Indie label Team17 has announced an end to its MetaWorms NFT initiative, following public backlash from both players and development partners. The company now says it will “step back from the NFT space”. The MetaWorm project was initially described as an “environmentally friendly” take on NFTs, allowing people to own digital art of Team17’s most iconic property, Worms.
“Team17 is today announcing an end to the MetaWorms NFT project,” the company says in a press release. “We have listened to our teamsters, development partners, and our games’ communities, and the concerns they’ve expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space.”
According to a report from Eurogamer, many within Team17 didn’t know about the NFT project prior to its announcement. Several developers behind Team17-published games, including Playtonic, Ghost Town Games, and Aggro Crab have publicly distanced themselves from the announcement.
Aggro Crab put it quite succinctly with the message “I fucking hate it here”.
sigh pic.twitter.com/I4PIQB6o1H
— AGGRO CRAB (@AggroCrabGames) January 31, 2022
GSC Game World backpedaled from NFT plans around STALKER 2 in December. Ubisoft’s Quartz initiative is apparently still going. Which upcoming PC games will next be mired by birdbrained crypto schemes remains to be seen.