Crypto and NFT Scams Ruin Retro Game Preservation Thanks to MetaGravity Studios

Crypto and NFT Scams Ruin Retro Game Preservation Thanks to MetaGravity Studios

Last Updated on May 28, 2022

MetaGravity Studios, the company behind Retro Arcade NFT Collection hosted on OpenSea, has inadvertently (we hope) linked the atrocious nature of Crypto and NFT scams with the whole-hearted, passionate world of retro game preservation.

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are VERY new in this generation, and they cleverly link economics and technologies in ways our founding fathers could never have predicted. Unfortunately, when the new rich kid comes to town, everybody wants to be the first to take their share of his friendliness until there is nothing left to bear. 

Crypto and NFT scams have gone haywire, and there seems to be no end in sight. Like a cancer of the body, it’s spreading into all industries, and today’s victim is retro game preservation.

Retro Arcade Collection, an entity on OpenSea “featuring an innovative new type of ‘SmartNFT’ on the Ethereum blockchain,” would be among the first known instances of ALLEGED crypto and NFT scams in the retro game preservation community.

They hold technology that allows the development and presentation of NFTs capable of playing video games straight from your browser. While this sounds like an absolutely fantastic advancement in NFT innovations, the games they decided to manipulate were of retro media they had no legal rights or permissions to use.

I’ll step outside of reporter mode for a second to admit that it doesn’t sound as “scammy” as you may think. This goes especially because MetaGravity Studios CEO Rashid Mansoor revealed that the video games were removed once they realized there were no rights or permissions. However, the scam comes in that NFTs can potentially take a lot of revenue from the media owners. 

You don’t have to know a lot about NFTs and NFT scams to understand that it’s a very susceptible game. Simply participating makes you vulnerable to predatory attacks against your finances. While MetaGravity’s intent doesn’t seem malicious to investors, it is incredibly heinous from the perspective of the video game rights owners for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the company describes these games with terms like “abandonware.” That insinuates the games represented in their NFTs were, at some point, abandoned by the owners, which isn’t always true. When using intellectual properties, rights should always be negotiated even if you believe the content or media was renounced.

Secondly, there are no “easily accessible” reports regarding the money they made from hosting those games on the blockchain. There’s also no note in Vice’s article on the topic of whether there will be retribution in favor of the content owners. 

Whatever your position on the matter, this is your warning to be very careful when dealing with NFTs and potential NFT scams, even if the cause is one you may agree with. You never know when the project managers are dotting all of their i’s and crossing their t’s, and this case shows that MetaGravity may have ALLEGEDLY dropped the ball with this one. 

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