Team17, the development and publishing group behind the iconic Worms game franchise, pulled the plug of their planned NFT project roughly a few hours after it was revealed, following huge backlash not only from their fans but also from their partner developers.
Perhaps one of the fastest step back moves by a developer in NFT history, Team17 was met with complaints and major negative reception after announcing MetaWorms. The project was supposed to be a “generative NFT art” collection centered around the iconic Worms video game franchise.
Team17 is today announcing an end to the MetaWorms NFT project.
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.
— Team17 (@Team17) February 1, 2022
Worms is an artillery style video game series first released in 1995, and has over 23 installments, including expansion packs and spinoffs. The game is a beloved classic and is highly commercially successful, with over 75 million game units sold as of 2020.
The backlash with the MetaWorms project came both from fans and from Team17’s partner developers as well. Various statements from development teams of its most popular games like Overcooked, Yooka-Layle and Going Under called out Team17 for making the move towards NFTs while also citing their dislike for the concept in general.
Aggro Crab, developers of the game Going Under, goes as far as saying that they “condemn Team 17’s decision to produce and engage NFTs” citing that NFTs can never be useful or environmentally friendly.
While this is an argument advanced frequently by critics of NFTs, the facts are far more complex — some blockchains (such as Ethereum) currently require significant energy to perform transactions, while others (like Tezos, Solana, and Cadano) require very little.
United Gamers Analysis and Perspective
While environmental impact is still a big topic to discuss when it comes to NFTs, Team17 may have taken the high road with their initial decision to pursue the MetaWorms project. Both Team 17 and their partner, Reality Gaming Group have claimed that the minting process that they will be utilizing will consume less energy than what many people think it would.
Additionally Team17 has partnered with Coin4Planet, a sustainable and green blockchain investment group with plans to use part of the MetaWorms NFT sales to help fund Coin4Planet’s ReFeed Farms program.
Ironically enough, ReFeed Farms is actually an initiative that uses actual worms to address the excess food and food waste into nutrition for people, livestock, and the soil. This keeps food waste out of landfills and industrial compost thereby mitigating the impact of the agrifood industry.
So maybe the backlash was a little hasty on this one?
United Gamers writers offer their unique Analysis and Perspective as expert opinions to help readers understand the context of the facts. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publication or its principals.
