Ubisoft was one of the first AAA game publishing companies to go all-in with the ongoing NFT craze with Quartz. Following an outburst of online criticism from gaming communities and the like, one Ubisoft executive has gone on record by explaining that gamers don't understand the value that Ubisoft is trying to promote with its "Digit" NFTs.

Even though Ubisoft wasn't particularly successful with the dry run of their novel NFT platform, the company isn't giving up on Quartz or Digits anytime soon. Namely, the company used Ghost Recon Breakpoint as a way to weigh the players' interest in NFT-bound cosmetics, and one of its executives, Nicolas Pouard, claims that gamers "don't get it for now."

RELATED: Ubisoft Hiring for Splinter Cell Remake

Nicolas Pouard is the Vice-President of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, and he spoke about the negativity that the company's NFTs were met with. On top of negativity, it's also worth pointing out that Breakpoint NFTs weren't particularly successful, either. According to Pouard, gamers "don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them." He mentioned that gamers believe NFTs are destroying the planet, and that the technology is used as a speculative tool and little else.

Ubisoft-Quartz-Official-App-Mockup

"The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items," said Pouard. Indeed, the publisher does offer that functionality as part of the Ubisoft Quartz marketplace, where Digits are sold much as any other NFT would be. Explaining the ins and outs of Ubisoft Quartz and its decidedly negative outlook in the gaming communities is a layered issue, however, and Pouard's commentary about how this is a "paradigm shift in gaming" might not alleviate the gamers' concerns.

The presence of live service elements in all contemporary Ubisoft games was already a point of concern for many, and the sudden appearance and subsequent launch of Ubisoft Quartz (which could, conceivably, underline live service features even further) rubbed vocal gaming communities the wrong way. As per the interview that Pouard was a part of, Ubisoft believes that its Digits are on the right track, and will "keep integrating."

One of the biggest video game controversies of last year, Ubisoft's insistence on implementing NFTs is a major point of contention for gamers worldwide. Other AAA publishers are bound to be carefully monitoring the situation and the related outcry. Since the popular publisher isn't going to give up on its Quartz NFT platform anytime soon, the experiment is bound to continue, with the future of gaming microtransactions very much uncertain.

MORE: Ubisoft's Quartz and Digit NFTs Are Unsustainable

Source: Finder