Yesterday, Team17—the studio behind the classic Worms series—announced it was getting into the NFT space, teaming up with a third party to release “collectible digital artwork based on one of the most beloved IPs in indie games.” A day later, that plan is in the bin.
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The idea was for Team17 to license the Worms brand to a company called Reality Gaming, who would dress the worms up in stupid outfits and sell them as NFTs, all the while calling it an “art project”.
Not only was the move criticised by fans and media alike, it also quickly affected Team17's business operations, with Going Under developers Aggro Crab issuing a statement saying they would no longer be working with the publisher:
Yooka-Laylee’s Playtonic Games, who have also had previous games published with Team17, did much the same thing:
As did Ghost Town Games, the studio behind the wildly-popular Overcooked series:
Who knows how many further reservations were expressed behind closed doors, but here we are, only a day later, and Team17 just issued the following statement:
Please know that all parties involved in the decision would have known there would be negative feedback from fans—it’s impossible to be operating in the space in 2022 and not see that coming. So any talk about coming to the decision only after listening to the “community’s” response is bullshit; it’s the blowback from “development partners” and even their own employees that brought about this backflip.