Konami Is 'Celebrating' Castlevania's 35th With An NFT Auction

NFT is so dumb. I realize this isn't a constructive comment. It's just dumb

Gotta get the money somehow if you can't make good games anymore I guess...

Yes, there is a chance that someone would pay money to have their name listed on a website and own some JPEGs of Castlevania scenes, but only if they're insane. NFTs are just idiotic. It's like going to a car dealership and they tell you "You'll have to pay half a million dollars for a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, but you... don't actually own it. You just own an image of it and be proud of it." Useless.

What is NFT????????????????

Also, why can’t we post short comments on here anymore?

Alternatively, they could make a Castlevania game people want to buy?

@JH64 an NFT, or a "Non-fungible token", is a more or less unique token that cannot be replaced by anything. Like, you gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner. Useless, and it's usually just a monkey with lazer eyes that costs 3000$.

I’m actually very curious now if Nintendo is going to respond to the NFT trend.

@ArtiomNLS Sounds pointless!

Apparently Eminem recently purchased an NFT for $340,000. It's a digital picture of a bored monkey. A few lucky artists are making bank right now due to FOMO within the ranks of rich morons. NFT will hopefully become a meme of itself within a few months. Just like Konami.

Konami want money without actual making any new games? I'm totally shocked at this revelation.

lol every one of them is going all in

But if you read it, your name is next to the digital picture for only a year, so therefore this is just a massive scam.
And please listen to my player feedback:
Oh Konami why? I'm not angry just disappointed.

I mean, a Dark Stories (DS) Trilogy announcement would be preferable....

Well, with a better DS acronym...

It's what happens when a company loses sight of what made it great to begin with, and it's leadership possesses no passion for the medium.

Auctioning off digital content.
As a celebration.
I am at a loss for words.

@JH64 it absolutely is, my friend

This is not what we want in gaming.

I appreciate them calling it a Memorial rather than an Anniversary / Celebration - at least they're acknowledging that the series is as dead as a doornail.

@DiggleDog It's new technology so you may have to wait a couple of years for Nintendo's slant on it all.

NFT's, the new way for rich people to hide their money from the taxman!

And everyone was shocked!

Or no. No one was shocked.

We truly live in the darkest timeline possible

And I thought the Zelda 35th anniversary was bad

Wasn’t 2021 Castlevania’s 35th anniversary?

I wonder what goes through these people's heads when they buy a sound effect for thousands of dollars. I really truly just don't get it.🤷‍♂️

NFTs are complete nonsense. Most of them are just images that someone supposedly owns but everyone can just download it and copy with rightclick. They say that NFTs are unique digital objects, but how is something unique if it can be infinitely copied by anyone?

I’ve just bought them all for free with Copy, Paste

Okay so the list of shame so far:

• Ubisoft
• EA
• Square Enix
• Sega
• Zynga
• Konami

Reasonably speaking, we should not have been surprised that gambling company Konami wants to use NFT’s to squeeze more money out of people. After the Phantom Pain incident, Konami is dead to me anyway.

The solution to end NFT is actually not that complicated. We should just boycott them. Refuse to buy any game with NFT mechanics in it. And we should be very open about that.

Personally I am of the opinion That NFT mechanics should be regulated by law anyway. In a perfect world they should be illegal.

A digital "I O U" piece of paper, lulz. Massive troll.

@Pod not just that (which is crazy enough), but you’re only “owning” the image for a period of time, ie less than a year. I mean, if NFT is essentially about bragging rights, then this becomes even more idiotic.

I cannot understand why anyone would pay real money for this but somehow I am expecting each of these to sell for some big Numbers because I also don't understand whale's behaviour regarding mtx but they are out there...

@dew12333
Nintendo did do the whole limited time release on digital content which was kind of ahead of the curve when it came to introducing limitations on a digital product. Though NFTs seem worse since they not only have all the issues regarding artificial scarcity but are also bad for the environment so hopefully they wont touch that whole mess.

