In the 80’s Atari was responsible for nearly destroying the video game industry. Now, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the company has announced what could well be considered its biggest outrage yet. Loot boxes and NFTs are two elements hated by the gaming community, so to celebrate 50 years of life, Atari has decided to merge these concepts.
Recently, Atari, in collaboration with Republic Realm, a company that develops content for the metaverse, announced the GFTs, loot boxes containing one of 10 NFT images celebrating 50 years of the company. These products are on the Ethereum blockchain which, following recent turmoil in the speculative crypto market, is currently at its lowest valuation in six months.
Users will be able to buy your NFT loot box, and on a specific date it will open. This way, everyone will know if your GFT is “common, rare, or epic.” According to the website, there is less than 5% chance that a buyer’s NFT will be “rare” and less than 1% that it will be “epic”. In this way, encouraging people to buy more.
If the name Republic Realm rings a bell, it’s because a year ago they managed to sell a yacht for the metaverse for $650 thousand dollars. Along with this, Wade Rosen, CEO of Atari, managed to buy the largest number of shares of this company for $10 million, so this relationship to create the GFTs makes a lot of sense. This was what Rosen commented on this celebration:
“The Atari brand is synonymous with video games, and video games are the backbone of the metaverse. What better way to commemorate Atari’s 50th anniversary than ushering in a new era of technological innovation while also honoring the brand that launched the modern video game industry?
It remains to be seen what the results of this Frankenstein’s monster are. that combines two ideas repudiated by the players. Perhaps we will see a success similar to that of Konami and its Castlevania auction. On related topics, Ubisoft assures that the public “does not understand” NFTs.
Editor’s note:
I hope this GFT business doesn’t work out. If loot boxes and NFTs separately are already controversial, combining these two concepts sounds like an idea created with the simple fact of obtaining all the money from users, and not a celebration of a company that was a pillar of this industry during its early years.
Via: Atari