UPDATE (June 20): The "Airphoria" event has been officially revealed, and it does not include in-game NFTs in Fortnite. However, the collaboration includes connections to Nike's NFT-driven .Swoosh platform, as teased. For full details, read our story about the launch.
Fortnite's Collab With Nike's NFT Platform Doesn't Include In-Game NFTs
As teased last week, popular video game Fortnite has announced a collaboration with apparel giant Nike and its .Swoosh Web3 platform, which offers digital apparel and accessories sold as NFTs. The alliance does not integrate NFTs into Fortnite, but the link between the companies still involves crypto elements. Unveiled today, “Airphoria” is a Nike-branded experience within Fortnite’s Creative Mode, letting users go on the “ultimate Nike sneakerhunt” within a Fortnite game world. The experience,...
ORIGINAL: Nike’s embrace of Web3 has been seen as a way to bring NFTs to the masses, but its .Swoosh platform may also be leading traditional gaming giants to embrace NFTs. And based on an official tease from Nike, its next gaming move will apparently come through Fortnite.
On Friday, Nike’s official Twitter account shared a teaser for the “ultimate Sneakerhunt” on Fortnite, beginning on June 20. Nike has previously put digital apparel into the massively popular online shooter, but this “Airphoria” event teaser came with a twist: a logo for its .Swoosh NFT platform at the end, alongside the logo for Fortnite creator Epic Games’ widely-used Unreal Engine software.
Nike and Epic Games have yet to provide details regarding the collaboration, which looks to involve the apparel giant’s Air Max shoe brand. However, the teaser suggests that Nike’s NFT platform will tie into Fortnite and perhaps the broader Unreal Engine ecosystem.
On 6.20 the ultimate Sneakerhunt begins. 🏙️🌬️ pic.twitter.com/QgMyA1uXRT
— Nike (@Nike) June 16, 2023
.Swoosh is a digital apparel platform launched on Ethereum scaling network Polygon. It was announced late last year and gradually opened up before Nike ultimately launched a mint in May for digital Air Force 1 sneakers—called “Our Force 1”—as tradeable NFTs.
Earlier this month, gaming giant EA Sports—the division of storied publisher Electronic Arts that handles franchises like FIFA and Madden NFL—revealed a collaboration with Nike and .Swoosh to implement apparel and accessory NFTs (called “virtual creations”) within future games.
FIFA, Madden Maker EA Sports to Add Nike NFTs to Games
Sportswear giant and Web3 powerhouse Nike announced a collaboration with video game maker EA Sports on Thursday, with what appear to be planned digital collectibles of Nike-branded gear via the .Swoosh platform that will be integrated into future EA games. While there’s been no mention of the word “NFTs” thus far, .Swoosh is Nike’s Web3 platform that was announced last year and is currently in closed beta. It’s built on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network, and currently only offers up NFT colle...
Details around exactly how EA Sports will integrate Nike NFTs are still scant, and as of yet, there are no firm details around how Fortnite will tap into the tech either. But given the hostility from many gamers towards gaming NFTs and token-driven games, further crossover like this into mainstream games may help normalize the use of Web3 features within games.
Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world, with an estimated 243 million players over the past 30 days per third-party data from ActivePlayer. That’s down from the May 2021 peak of about 290 million monthly players, but the online battle royale shooter has remained a major player in the gaming space since its 2017 debut.
Epic’s shooter has generated billions of dollars’ worth of revenue from selling digital items in partnership with a wide array of entertainment, fashion, and other gaming brands, including character and weapon “skins” that let players customize their appearance.
However, these items are locked within the Fortnite ecosystem and cannot be resold or used within other games or online worlds. On the other hand, NFTs can be freely traded and are composable blockchain assets, which means other games and online platforms could potentially support and utilize them as well.
Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows: It's 'Insane' What We Pay for Items in Games Like Fortnite
Matt Sanders (a.k.a. M. Shadows) is the lead vocalist for heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. But he’s a lot more than just a famous metalhead: he’s also a gamer, a CryptoPunk, and one of the minds behind the band's 2014 dungeon crawler PC role-playing game called Hail to the King: Deathbat. On the latest episode of Decrypt’s gm podcast, Sanders shared his perspective on video games that leverage crypto and NFTs—and took a strong stance against so-called “experts” rallying against Web3 technolo...
Given this model, Fortnite is often seen as the leading example of how NFTs can provide more benefits to users than traditional in-game digital items. But if Fortnite really is about to support Nike’s NFT platform, as the apparel brand’s teaser video suggests, then it could be the first step in a radical change for Epic’s smash shooter.
Decrypt reached out to both Nike and Epic Games for details around the teased collaboration, but did not immediately hear back from either side.
