Worms gets the NFT treatment, to developers’ surprise

By Otto Kratky January 31, 2022

Team17, the publisher behind numerous indie darlings, announced its intentions to get into the NFT business with its Worms IP. However, the company quickly walked those plans back, at least partially, telling Eurogamer that the NFTs would not intersect with any of its games at all.

Being made in conjunction with Reality Gaming Group, a developer currently working on their own NFT-laden trading card game, Team17’s set of NFTs are based on the Worms franchise. Called MetaWorms NFT, a press release announcing the collaboration said that the “Worms digital collectibles are one-of-a-kind and cannot be copied, which makes them scarce and potentially quite valuable.”

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Team17 claims that, by working with Reality Gaming Group, it has been able to make “environmentally friendly NFTs.” The same press release goes on to say that 100,000 Worms NFTs can be minted with the same amount of energy 11 homes would use on tea kettles over the course of one year.

Internally, the company’s announcement of any NFT plans reportedly came as a surprise. Eurogamer has reported that multiple teams within the publisher were completely unaware of the MetaWorms NFT project until it was revealed. Others inside the company who did know of the plans reportedly objected to them but were seemingly ignored.

The backlash to Team17’s MetaWorms NFT project being revealed has also apparently led to the company walking back part of its plans. In a statement to Eurogamer, the indie publisher said that it “has no plans to introduce NFTs or play-to-earn NFT mechanics into any of its indie games label titles.”

Team17 is the latest gaming company to announce an NFT collaboration. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World announced that its upcoming game would have NFTs that players could buy to become an NPC in-game, although the decision was reversed entirely. Ubisoft likewise has announced Ubisoft Quartz, a program that lets users earn NFT cosmetics, which are just regular cosmetics with serial numbers printed on them.

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