Konami earlier this month revealed that it was joining the NFT bandwagon by selling 14 NFTs on auction site OpenSea. The “Konami Memorial NFT collection” is part of Castlevania’s 35th-anniversary celebrations, as opposed to being any kind of in-game NFT that so many companies are pushing these days. Bidding for the items started on January 12, and all were sold over the weekend. It was bad news for anyone hoping to see low selling prices that might dissuade other companies from putting out NFTs: the items went for a total of over $162,000. VGC notes that after OpenSea takes its 2.5% commission for every transaction on its marketplace, Konami walked away with over $157,000. The game maker will also earn extra from the 10% cut it takes each time an NFT is sold on to another buyer.
Would you pay over $26,000 for this? The Castlevania NFTs sold for an average of around $12,000 each. The most expensive, a piece of pixel art based on the Dracula’s Castle map from the original Castlevania game, brought $26,538.96. There was also a 3-minute video NFT containing different moments of Castlevania gameplay that went for $17,518. It’s no surprise that Konami referred to the auction as its “first” NFT project. The pushback against NFTs, especially those of the in-game variety, has been immense. Ubisoft has been taking plenty of flak for its Quartz platform, but the company says it is sticking to its “principles” and won’t back down, unlike the Stalker 2 devs. GameStop and Square Enix are also set to embrace non-fungibles, as has video game voice-over artist Troy Baker, for which he’s been lambasted. But not everyone in the industry likes them; It Takes Two’s director said he would rather get shot than add NFTs to his games.
