The check must have bounced.
I still cannot believe Epic is cool with associating themselves with NFTs given the sheer amount of backlash over the past year and the reality that they do not need
any bad press or associations with their store. Articles like this are the last thing they need... At this point they just better hope that none of these blockchain/NFT games goes full scam and brings Epic's association into question.
Speculation time:
I speculate Epic wants to lean into the, "your game inventory is cross-platform/store/game," leveraging EOS/Epic accounts to achieve cross-inventory. Epic may be lending very soft support to NFTs and blockchain since they are touted for cross-inventory reasons as to why they should be added into video games. If the idea takes off, Epic is already positioned to throw itself into supporting cross-inventory, though probably divorced of anything blockchain related. Whatsmore, if NFTs/blockchain themselves are accepted, then it could give Epic another Trojan horse means of getting this to work on the Apple, Google, and console stores
while bypassing some of the store fees they are trying to cut out. Even more tinfoil hat speculation time, I think partly why Tim says the tech has potential, he means the potential at being able to have a point of sale occur on the Epic store, while the user can still use their purchase anywhere and everywhere seamlessly, including on platforms that Tim feels are currently blocking the company's plans like Apple devices. Apple getting ahead of this and requiring NFTs to go through their payment methods is exactly what he did not want to happen since it results in the worst of both worlds, shutting the door at this being able to lead to another possibility of bypassing Apple/Google AND now having to support NFT/blockchain games on your store, risking PR issues.