Classic social web game Habbo made a pivot into NFTs in 2021, 20 years after launched as a more visual riff on chat rooms. The pivot didn’t land well with all Habbo fans, similar to what happened with Neopets.
But unlike Neopets, the company isn’t dumping its NFTs. It’s just going to start using different terms to talk about them.
On Tuesday, Habbo announced that it will shift its terminology, ditching the existing “Habbo NFT” phrasing in favor of “Habbo Collectibles.” In a post (via PC Gamer), Habbo said that it will move away from blockchain industry jargon.
“To make it easier for current and prospective players to understand what Habbo Collectibles are about—collecting and trading items in Habbo—in the majority of our marketing and communications, we’ll be moving away from jargon like ‘NFT,’ ‘Web3,’ and ‘blockchain,’ etc.”
Habbo’s move echoes that of many brands and companies that have shifted away from how they refer to NFT assets, with many calling them “digital collectibles” instead. Online messaging platform Reddit, for example, calls its NFTs “Collectible Avatars” and has avoided using NFT terminology in its public communications.
Such changes won’t all happen at once, however. In the post, the company said that it will leave the branding for its Habbo NFT Twitter account and Discord server intact, at least “for now.”
Habbo’s NFT avatars were minted on the Ethereum mainnet, while follow-up collections for items like digital furniture are minted on Ethereum scaling network Immutable X. Owners of the 11,600 NFT avatars gain exclusive access to a specialized Habbo Hotel server called Habbo X. Secondary market prices start at nearly 0.18 ETH ($275) on the OpenSea marketplace.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
