FIFA has released four games for World Cup 2022 — and they all have NFTs

FIFA has announced that it will release four blockchain NFT games, to celebrate the World Cup 2022.

EA Sports parted ways with the football organisation after reports that it demanded $1billion (£875million) in licensing fees.

FIFA 23 will be the last FIFA game developed by EA Sports, after which the series will be rebranded as EA Sports FC.

Following the announcement of the split, FIFA claimed it would continue to develop games with a different studio under the FIFA name.

However, what we were expecting was something similar to the FIFA games, or perhaps a free-to-play version like Konami’s eFootball.

What we’ve got, though, is four games based on blockchains and NFTs.

Blockchain gaming and web 3.0 have been consistently controversial due to the large amounts of cash exchanged and the damage to the environment, among other issues.

Money is often exchanged for digital assets which become worthless if the company goes under.

FIFA calls the four releases games, though there is very little player input or interaction.

The first is AI League, where players watch four-person AI teams play football. 

An Upland Metaverse title is being released, where people can purchase digital World Cup assets.

Matchday Challenge is essentially just betting on the outcome of World Cup matches.

Finally, Phygtyl is “an immersive experience [where] fans join forces on sic with the mission to co-create the global first fan generate[d] digital reward.”

Grammatical errors in the press release aside, we still don’t really understand what this means.

NFTs and games have historically done poorly. Ubisoft’s introduction of NFT’s into Ghost Recon Breakpoint was met with criticism from both the developers and fans.

However, some developers have made a large amount of money this way, without ever making a game.

Peter Molyneux famously sold £40million ($46million) worth of digital land for his game Legacy a year ago, which still hasn’t been released.

Land for the game is still available for purchase.