Valorant devs backtrack on Killjoy NFT mistake after image backlash
Riot GamesRiot Games was quick to delete a seemingly innocuous Valorant post on social media after realizing they’d tied Killjoy to a wave of NFT-fueled backlash.
Valorant Agents have been on the move lately. The latest promotion across Riot’s social media has seen characters like Sova visit Russia and Chamber in France. Most recently, Killjoy was off to a trip in Berlin.
What started with an innocent breakfast soon led the Sentinel to a gallery of sorts. Almost immediately, fans noticed the particular piece of art in focus happened to be a computer-generated NFT from Martinhoura.
It wasn’t long before outrage ensued and fans “begged” the devs to not go down the NFT road. Realizing what they’d done, the German Valorant account removed the post and soon issued an apology.
Twitter: Valorantde“Whoopsie,” the account followed up just hours after the post was taken down. “Since Killjoy loves programming, we wanted to introduce you to computer-generated art from around the world,” the statement explained.
At no stage when creating the image did the German social team realize they had included an NFT. Their goal was to simply show Killjoy in her element, taking in some digital art.
“In no way did we intend to include NFTs as part of Killjoy’s work and hobbies,” they clarified. The Valorant account even doubled down against the divisive NFT crowd, assuring they wouldn’t “scare [fans] like that again.”
Although they wouldn’t have been the first studio to tie NFTs in with their games, they managed to avoid what could have been an overwhelming surge of controversy.
— VALORANT (@VALORANTde) January 27, 2022
Other publishers like Square Enix have tried to incorporate NFTs into their gaming plans, much to the dismay of their player base.
It’s evident that with this accidental post, Riot is steering clear of any such plans for all of its popular titles.