned off tons of in-game content, they decided against it: for now. Plus, they already have a system in place for a player driven market and seem to still be doing pretty well for themselves. The goldrush period seems over, now companies might be angling for a more cautious approach as we enter the midpoint of 2022.