This whole castleVania thing is disappointing since despite all the issues konami has they were usually pretty good in regards to releasing legacy content, we got some great M2 collections from them.

@JH64 Look up the process for how drug cartels and terrorists launder their money. It's a digital way of doing that, which somehow seems to have been accepted/ignored by the powers that be.

I mean… of COURSE Konami is in on this. What a mess.

as if gamers didn't already hate Konami enough

@BTB20 well… anyone can own a recreation of the Mona Lisa right? You could even find an image in Google or go to the museum and just take a picture with your phone.

But not everyone can own THE Mona Lisa, right?

The NFT concept is the same. However, usually the good NFTs are really good works from artists and animators. I’ve seen some really good digital art/animations that I can’t simply just copy and save that I would want to own.

Can’t justify a jpeg of a monkey or anything I could easily find on the web though. But thats Art in a nutshell. Someone pays thousands of dollars for splatters of paint all over a simple canvas in the real world.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISN'T SOME JOKE ARTICLE WHAT?????????

I hate suits chasing buzz-words

I think the headline is missing some quotation marks around celebrating.

@Mgalens everything and everyone is ultimately bad for the environment. Such an odd argument to use against this.

In the name of humanity and the future of gaming, just fire the CEO who support NFT practice.
They are bunch of weeds in beautiful garden.
NFT is suck, tell to them how peoples hate NFT.

NL please don’t write an article for any of this NFT scam stuff. Yes it’s a video game company but if we all ignore it then it will go away and they can focus on games.

You have to give it to Konami, just when you think they're at their very scummiest they always find a way to be even scummier.

@Kayvoo
not the artist benefit of that. artists usually get approached by some scammers, they pay for the artist to make them art for cheap, then they use the art to make NFTs of it.

@GayusGayer
Even though it would be ok with the environment, NFTs are a scam... I'm sorry for you if you cannot see it. you can look up in the internet what a Ponnzi scheme is if you want . NFTs is just a new way to make money, its nothing specially new. you can aquire the rights to art even with digital artworks without the use of an NFT. why do you think its not allowed to use artwork from other video games in your video game?
And you can copy the art of an NFT if you want and doublicate it if you want... you could even make a new NFT out of that doublicate

Precisely how not to celebrate an anniversary for a big franchise.

And the biggest L in the new year goes to...

@fafonio Sorry dude ofc you can own the rights of a digital creation without an NFT... without this the digital world would not work. there is something that is called "intellectual property" you very likely heard of it. if you want a nice animation you go to an artist and tell him you want a nice animation from him and he will make you one if you pay him the money.
the only good thing about an NFT is that an artist would in theory still make money if you resell his image but in the real world other scamy people get the money .

What a rubbish and cynical way to celebrate. Hopefully everyone shuns these shameful shams.

@jojobar that’s the issue. Once an artist… sells it…. He makes no money. Other people cash in.

Although artists can just change one aspect and sell it again. Shoelace colour. Back ground. Anything. And sell. Over and over and over. It really is a pointless thing… NFTs are unlimited. There won’t be one “Mario” NFT…. If that’s ever a thing… there would be millions…. Every outfit and background imaginable. Same for every topic. It’s a nonsense.

I hate that companies will likely continue to do this for as long as they can. What's more, it will continue for a while.

@jojobar
That's even more grubby.

Oh boy, can't wait to be the owner of a link to a png that will also stop working after a year or two.

"You will be entitled to have your desired nickname listed as the first purchaser of the NFT on our website," says Konami. However, the period of time your name will be online runs from mid-February 2022 to December 31st, 2022, so it's not a permanent deal (although Konami does say that the period might be extended). ooor I could just right click on said images and go to save image as, and save not only money, but the environment as well and I'd get to keep the image for the rest of my life if I so desired. I really don't get why anyone wouldn't see right through this scam.

