Well, they did. After declaring their wish is “main player” in blockchain game, Ubisoft announced the in-game NFT on a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz. They’re cosmetic items called Digits, and they’re coming to Ghost Recon Breakpoint this weekend.
Here is Ubisoft’s intro video:
In one Ubisoft news post, they announced that Quartz – the platform – will launch in beta with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC via Ubisoft Connect. The first three Digits – NFT cosmetic items – are apparently going to be free “rewards” to early registrants on December 9, 12 and 15.
Digits are purely cosmetic, providing no benefit to playing the game. From the video above, the first three digits appear to be a mask, a weapon skin, and some trousers. All three come with an “engraved” serial number, which is what makes them “unique”.
The rest of the announcement is structured as an interview with blockchain product manager Baptiste Chardon and blockchain engineering director Didier Genevois. They try to explain the benefits of NFT, while downplaying the negatives.
Their answers, especially when it comes to benefits, are often vague. “Blockchain’s decentralized technology allows game companies to overcome the current limitations posed by more traditional technologies and lays the groundwork for an ambitious and exciting new ecosystem,” said Chardon. , by design, is truly community driven. What is the limit, what is that ecosystem and what does “really driven community” mean? This is a PR blast, not a real interview, so of course there are no follow-up questions.
“While this may sound trivial at first, it’s a whole new approach to the walled garden digital environment we’re used to and it’s changing the video game industry. death by introducing concepts like uniqueness and controllability, and thus value distribution in our gaming world.”
Why is that value distribution a good thing? Why is it urgent to introduce scarcity and divide the inhabitants of the digital space into haves and have-nots? Does it make sense to be “unique” when it all goes so far that my pants have a different serial number than yours?
Similarly, the same answer continues by saying that decentralized technology “may even, in the long run, open up new opportunities such as interoperability between games or an unprecedented degree of autonomy.” ever seen for communities in the gaming world thanks to the decentralized nature of the technology.”
But again, no follow-up questions. Does anyone really want the rights to sell their Ghost Recon pants outside of the game? Is any of this more interesting or appealing, or is it just plundering money from investors and more trouble than a percentage of the player base that is prone to gambling? And in what way does NFT magically allow “interoperability”, or make it easier than attaching items to an existing Ubisoft account? NFTs that somehow make textures and interfaces created to fit one 3D model suddenly map unambiguously to another – not to mention deal with the surrounding problems different code, tools, art styles, and more? Isn’t the promise of “long-term” interoperability just a hook designed to attract investors hoping that their death mask might increase in value when it does too one day. can be used in Assassin’s Creed?
Most prominently, Ubisoft’s blockchain gang is keen to explain that Digits is powered by Tezos, a “proof of stake” blockchain technology that uses significantly less energy than a “proof of work” technology like Bitcoin. “This type of blockchain achieves similar results while using significantly less energy than Proof-of-Work protocols,” said Genevois. “To give you an idea, one transaction on Tezos is equivalent to 30 seconds of video streaming, while on Bitcoin it is equivalent to watching one year of continuous video streaming!”
Yes, proof of stake is fundamentally less bad than proof of work. It’s still bad, and a stupid thing people can do without.
This is not Ubisoft’s first foray into blockchain. In addition to investing in several blockchain companies in recent years, they also released Rabbids token for charity last year. However, Ubisoft Quartz is the first time this technology has been included in one of their games.
In many ways, this is also AAA gaming’s first big foray into the blockchain world. The next 18 months will be exhausting.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s staff team ABetterUbisoft continue to protest the company’s response against allegations of harassment and abuse in the workplace.
