EA's Boss Went From Calling NFTs The 'Future' To Running Away From Them

Just three months ago, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson called NFTs an important part of “the future of our industry.” Now he’s doing everything he can to downplay their significance. The move by the publisher of FIFA and Madden comes as the NFT backlash hits new heights, including at EA where Kotaku has learned that even some of the company’s own employees have been critical of Wilson’s past positions on the controversial crypto tech.


Asked about NFTs (non-fungible tokens, AKA climate destroying links to JPEGs) during yesterday’s investor call, Wilson gave a long and winding response that ended in a simple answer. “Right now it’s not something we’re driving hard on,” he said, likening it to past venture capital fads around 3D, AR, and VR.


While EA never rushed to embrace NFTs the way competitors like Square Enix and Ubisoft have, the company was quite bullish on them back in November. “Anything that brings more people in and engages those people for more time in a context with the extent that I think it’s a good thing over time,” Wilson said during a second quarter investor call last year. “I think that is the very foundation of our live services. I think the play-to-earn or the NFT conversation is still really, really early. And there’s a lot of conversation and [there’s] a lot of hype about it. I do think it will be an important part about the future of our industry on a go-forward basis.”


These remarks came just a month after The New York Times reported that EA was locked in a messy fight to renew the FIFA license. EA’s future plans for the soccer game apparently included exploring “other ventures within its FIFA video game ecosystem, including highlights of actual games, arena video game tournaments and digital products like NFTs.”


It was the kind of move you might have expected from one of the only companies to defend loot boxes in the face of angry fans, critics, and government inquiries. But NFTs have been a particularly touchy subject not just in the public discourse, but inside game publishers as well.


Source: Kotaku