How about making some f*****g games instead of selling this worthless garbage

As these companies that used to be produce the best games around just refuse to put in effort anymore and just rest on their laurels, re-releasing the same old stuff over and over and charging us every time instead of creating new unforgettable experiences... I wish for them to be replaced by new companies that will become the new Konami, the new Square Enix of tomorrow. These companies are all but dead at this point, Konami probably most of all. The video game industry should just ignore them altogether from here on out, they're not even relevant anymore.

@fafonio It's all just money laundering. Nobody seriously thinks a few paint splatters are worth anything.

@CactusMan Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a Capcom game.

@Ooyah This Twitter thread helped me understand NFTs better:
https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1445795667826208770

@Korgon Oftentimes it's people buying NFTs with their own money (or between a select few) to make it look like there's demand. Then in some cases, someone else who doesn't know better will come along and pay even more than that original price.

I loved Penny Arcade's sarcastic comic strip to the effect of "Hey, instead of an NFT, can I ACTUALLY OWN the digital copy of this game you're selling (instead of just a license to play it)?" "haha hell no n00b"

I gotta have it. I bid three shekels.

No new Castlevania game anytime soon huh? Oh Konami.

Next, Konami will make a pachinko game that requires NFTs to be played.

@AlexHarford
That's what's so crazy to me. Why would someone drop tons of cash on something they don't really understand or need? Are they really buying these things because someone else told them that this picture of a stick is valuable? I appreciate you trying to teach me but I think im just a lost cause on understanding what the appeal of these things are.😅

yeah, id expect nothing less from konami

@Korgon Some people buy NFTs just hoping to make money.

But do you like collecting games? I do, so I see the appeal from that sense, although I'm not interested in NFTs because they seem like a scam in their current form. I would much prefer to have a print of artwork that I can display on my wall. I'm the same with games - I buy physical versions where possible, as do we ever really own anything that's digital? Definitely not if it's in the cloud. If my Switch bricks when there's no longer e-shop support, I've lost all my digital games.

Yes let's do anything but make a new game. Seems like a plan.

@jojobar I know what a Ponzi scheme is. I think. You mean the housing market in China?

@AlexHarford
I did used to like collecting games. Now just generally go wherever the best deal is be it digital or physical. I guess that makes some sense to think of it that way though. But even then I still wouldn't buy a physical game no matter how much I want that game for thousands of dollars regardless of if it's physical or not. I guess it's just a matter of value in the eye of the beholder. NFTs just seem like a waste of money to me but hey if someone is willing to drop so much cash on them who am I to say it's a waste of money to the seller.

Big plans for NFT, more like big plans to failed just like their arcade, mobile, and Pachinko business.

"Konami Is 'Celebrating' Castlevania's 35th With An NFT Auction"
Oh No...
Anyways. (Not at all Shocked that Konami is doing this.)

@Octane There are many developers making games that are honestly better than anything I would expect from Konami with the Castlevania vibe.

Money laundering comes to video games! Idiots.

@GayusGayer
its more the excessive consumption/relatively high carbon footprint in order to "mint" one of these NFTs.

while ive seen people use a comparison to digital content, it feels like NFTs are trying to bring the idea of ownership of physical content into the digital space only without the actual physical item, instead its just using the additional computing power for a digital token.

@BTB20 Not only that, but a lot of artwork is being stolen and then sold as NFTs.

I was on Equestria Daily (the My Little Pony news blog) the other day, and they were reporting a lot of MLP fanart has been stolen and being sold as NFTs.

Looking at the website where they were being sold, I could confirm it. I noticed several pieces by a Japanese MLP fan artist by the name of uotapo being sold.

Being a longtime follower of uotapo on DeviantArt, I messaged them telling them about the situation, and they responded that they had sent the takedown request.

Probably the only time Japanese copyright laws (which I did mention to them, but they may have already known that) worked as a force for good for once.

Seriously? First pachinko machines, now this? Konami is seriously circling the drain at this point.

They'll latch on to any sort of "get-rich-quick' scheme they can think of instead of actually making good content.

Kinda of makes me scared what would happen if they started selling Yu-Gi-Oh! cards (no matter how common) as NFTs.

