Electronic Arts and Nike have announced a partnership that will see Nike’s NFT platform, “Swoosh”, potentially incorporated into future EA Sports games. While no specific titles were mentioned, it is expected that the primary focus will be EA Sports FC and the Madden series. Players will be able to wear NFT shoes purchased on the Swoosh platform within these games. The details of this implementation have yet to be revealed.
However, the gaming community has consistently criticized NFTs. Several titles, originally planned to include NFT elements, were abandoned due to this criticism, including Team 17’s “Worms” and GSC Game World’s “Stalker 2”. Despite this, EA plans to integrate NFTs into its sports games for two reasons. Firstly, EA’s online modes are infamous for their use of loot boxes. Secondly, sources suggest that collectable digital content is important to EA’s future strategy.
According to the New York Times, even FIFA’s decision to revoke EA’s license for the soccer game series is due to the latter’s NFT intentions. FIFA is believed to have opposed EA’s plans to introduce new monetization opportunities in its soccer games using NFTs. This highlights the importance of NFTs in the gaming world.
For those who may be unfamiliar, NFTs authenticate unique, digital content by assigning a specific string or design to it. These tokens allow data packages to be managed in a publicly traceable manner using blockchain and cryptography technology.
