Nifty News: Coachella lifetime pass, WildEarth’s wildlife, Worms ditches NFTs after backlash

The Worms franchise won’t be coming to the blockchain anymore, WildEarth TV has launched NFTs to support wildlife conservation and Rick Flair is set to be tokenized.

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival has partnered with FTX US to launch a series of NFT collectibles that includes tokenized lifetime access passes to its annual music festivals.

The iconic music festival is held over two consecutive three-day weekends every April in California, and is being headlined by Harry Styles, Billy Eilish and Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) in 2022.

The partnership was announced on Feb. 2 and it will see the duo launch a Solana-based Coachella marketplace and NFTs that offer real world and virtual benefits.

Coachella FTX

One of a kind NFTs for lifetime passes? Photobook w/ 20 years of iconic photos? Redeemable experiences available for the first time?

That’s just the start. To say we’re excited about this partnership would be an understatement.

Explore: https://t.co/PDV9zeprXH pic.twitter.com/anB2PBZ6qI

— FTX – Built By Traders, For Traders (@FTX_Official) February 1, 2022

The first batch of Coachella’s NFTs will go up for auction or sale on Feb. 4 and the drop features 10 unique lifetime access passes (for live and virtual events), 10,000 tokenized photos and 1,000 digital posters that can be redeemed for a physical copy of the “Coachella | The Photographs: 1999-2019 photo book.”

The tokenized access passes dubbed the “Coachella Keys Collection” grant the holder lifetime access to Coachella’s festival experiences but all contain different VIP benefits such as secret parties, backstage access, accommodation and fine dining. They will all go up for auction and do not have a starting price for bids.

Coachella has also teased that the partnership with FTX will see the launch of virtual events that are likely to be in the metaverse.

WildEarth supports wildlife conservation via NFTs

WildEarth, the team behind a live streamed nature-focused TV channel, has launched NFT collections that directly support individual animals and wildlife conservations that are under its global footprint.

The first 25 collections went live on WildEarth’s Polygon-based marketplace on Jan. 2 and come in varying max supplies ranging from 150-900. Each NFT depicts a specific animal under the care of the partnered conservation efforts, and costs 120 MATIC ($196) to mint. There are still plenty of tokens available at the time of writing.

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, WildEarth stated that 40% the funds generated from its NFT sales will go towards “habitat custodians of parks and reserves to continue conservation efforts.”

Once the initial sales have been completed, WildEarth will collect 10% royalties on all secondary sales and donate 80% of those royalties to the wildlife habitat custodian of the specific animal depicted in the NFT.

Later this month, the WildEarth TV channel’s Search and ID show will also introduce a “watch-to-earn” feature that enables viewers to mint NFTs related to specific nocturnal-animals that are added to the animal registry via a thermal drone at the time. Once the minting window closes, no further NFTs will be created related to those animals.

Wax lyrical about Rick Flair’s NFTs

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) great Rick Flair is set to be featured in the Wax-based Blockchain Brawlers NFT game next month.

Blockchain Brawlers is a play-to-earn game slated to launch in Q2 which features a wrestling battle mode that enables users to earn BRWL tokens and NFTs from their fights with other players.

The partnership with WAX will see Flair’s persona tokenized across 100 NFTs in varying rarities that can be used in the Blockchain Brawlers games. The announcement said:

“Each NFT celebrates Ric Flair’s exuberant character and unique appeal – they’re all masterfully designed by WAX studios portraying his celebrated flowing locks, diamond-studded robes and off-the-charts enthusiasm.”

The NFTs will come in 100 packs that include a legendary Flair NFT and one fighting ring NFT (of varying rarity). Some buyers will also have a slim chance of obtaining ultra-rare gear NFTs depicting championship belts that can be added to their wrestler NFTs.

Team17 gives up on NFTs after community pushback

Another popular gaming firm has walked back its NFT plans after receiving strong pushback from the community.

Team17, the company behind the widely popular Worms video game franchise that spans back over two decades with more than 75 million copies sold, announced on Feb. 1 that its MetaWorms NFT project has been canned.

The game was set to bring the Worms series to blockchain via NFT integrations, however the firm noted yesterday on its website that:

“We have listened to our Teamsters, development partners, and our games’ communities, and the concerns they’ve expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space.”

NFTs have developed a bad rep in the gaming world, with passionate gamers raising concerns with the energy intensive nature of cryptocurrencies, along with potential scams related to the industry.

User Mechmouse’s response to Team17’s announcement was fairly typical of the response:

“Thank you However Every, and I mean EVERY, beloved franchise or well standing company that has done this before has been met with the exact same level of upset and indignation. What on earth convinced you to go down this route in the first place?”

Team17 is today announcing an end to the MetaWorms NFT project.

We have listened to our Teamsters, development partners, and our games’ communities, and the concerns they’ve expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space.

— Team17 (@Team17) February 1, 2022

Other Nifty News

In a strongly worded Instagram post made on Monday, Ye or Kanye West shut down the prospect of hopping on the NFT bandwagon, stating “Do not ask me to do a f*cking NFT.” The message in the photo, shared with his 10.5 million followers, explained he is focused on “building real products in the real world.”

According to Coin Metrics’ “State of the Network” report on Feb. 1, the number of transactions involving smart contracts on Tezos has surged over the past 12 months to more than 50,000 per day from less than 10,000 per day in January 2021. The firm attributed the rapid growth primarily to NFTs.