@brambalk You forgot the Intellivision Amico, they don't even had a product on the market yet and they already look like failures.

I can't even say I'm surprised. We got the second-worst game company aboard the NFT bandwagon for rich scumlords, now I'm just waiting for Activision.

@fafonio "well… anyone can own a recreation of the Mona Lisa right? You could even find an image in Google or go to the museum and just take a picture with your phone.

But not everyone can own THE Mona Lisa, right?

The NFT concept is the same. "

But it's not the same.

If you buy the Mona Lisa, you have the Mona Lisa. If you buy an NFT of Computer-Generated-Ape-#50751 you don't have Computer-Generated-Ape-#50751. You have an NFT, which isn't even a digital copy of the art.

If there is a such thing as an original copy of digital art it is on the device the artist used to make it. If you buy an NFT from an NFT site, the art as it exists in the URL is a copy. And when you buy the NFT, you don't have that copy either. It exists on a server somewhere and you don't have that server.

Ultimately when you buy an NFT you don't get literally nothing. You don't even get the NFT. That exists elsewhere too.

Die NFTs. You don’t belong in this world.

In all seriousness, I think most people would love Mirror of Fate HD ported to Switch, especially after Metroid Dread’s success. Anything but NFTs.

Call me old-fashioned but I think people should spend their money the way they wanna do it.
So many people get upset just because a company decides to sell an item that doesn't appeal to them.

I guess NFT has become a buzzword for people to get irrationally upset over. Even though the technology could prove to be quite useful in the future.

I just threw up in my mouth at this article.

The public needs to understand why game companies are doing this. Is there a legit reason to get involved in NFTs besides money or that it's a buzzword right now? If there is no good reason we will always react negatively. NFTs can disappear anytime.

Instead of porting the phone version of Castlevania Symphony of the Night to the Switch, here’s a sound clip.

@jorel262 Companies are getting into NFTs because their shareholders are demanding that they do so, and in general companies are doing this because it's cheap and quick to mint NFTs, for the potential for a huge financial return. Companies just need to weigh the damage to their brand of making NFTs vs the potential financial rewards they can pull in if they hit it big.

@Purgatorium let’s get one thing straight first. I’m not defending what these companies are doing. The concept of NFTs is used terribly in gaming.

Now… that is not true. It depends on the artist you buy them from. Some NFTs, if they are a real piece of art in the real world but then digitalized, are destroyed by the artist so you own the only thing (you can ask video proof for that) The same for a digital thing or animation, he erases the file and the only way it exists is as YOUR NFT.

It’s the exact same principle as art auctions in the real world, but for digital pieces. There will always be a way to prove you have the original, and that’s important for art collectors, here in the real world and now the digital world.

Now… if you don’t like apes (which are horrendous) it’s ok. I don’t like them either.

Go watch NFTs artists who are totally worth it. Look up Mad Dog Jones for example.

@jojobar aha… and what if the artist only wants to make his art piece an NFT? How do I “buy” his work? Or should I insist he only makes one for me?

Of course he’s going to want to earn money everytime the piece is re-sold. He’s just going to tell me to buy the NFT.

One thing that you’re talking about is how these companies use NFTs wrong… and I agree. NFTs shouldn’t be used in gaming. I play games to have fun… not to worry about business, numbers and art collecting.

But what I mean is that NFTs works just like the real world art collecting. And that’s important for people who are into that kind of stuff.

Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to own in the real world something that, let’s say, it’s a 1 out of 100 figures ever made. It increases their value in a future, because exclusivity.
NFTs are not the first that made this. It’s just for digital stuff now.

@BTB20 “ it's all just money laundering. Nobody seriously thinks a few paint splatters are worth anything.”

Go to an art gallery and then come back to me.
Paint splatters over a canvas can be sold for more than what you and I make in a year.

What is a NFT? A miserable little pile of s***.

I am not surprised that Konami is still trying to find ways to cash in on their classic franchises while putting the least amount of work, and essentially giving nothing of use back in return.

