After Ubisoft revealed its new blockchain technology entitled Quartz, the company stated how it planned to use the tech in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. The video detailing Quartz that was posted to YouTube has since received a great deal of backlash and subsequently, Ubisoft has released a cosmetic NFT (non-fungible token) into Breakpoint that requires players to have logged over 600 hours into the game to redeem. Now, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot is claiming that the NFT technology is here to stay.
Guillemot held a video Q&A earlier this week to reassure Ubisoft's developers that NFTs are just the beginning and that the controversy stirred up over their use is similar to that of lootboxes and microtransactions. Ubisoft's internal developers have been intensely skeptical and dismissive about the use of NFTs, especially the team working on Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Developers in the Ubisoft Paris studio are worried about the push for NFTs as they have spent the better part of two years reforging the game after its disastrous 2019 launch. According to a community report viewed by Kotaku, the favor with which Breakpoint was slowly gaining has now indeed been dropping rapidly thanks to the inclusion of NFTs.
Yves Guillemot took action and immediately made his way to the Paris Studio to talk to the team. Here, he assured the developers that NFTs would simply become accepted over time much like how other controversial moves in the video game industry have taken root. Some employees were concerned that adding something like an NFT would be overkill as players already take Ubisoft under heavy scrutiny when it comes to its own mictrotransactions and XP boosters.
Developers at the Paris studio pressed Guillemot for more information but he declined any, instead describing future use of NFTs in broad strokes, while referencing the metaverse concept and Roblox. The developers voiced that they were concerned over what effect NFTs would have on their on jobs as well as the scope of Ubisoft projects. An NFT economy would almost certainly use up more of the team's resources and time. Guillemot didn't have an answer and once again painted a broad picture of the tech's future.
However the NFT controversy shakes out it is apparent that Ubisoft and by extension, Yves Guillemot, are adament that the technology is here to stay. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is likely only the beginning, and it's likely that soon players can expect NFT's to become a part of their favorite Ubisoft franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Far Cry.
Source: Kotaku