When Nike announced their NFT platform, .SWOOSH, was partnered with EA Sports, I couldn’t help but unpack the significance of the moment. This would truly represent the first major move the games industry’s giants had made into web3 that was public-facing and that players could interact with. However, eagle-eyed Twitter users spotted that in a recent Nike and Fortnite partnership announcement, there is a major hint toward NFTs.
— .SWOOSH (@dotSWOOSH) June 16, 2023
The collaboration between Nike and Fortnite is a noteworthy one for the games industry by any measure, and the above teaser shows that “Airphoria” is going to be a treasure hunt for Nike in-game trainers. Now, to suggest that because .SWOOSH and EA Sports partnered, Nike and Fortnite must be another branch of the same digital strategy would be a stretch, but that isn’t the evidence that has set the NFT community on red alert.
At the end of the above trailer, you will see “06.20.23” (20th June 2023 for those who don’t use the worst date format possible), followed by the Unreal Engine logo. The Unreal Engine logo, many have speculated, is a hint that Nike has built a custom experience in Fortnite’s now-beloved Fortnite Creative 2.0 — a system for player-generated content based on Epic Games’ Unreal Editor. However, the Nike logo after that is what we’re interested in.
The Nike logo is for their web3 platform, .SWOOSH, which is digital-centric and, as far as anyone can tell, dedicated to NFTs and blockchain. So, the leap that many have made is to the idea that Nike’s .SWOOSH has created a NFT sneaker (trainer) hunt mini-game in Fortnite Creative 2.0.
It just isn’t that much of a leap. Nike’s .SWOOSH has only recently started ramping up and is a long way from firing on all cylinders with NFT holder perks, airdrops, and exclusives — those who bought into the initial NFT sale of OF1 boxes have only just been able to open them. So, it makes sense that there is a lot more planned for the near future, with EA Sports being a major component. Fortnite is already considered a metaverse by Epic Games co-founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney, and the Epic Games Store is pro-blockchain and hosts several web3 games.
This is one of the most outlandish rumors web3 gaming has ever seen and yet completely credible. Three days until lift-off.
Lead image by Alexander Rotker on Unsplash