Boycott NFTs. Do not waste money on them.

Konami is dead. Dead dead dead dead.

@fafonio I want to avoid going off-topic here as I am responding to your Mona Lisa analogy. If you buy digital art with an NFT and the artist destroys the original, then you don't have the original. You have a copy. In the analogy, you have a copy of the Mona Lisa and the original was destroyed. But that's physical art. In the case of digital art what do you have? Nothing. A file on your computer? Hopefully it didn't end up on a server somewhere or in someone's browser cache.

@fafonio The difference between the Mona Lisa and an NFT can probably be illustrated most directly by observing that somebody - anybody, really - could trivially make and sell an NFT of the Mona Lisa (some big markets might arbitrarily decide not to touch it out of bad PR if it wasn't being officially done by the nation of France or the Louvre, but it'd still exist just as well either way).

You could then, I suppose, brag to people about it at dinner parties:
A: "Y'know, I made a big purchase this summer; perhaps you've heard of her, her name is Mona."
B: "You don't mean... you actually bought the Mona Lisa??? Wow, can I come over and see it sometime?"
A: "Even better; I can show it to you right now!" [Whips out phone]
B: "Oh, uh, yeah, that's nice, but I was really hoping to see the actual painting."
A: "Ah, sorry, that has to stay at the Louvre. Cultural treasure and all that."
B: "I guess I can see that; that's very considerate of you. Well, can you get me in to see it sometime, then? It's always been a dream of mine."
A: "Oh, no, I don't actually have any viewing rights or anything. Have you tried to get tickets to that place? It's booked solid for months!"
B: "Wait, I'm confused; if you can't actually do anything with the painting, and don't even have permission to see it, then what exactly do you own?"
A: "I already told you, look!" [gestures towards phone]
B: "Well, I guess it is a nice picture of it; send me a copy, 'k?"
A: "Sure, I can send you the link, but just know that I'm the one who owns it, ok?"
B: "Um, yeah, ok. So, yeah, congrats; I guess it's kind of neat knowing that you've got something unique, at least. I mean, it's not like France could just up and make another link to the same picture or anything, right?"
A: "..."

@Purgatorium @Fath I don’t think we are understanding each other. You’re comparing digitalizing physical art and buying the rights. That’s not what I mean.

In the real world you could buy a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and have it hung up in your wall. Does that mean you have the real Mona Lisa? No, you dont. And Art collectors care for that stuff.

Now, how do you do the same but with digital art? When you create or buy an NFT, it gets minted in the blockchain by the author and by the new owner, that information is preserved for as many times it is sold in the future. Let’s call it the Da Vinci’s signature of authenticity.

There’s a lot of NFT varieties: one of a kind, 1/1000 editions, etc.

For the example: In the Mad Dog Jones example, I could be the owner of one of his animated art pieces, there’s no way I can get a high resolution out of the internet if not directly by the artist himself.

Just because we’ve grown used to physical art doesn’t mean that animations, renders, and 3D modeling can’t be considered as art for collecting. A digital artist should be able to make as much money as he want for his work just like any other physical artist.

That’s what NFTs are for. Not as a strategy for video games though. That’s a wrong use of a good concept.

@fafonio I'm not comparing digitizing physical art to buying the rights at all. I'm comparing buying physical art to buying digital art. The former you can do and the later you can't do in the manner that NFTs supposedly authenticate.

You buy the Mona Lisa: it's the original.
You buy a copy of the Mona Lisa: it's a copy.
You buy curlyfries-ape.jpg: it's a copy
You buy curlyfries-ape.jpg and the artist deletes the first file on their computer: it's a copy.

It's not the same and the NFT doesn't make it the same.

@Purgatorium “You buy curlyfries-ape.jpg: it's a copy”

No, it’s not. The file is minted into the blockchain as the original. It’s the authors signature. Everything else becomes a copy.

