Eve Online maker CCP Games takes a pass on NFTs in games

Eve Online maker CCP Games announced today that it will not use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in its games.

The Iceland-based game publisher said its goal is to have the Eve universe live on forever, and it expects to explore new technologies over time, as it has done in the past 19 years since Eve Online originally debuted as a sci-fi massively multiplayer online game.

Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP, said in the post that the company has been following developments with blockchain and cryptocurrencies for a a few years and reviewed feedback from gamers. He said CCP believes blockchain tech has a lot of untapped potential, but that also it needs a lot of work.

“On that note, we have no plans to add blockchain technology into Eve Online’s global server Tranquility for the foreseeable future,” he said. “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.”

He added, “While we remain intrigued by the technology, for us, NFT stands for “Not for Tranquility”. Overall, the EVE IP will continue to push the boundaries of digital economies and virtual worlds – and we will continue to explore that outside of TQ.”

While many game companies are rushing into the blockchain and NFT gold rush, a number of gamers and game developers have also come out against using NFTs because there are a lot of gaps in the technology, and the existing games are scammy or crappy and otherwise not fit for triple-A gaming.

Here’s the full statement from CCP’s Petursson.

There has been a lot of speculation around blockchain technology, NFTs and cryptocurrency and what that means for the future of EVE Online, so I wanted to address it.

At CCP, our mission is to have the EVE Universe outlive us all: EVE Forever. One huge part of this is exploring new technologies and new possibilities – something EVE players know that I’m always fascinated by. This philosophy is rooted in EVE Online’s inception; when we created EVE, it was seen as too radical and ambitious, yet here we are about to celebrate EVE’s 19th anniversary.

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.

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.

While we remain intrigued by the technology, for us, NFT stands for “Not for Tranquility”. Overall, the EVE IP will continue to push the boundaries of digital economies and virtual worlds – and we will continue to explore that outside of TQ.

Fanfest is a month out and personally, I’m very excited – it’s been two-and-a-half years since our last in-person meet, in London during the EVE World Tour. I look forward to seeing many of you in the flesh again and talk about EVE and our future!

Hilmar Veigar Petursson

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz