Even though the recent announcements of many game companies’ NFT projects have been strongly opposed by players, PUBG development studio Krafton has announced that it is about to develop an NFT game.
The company has signed an agreement with Naver Z, operator of the Metaverse platform Zepeto, “to develop a new Web 3.0 and NFT project aimed at building an NFT metaverse platform.
There’s no indication that Krafton’s NFT project will be directly tied to PUBG — instead, the company will use the experience it has gained in developing and operating PUBG to create a “User Generated Content (UGC) creation tool”, and virtual worlds built with Unreal Engine. According to the statement, Naver Z will “manage the Metaverse Services” and handle community and social services.
“This partnership between Krafton and Naver Z is supported by each company’s unique expertise and a shared global focus as they envision NFTs and the Metaverse powered by,” said HyungChul Park, Krafton Web 3.0 Team Leader.
The future. By combining Krafton’s existing technology and research on how to build a scalable Web 3.0 creator-driven ecosystem with the experience and capabilities of Naver Z and Zepeto, we believe we can build a high-end service unlike any other. An open metaverse powered by quality UGC and activating the global creator economy through NFT technology.
That might be fine at this early stage, as no one is fully aware of what the metaverse is, but Krafton’s risk is that it ignores the growing backlash against gaming-related NFTs.
Plans to integrate NFTs directly into Stalker 2 were abandoned after receiving extremely negative feedback, and recently indie publisher Team17 abandoned its own NFT strategy in the face of opposition from gamers and its own studio.
It’s possible that Krafton won’t encounter the same resistance. If the project is completely separate and distinct from PUBG, gamers might not care too much about the company’s NFT ambitions. But the potential for negative impact is an ever-present risk: the NFT space is still riddled with scams and false claims.
Krafton said it will share more details about its NFT partnership with Naver Z “in the future.