French mega-developer Ubisoft has shred decades of reputation in recent weeks. Despite previous criticisms for microtransactions and other unsettling business practices, the game developer's biggest falling out with consumers has been due to NFTs.
Announced just a few weeks ago, Ubisoft Quartz NFTs inserted cryptoart into one of the company's worst games: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Upon launch, the open-world third-person shooter was heavily criticised for its monetisation. However, the developer has only made the game even more predatory with the introduction of NFTs.
Ubisoft will double down on NFTs
The developer’s first NFT launch was not only met with massive negativity from fans, but also hasn’t been successful. For example, the service’s initial launch only resulted in a few sales, all assets selling for far less than their asking price. In the days after, only 15 assets sold for around $400.
Nevertheless, Ubisoft is continuing to invest in the cryptoart industry. In a report by VentureBeat, it was revealed that the developer is partnering with decentralised storage company Aleph.im. This partnership will give the developer a cloud platform to store crypto assets.
This partnership comes after the vast majority of gamers expressed seething hatred for NFTs in games. However, Ubi blockchain technical director, Didier Genevois, has revealed that the company will still continue its crypto trajectory.
“We have received a lot of feedback since the announcement, and we hear both the encouragement and the concerns,” 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 meant to understand how the value proposition of decentralization can be received and embraced by our players. ”
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Why don't gamers want NFTs in games?
There are a multitude of reasons why gamers are refusing to allow NFTs to enter mainstream gaming. For starters, modern games have been stripped and resold piecemeal with microtransactions, loot boxes and DLCs over the past decade.
Essentially, NFTs are nothing new, they're just a more expensive, less eco-friendly way of selling content. Genevois claims that the tech allows gamers to become “true stakeholders” in games, but gamers just want to play video games.
Even so, everything NFTs do can already be done traditionally. The CS:GO market and Roblox have had systems to trade and sell items for money for years, and it does so without ravaging the environment. NFTs are just a buzzword, one with ties to an increasingly scam-filled world.