Peter Molyneux’s blockchain game arrives next month, just in time for NFTs to be completely worthless

In case you forgot - be that willingly or otherwise - Peter Molyneux has been working on a blockchain-connected business sim for the last few years. Well, it’s out next month, just in time to sink the final nail into the coffin of worthless NFTs.

Legacy was teased by the veteran developer’s studio 22cans (they of Godus and Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?, lest we forget) back in 2017, before making a fuller reveal in late 2021. That reveal accompanied the sale of so-called “Land NFTs” for real-life money. Cryptocurrency, anyway: the game’s own Ethereum-based LegacyCoin, built with the help of web3 company-turned-game publisher Gala Games.

As you might remember, this was during the boom of Certain Internet People and video game publishers deciding that the digital receipts for JPGs of cigar-smoking apes, terrible avatars, tweets and Ghost Recon cosmetics were worth thousands to millions of pounds, and sinking their life savings (or hoarded wealth) into paying for pictures that others could happily right-click and save to use as their own, if they really wanted to.

That phenomenon extended to Legacy, with over £40 million of actual, real money going toward buying these “plots” of “land”. The most expensive plot sold was a limited-edition one-of-one London plot, which went for £670,000 in crypto.

Almost two years later, Legacy is now due to release on PC and Mac this October 26th. Gala Games’ announcement reads like the breathless (read: vacuous) hype familiar to anyone subject to blockchain press releases over the years, promising that “Legacy’s launch is more than just a game release; it’s the beginning of an extraordinary journey where creativity, strategy, and business innovation meet”.

Of course, there will continue to be new ways to funnel your money into the company making these promises, including buying and selling digital items stored on its GalaChain blockchain and “legacy deed keys” owned by those who bought plots, which “allow the Landowning player to empower “partners” (F2P players) to win real rewards” - a surprisingly feudal sentence for a game boasting such supposedly futuristic technology.

In fitting fashion, Legacy’s arrival follows a recent report that the vast majority of NFTs are now worthless, with 95% of more than 73,000 blockchain-based collections literally worth nothing.

Naturally, there’s always a cost somewhere. In this case, the researchers found that the energy used to create the NFTs studied used up the equivalent of more than 16,000 tons of carbon dioxide - equal to the combined yearly energy usage of more than 2,000 homes, 3,500 cars or 4,000 trips from London to New Zealand.

“This daunting reality should serve as a sobering check on the euphoria that has often surrounded the NFT space,” the report concluded. “It becomes clear that a significant portion of the NFT market is characterised by speculative and hopeful pricing strategies that are far removed from the actual trading history of these assets.”

Anyway, Legacy’s out next month.