A growing concern in the EVE Online community has been whether or not CCP Games would be embracing NFTs and blockchain technology as EVE heads into its third decade in operation. CCP's Hilmar Veigar Pétursson released a statement, assuring fans that NFTs won't be heading to the game anytime soon.
EVE Online has dabbled in NFTs, but not in a way that affects the core game. Instead, the team at CCP Games took killmails from the recent Alliance Tournament and minted those as NFTs for the participants. It was the start of a slippery slope for many capsuleers who feared that CCP Games would be injecting them into the main experience.
This was only ratcheted up when an image started circulating of CCP Games' CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson taking in a meeting at GDC with NFT teams.
One of my favorite gdc moments was this private session with @HilmarVeigar to talk about @EveOnline with the @YieldGuild, @Delphi_Digital and @BitkraftVC teams. pic.twitter.com/6Eb4gi9a0k
— Eden (@eden_holdings) March 29, 2022
However, in the post today, Pétursson responded to the concerns in the community, talking about the company's position with NFTs and how it relates to the live EVE Online experience. The statement says that while NFT won't make an appearance on Tranquility, the live EVE Online game server, CCP will continue to explore the possibilities outside of the game.
"While we remain intrigued by the technology, for us, NFT stands for “Not for Tranquility”. Overall, the EVE IP will continue to push the boundaries of digital economies and virtual worlds - and we will continue to explore that outside of TQ."
Blockchain and its use in gaming have also intrigued many studios, including CCP Games. We've spoken to the studio in the past about how the team is looking at the technology and how it can be leveraged to help EVE into the future. Hilmar also touched on this, stating that the technology has "untapped potential" and needs "a lot of work" before it can even be implemented into a game like EVE Online.
"Many of us at CCP have been following the new frontier that has been developing around blockchains and cryptocurrencies for the past few years. We’ve read your feedback and we also see what you see - blockchain tech has both a lot of untapped potential and a lot of work needed before being ready for EVE-scale games.
On that note, we have no plans to add blockchain technology into EVE Online’s global server Tranquility for the foreseeable future. For the coming years, development for Tranquility will focus on building exciting new opportunities on top of the robust foundation that has been laid over the past two decades."
It's probably CCP Games' strongest statement on blockchain and NFTs to date and helps to explain the thought process behind the studio's approach to the new technology. You can check out the complete statement on the EVE Online website.
