Do you know what no one could have ever predicted? That a market based on imaginary ownership of infinitely duplicable JPEG images may not be the end of the game and sustainable in the long term. When The Wall Street Journal reports, the NFT market is “flattening out” and is down 92 percent from last September. That just makes it the most incredible time for Japanese publishers Square Enix, famous for properties like finalfantasy, to sell most of their western-facing intellectual property rights and studios to play on the batshit scheme.
Yesterday we learned that Square Enix intends to sell Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal to monolithic The Embracer Group, along with IPs for games like deus ex, Tomb Raider, Thief, and inheritance from Cain. Why? Because, to quote Squenix, “The transaction enables the creation of new companies by driving investments in areas such as blockchain, AI and the cloud.” What to say, his previously announced desire to milk the NFT/blockchain market.
NFTs feel like the most exceptionally accurate emblem of the 2020s. This is all an obvious pile of bullshit. Companies are literally selling a line of code on what is called a blockchain. repackaging the extremely old idea of digital asset ownership as the next big investment You should get in now while things are going well. Of course, things like video game skins can be owned for a long time. Somehow, however, many of these companies go to great lengths to pretend they can now own an image, and then pretend that the image is somehow imbued with inherent value—all given life by enough jerks to clap their hands and scream like they believe in fairies.
Unfortunately, many of these gossiping jerks wear expensive suitsd are talking loudly in boardrooms, and as with every other aspect of the scam fest that is “Web 3.0,” companies have been desperate to turn a profit before the whole illusion blows away in the blink of an eye. And it seems the breeze has appeared sooner than anyone expected.
That WSJ does not mince his words in his reporting. The opening line is simply, “The NFT market is collapsing.” Not only does it cite the 92 percent drop in sales, but also the extraordinary 88 percent drop in “active wallets” since November.
Part of that appears to be due to rising interest rates, which are choking the poorest, but in turn mean the richest are far less risky in their speculation. And you can’t get much more speculative than betting on the jpeg ownership mass deception.
This is a delusion that has cropped up with many people lately, who have discovered that the promises that NFTs would somehow increase in value over time are nowhere near true. we recently reported on Sina Estavi’s attempt the NFT of for sale Jack Dorsey’s first tweet (linked so you can own your own copy for free) for which he paid $2.9 million expecting to see bids from coughing $50 million and received no more than $3,600. He is there had an offer nearly $14,000, or less than 0.5 percent of what he paid for it a year ago.
Funnily enough, as the WSJ reported last month, his reason for not parting with that $14,000 overpayment was “because I think the value of this NFT is far greater than you can imagine,” and “whoever always want to buy it must be worthy.”
Unfortunately, many game makers are betting on this one-legged horse, and the consequences could be dire. Out of Square Enix to Ubisoft to Sega to team 17 to Zombie Atari to konami to GameStopthis industry is deep in this bullshit.
NFTs would be QAnon if they were stocks, if flat earth belief could be bought and sold. They depend on belief in their own existence and need faith and religious notions of “worthiness” to thrive. As the planet feels the financial fallout of the last two years, such belief doesn’t seem easy to find.
NFTs have always been a bubble and no doubt with every new nonsensical twist they will have small spikes, resurgences of interest that will be nowhere near as high as 2021 but will allow True Believers to fool themselves and others for a while Come. But let’s hope this news of a market slump is finally enough to evict the gaming industry from this insane money pit. We reached out to Square Enix to see if the news gave them a break.
If not, well I have these nice jpegs of some bridges that I might sell.
