Avengers: Endgame Director Joe Russo sat down with Epic Game CCO Donald Mustard at this year’s annual DICE Summit to talk about a range of topics, from the future of storytelling to the metaverse. Naturally, Russo was asked about NFTs during a Q&A following his talk.
When asked about his opinions on the metaverse and NFTs Russo first said that the metaverse is essentially a shorthand for virtual and not something new, despite how companies like Facebook might try and package the concept.
As for NFTs Russo is less convinced of their current utility.
“NFTs I have a harder time understanding only because I haven’t seen the quality of work yet that I go, ‘Oh if I buy that JPEG and the market crashes and I’m stuck with a $50,000 JPEG, I’m really happy about that you know?” Russo joked. “I don’t see the quality of work yet where the monkey with a cigar is really the thing I’m gonna talk to all my friends about.”
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Russo did say that the concept of NFTs could set the stage for bigger ideas but that in its current form there is not yet enough credibility to back the concept saying, “it will evolve into something else.”
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are essentially non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain. You may see the term popularly for virtual art that has been sold for cryptocurrency. Though you may also see them in the news for the many high-profile thefts and scams that have occurred in the space as well.
Russo and Mustard were on stage at DICE to discuss the future of media where Russo said he believes gaming, not film, will be the most dominant force in storytelling in the future. Gaming’s leadership in topics like virtual reality and the metaverse is a hot topic at this year’s DICE
The keynote from EA COO Laura Miele also touched on the metaverse and how gaming is the best industry to lead the virtual world given its decades of experience.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
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