NFTs Are ‘A Financial Scam’, Says Indie Marketplace Itch.io

While some publishers like Ubisoft push right ahead with NFTs, regardless of how their own workers feel about it, and others like EA are prepared to half-ass their way through the fad, one video game marketplace has come out and issued one of the most welcome statements I’m yet to see from within the industry.

Posting over the weekend, itch.io, the global marketplace for indie games, said that “A few have asked about our stance on NFTs”, and elaborated with:

A few have asked about our stance on NFTs:

NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet the we ask that please reevaluate your life choices.

Peace ✌️

Hell yeah. It’s so obvious a thing to say that we shouldn’t need to be drawing attention to this, because NFTS are a scam. That’s not a belief, or a hypothesis, it’s literally the foundation they are built on, and the entire thing is playing out exactly like a textbook about scams would say it would.

And yet! This is video games, and we live in the late-stage decay of capitalism, and so because there is a quick buck to be made before it all goes to shit, there are companies—many of whom maintain a façade of fiscal respectability and who employ thousands of people worldwide—who do not care about the glaring ethical and economic problems clearly on display in the crypto space, and jump in for that quick buck regardless.

You could argue of course that it’s very easy for itch.io to say this, since the site is about publishing small indie games and would have almost zero business to lose by taking this stance. I would then argue that if you or your company care more about your short-term profits than the multiple failings of the NFT space, enough to prioritise the former over the latter, then you can go fuck yourself.