Team17, the people behind the Worms franchise, recently announced they would introduce NFTs but quickly turned back after heavy backlash.
NFTs seeped into yet another studio at the very end of January 2022 when Team17 announced they would launch Worms-themed NFTs. Considering they are not a powerhouse name in the gaming industry, the community started pondering what their plan was once all the goodwill with the gamers is gone.
The gamer community was the first to criticise the move and the sentiment was quickly shared by other developers, like Aggro Crab, who noted that the decision is most likely not the mistake of the devs themselves but rather someone "from the very top". They announced they wouldn't work with Team17 on future titles and called for other studios to do the same.
It appears that the mounting pressure from both gamers and developers was finally enough for the shot callers, who reversed the decision on February 1, 2022.
The announcement stated that Team17 "listened to [their] Teamsters, development partners, and [their] games' communities, and the concerns they've expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space".
As you can see, the first group mentioned in the announcements are people from Team17 itself, who obviously didn't agree with introducing the NFTs but someone, for some reason, kept pushing against better judgement.
It remains to be seen whether the incident will have any ramifications in the future but it's safe to assume Team17's reputation will always have NFT attempt attached to it in the future.
