Ubisoft Doubles Down On NFTs, Calls Them A ‘Major Change That Will Take Time’

Ubisoft, the company behind franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, first broached the topic of NFTs back in early November, revealing plans to one day implement them into its games and also develop blockchain games. We learned a month later – this month – that Ubisoft’s comments in November were less a broach of NFTs and more preparation for a reveal of its NFT-based platform called Ubisoft Quartz. 

Quartz Beta is now online. Players can earn NFT cosmetics to be used in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The announcement of Quartz and its reveal was met with criticism. Many called for Ubisoft’s resignation from the inclusion of NFTs within their games. Report from Eurogamer It is revealed that Quartz Digit recipients have soldThere are only 15 NFT in allMost likely, a lower number than Ubisoft anticipated. In a new interview, however, with Encrypt, Ubisoft’s blockchain technical director revealed that the company is still committed to the technology, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. 

“We have received a lot of feedback since the announcement and we hear both the encouragement and the concerns,” Didier Genevois said. “We understand where the sentiment towards the technology comes from, and we need to keep taking it into consideration every step of the way. This experiment is designed to help us understand the benefits of decentralization and how our players can embrace them. We know it is a major change that will take time, but we will stay true to our three principles.” 

Genevois says these are the three basic principles. 

1. “Use the tech responsibly.” 
2. “Build a safe environment” 
3. “Only leverage energy-efficient proof-of-stake blockchains [and] focus on meaningful value propositions for players that benefit their gaming experience.” 

Encrypt interviewed Genevois in light of yesterday’s announcement that Ubisoft was partnering with Aleph.im, a company that will give Ubisoft a place for decentralized storage for NFT assets, which Ubisoft calls Digits on the Quartz platform. 

“Our main objective with Ubisoft Quartz is to showcase the true value of decentralization to our players,” Genevois told Encrypt. “Aleph.im played a key role in the realization of our vision by allowing us to go one step further and decentralize the storage of the Digits’ video asset and metadata.” 

Aleph.im founder Jonathan Schemoul believes “most big publishers will end up proposing in-game NFT support,” according to Encrypt. It seems EA is intent on making it happen, at least, as its CEO, Andrew Wilson, recently said NFTs and blockchain games are “the future of our industry.” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said back in October that for now, the Epic Games Store welcomes games that use blockchain technology, too.  

It is widely believed that cryptocurrency usage can be considered harmful to the earth at the moment. Ethereum, one of the most-used cryptocurrencies, though, is working on something it calls “The Merge,” which it says will “start the era of a more sustainable, eco-friendly Ethereum.” Only time will tell how green Ethereum becomes. 

[Source: Video Games Chronicle, Decrypt]

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