In the cases of a unique piece, all other files are deleted. And even if they don’t, they are not minted into the blockchain, so they become copies or “reproductions” of the art piece.

You’re confusing it with limited editions: 1/100 pieces. Then, yes, there are other 99 legitimate copies out there. But that’s just another kind of NFT.

But it’s exactly the same as having a limited edition statue. Yes, there are other 99 legitimate statues, but without the authors sign of authenticity, everything else becomes a Chinese-made fake statues. So, it’s the same in the real world. I can buy the same statue in a Chinese website. Does it mean it’s a legit art piece? No, it’s not. It’s counterfeit.

Also, why did you skip all the other arguments in my previous post? Don’t get fixed just in the Mona comparison.

@fafonio I probably went a bit overboard on the whole 'dinner party' skit, but I needed something to occupy my fingers with, and NFT defenders are just such an easy target to mercilessly roast

Sufficiently compensating artists for a craft that's simultaneously so precious and so selfless is an age-old problem that's been tackled by an ever-changing mix of altruistic patrons, avaricious collectors, and exploitative speculators; humanity has yet to find a perfect balance for it, but NFT's are a particularly silly one, leaning pretty much exclusively on the last leg of the tripod while disregarding the others to the point of absurdity.

Setting aside patrons as their own thing, the point of collectors throughout the ages, whether they dealt in original works or artificially-scarce reproductions, is that they've collected art embodied in actual things. First-print books and records. Framed animation cels. Limited edition artwork prints. All respectably tangible things, all reasonably well-received and regarded, and all still forms of media that 99.99% of the people suffering existential digital angst could still be churning out.

As far as I'm aware, NFT's don't capture the art itself; the blockchain, as a fundamentally massively-mirrored concept, would quickly grow unmanageably huge if they did. All an NFT is, fundamentally, is a digitally-authenticated certificate of authenticity, divorced and detached from the actual art it's supposed to be authenticating. And nobody throughout all of human history has ever made such a sad collection as one comprised solely of certificates of authenticity.

@Fath nah, don’t worry, I’m enjoying this discussion as it’s pretty civil and it’s interesting to discuss different points of view without insulting each other.

The thing is, as things evolve, we start to become more digitalized, as so does art. As I said, before there wasn’t a way in which a digital artist, animator, 3D modeler could consider “moving” or selling his/her own art the way physical art moves among collectors. NFTs do that, even though the technology is still in its infant stages, it will become the de facto for artists and collectors for digital stuff.

There will always be people who try to make a bad use of it. In this case Konami.

Remember when DLC started coming up? When companies started selling you incomplete games to force you to buy that DLC? While there are companies who make bad use of the concepts, there are others who don’t.

As I said, I don’t defend the use of NFTs in gaming, but from a digital creator and artist POV I find the technology and idea around it, misunderstood but effective.

You just have to find the actual similarities with the real world and you’ll find it’s not that different from what art collectors have already been doing for decades.

Konami can put itself in an NFT so that we can shut down the server it's in...

@carlos82 Have you seen their latest attempts at games?

@khululy sadly yes 😂

@fafonio Sorry, how does "minting" something in the blockchain make it not a copy?

And I'm focusing on the Mona Lisa argument (whether physical art is substantively the same a digital art) because that's all I'm interested in. That's you're getting from me I'm afraid.

@JH64

because they are out of their minds.

Of course Konami would get in on the NFT "trend". Still gotta be relevant somehow.

This comment section confuses me.

I can download all the music and artwork off the internet. So, I am honestly confused regarding the appeal or why anyone would buy into this.

Its good that you guys placed "celebrating" in quotation marks, as I did just now. This isn't celebrating, this is nailing the coffin.

Maybe you (the media) should stop reporting about this nft bs. Its a disgrace to every gamer, I get disgusted everytime I see it.

NFTs are pure insanity.

For example, the first ever tweet made on Twitter was sold as a NFT. The buyer didn’t actually write that tweet, and in the long term people will only remember and value the creator of the first tweet, not whoever he sold the symbolic rights for it to.