Core Metaverse Platform Adds NFT Option -- But Why? CEO Explains

Core, the upcoming Unreal-based, Epic-backed, user-generated game development platform, just announced (somewhat unexpectedly) that it's adding NFT integration to its platform:

Today we’re excited to announce Core is expanding to include blockchain technology, starting by integrating with the largest crypto wallet, MetaMask, and the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, for a first-of-its-kind API that enables creators to make full metaverse experiences based on their NFT collections.

I say "somewhat unexpectedly" because key funder Epic CEO Tim Sweeney isn't exactly a fan of NFTs, and since the crypto crash, the already tiny NFT market has gotten even tinier. So why even bother?

"We understand not everyone is interested in NFTs and that is why it's not a requirement to connect a wallet or engage with NFT content on Core,” CEO Frederic Descamps, CEO of Core developer of Manticore Games, tells me in response. 

However, he goes on, many third party developers are interested in adding NFTs to their own metaverse experiences in Core:

"We are expanding the Core platform to provide a new free service for companies, brands and creators so that everyone can explore what is possible in the metaverse in a fully immersive 3D social environment," as he puts it. "Concretely, Core can view ownership of specific NFT's and in turn grant certain access rights and usage of cosmetics, effects, games, features, etc. The NFT-based communities we are partnering with are excited about pushing the boundaries of interactivity in the Core Metaverse. Examples of applications we have seen range from displaying NFT's in a gallery or on clothing, spawning a 2D NFT avatar as a 3D fully animated version, all the way to full games and worlds, social clubs, dungeons, stories and more."

 

More here. I will say, "Can we add an NFT to your platform?" is a question that metaverse platforms are incessantly getting from various parties nowadays -- even Linden Lab recently partnered with one of them -- and we should expect to keep seeing integrations like this. Until, that is, the NFT market's bottom finally and completely falls out.

Comments

[Martin K.]

At least it's going to be interesting how that's going to work out: the most common reason to spend hundreds of dollars on an NFT is probably the hope to sell it for a higher price. How many potential NFT owners would even want to play a specific game on Core? And how many of those people will spend hundreds of dollars to go to areas that are so exclusive that no one else is there? Or wear cosmetics that will probably make you an object of ridicule?

But maybe it's not about NFT owners actually using any of these features, but about Core receiving a share of the price of newly issued NFTs that include those features?

[Adeon]

These CEO's are eventually going to realize that even thinking about supporting NFT's is PR suicide, right?

It is not worth any of the gains, how much they are hated.

They're never going sway anyone.