Team17 cancels its MetaWorms NFT project

Team17 has backed away from its NFT plans, after their announcement prompted significant backlash on social media.

The MetaWorms project was announced on Monday, with Team17 partnering with Reality Gaming Group to produce “low energy” NFTs.

According to a Eurogamer report, many Team17 employees were not informed of the project until they were announced publicly. Some of those who were aware had voiced their disapproval, but evidently to no avail.

The announcement was met with significant pushback from across the gaming community – perhaps most significantly from indie developers such as Going Under developer Aggro Crab, who pledged not to no longer work with the publisher so long as it was involved in the NFT space.

In response, Team17 has quickly cancelled the project, pledging to step back from engaging with NFTs.

“Team17 is today announcing an end to the MetaWorms NFT project,” said the publisher in a statement. “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 isn’t alone from backing away from NFTs this week. On the same day Team17 announced MetaWorms, voice actor Troy Baker backtracked on NFTs after facing backlash of his own when he announced his partnership with the VocieVerseNFT project.

It goes to show, however much there might be a push for NFTs in multiple industries, it’s a particularly toxic topic in games. Although Team17 had stated that NFTs would not be introduced into the games they publish, the project still proved so overwhelmingly unpopular that it was cancelled just days later.

While this is unlikely to be the last we see of NFTs in the games industry, it does demonstrate that many industry professionals and consumers are, at present, actively opposed to them.