Zynga Set to Release First NFT Game This Year
Last year, the billion-dollar game studio made headlines when it named 30-year gaming industry veteran Matt Wolf as Vice President of Blockchain Gaming to manage the company's foray into the nascent industry. Zynga has also announced plans to expand its blockchain gaming team from 15 to up to 100 personnel by the end of the year.
It's possible that the company may soon be absorbed by a video-game behemoth. Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto, recently announced a $12.7 billion acquisition deal that is expected to finalize in the first quarter of this year.
Wolf told Axios that the company's NFT-based gaming plans will be entirely new titles, as it doesn't make sense to start adding NFTs to current games like FarmVille right now.
Players should expect the new games to resemble Mafia Wars, a now-defunct social media game in which players took on the role of gangsters and worked to expand their criminal empire. Zynga has been more aggressive than many other traditional gaming businesses in entering the sometimes contentious blockchain-based gaming sector.
Some players who have had NFTs added to their gaming experience believe that businesses are simply searching for new ways to extract money from their customers.
Wolf has stated that the company's game developers will always have the choice to opt-in or out of any NFT plans, a lesson he appears to have learned from internal complaints against the technology at EA and Ubisoft.
Despite the complaints, Wolf sees NFTs and blockchain technology as the logical next stage in Zynga's progression. Tokenized systems allow gamers to create new and more realistic forms of value, ownership, and wealth.
Wolf added: “By creating an integrated experience that enables players to become owners in their gaming journey, our goal is to expand Zynga’s audience reach and drive stronger engagement and retention.”
Wolf told the New York Times that he is well aware of the issues that NFT-based games are likely to face:
“It really is all about community… we believe in giving people the opportunity to Play-to-Earn.”