Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft and the individual responsible for the Xbox program, has addressed the NFT gaming phenomenon trending recently. To Spencer, some of the platforms that leverage the use of NFTs seem more exploitative than entertaining. Some of the biggest developers and publishers in the gaming industry have already signaled their interest in introducing NFT elements to their games.
Phil Spencer does not immediately support NFTs
Phil Spencer, Xbox Program Manager at Microsoft and one of the most recognized leaders in the gaming world, provided his thoughts on NFTs and the inclusion of these elements in today’s gaming scene. Spencer stated that he thinks these first steps of exploration with these tools are including platforms that are more about speculation than about entertainment. On the subject, Spencer told Axios:
What I would say today on NFT is that I think there is a lot of speculation and experimentation going on, and some of the creatives I see today feel more exploitative than on the entertainment.
The opinion of Spencer is very important due to the influence he has over what’s published or not in the Xbox store, one of the biggest marketplaces in the gaming industry. This opinion could mean that games using NFTs would struggle to get published in the aforementioned storefront, at least for now.
Not Ready for Stores
Spencer expanded his view and stated that at this stage, there might be some things created with NFTs that wouldn’t be able to be featured in gaming stores. This is the same opinion that executives at Steam, the largest PC gaming marketplace, put forward to justify banning blockchain games from its platform last month.
However, other gaming companies are already integrating NFT elements into their games, or at least are planning to do so in the near future. Square Enix, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft are part of that group, with Ubisoft even investing in native blockchain game companies like Animoca Brands, the operators of The Sandbox, one of the main NFT metavers.
Spencer stressed:
I can understand that early on you see a lot of things that probably are not things you want to have in your store. I think whatever we looked at in our storefront that we called exploitative would be something that, you know, we would take action on.
