The Japanese video game company Konami has revealed a collection of non-fungible tokens for the critically acclaimed Castlevania franchise, following the steps of major game developers such as Ubisoft and Square Enix. Konami launched the Castlevania 35th Anniversary NFT portal on Thursday and is auctioning the NFTs on January 12th in the United States. A total of 14 NFTs will be auctioned on OpenSea, including Castlevania: Circle of the Moon – Main Visual Art JP ver., Castlevania – Watch VS Queen Medusa, and twelve other NFT items. The NFTs consist of Castlevania gameplay videos, BGMs, and visual arts. The first purchaser of each NFT will be entitled to have their nickname posted on Castlevania‘s NFT website.
Translation of tweet: “To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Castlevania series, we have decided to auction BGMs, main visual arts, and game scenes from previous Castlevania games as NFTs. Check out all 14 NFTs on the official website.” Castlevania is a gothic horror action-adventure video game first released in 1986 featuring vampire hunters. The franchise has since been adapted into comic books and animated series. The game itself also got many spin-off games such as platformer Kid Dracula, online multiplayer Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, and slot machine game Castlevania: The Arcade. The game is so well known that it even sparked a new game genre to life alongside Metroid, commonly known as Metroidvania.
Castlevania fans on Twitter don’t sound particularly excited about Konami’s NFT decisions. “If there’s one thing Konami excels at, it’s desecrating beloved franchises and spitting on their fans.” said Yongyea. Mutahar added that “(Konami’s decision) Makes me sad Konami is more focused on NFTs than making another experience like that on the new consoles.” The controversial nature of NFTs simply cannot put everyone at ease as Ubisoft and many other companies that announced their NFT plans received a lot more criticisms than support.