Ubisoft insists its NFTs are really beneficial to gamers

Ubisoft has been at the centre of criticism in recent months for its push into the NFT market. So far, Ubisoft’s NFT platform, Quartz, seems to be losing money, and according to at least one Ubisoft executive, that’s simply because gamers “don’t get it” yet. 

During an interview with Finder, one of the executives leading the charge into NFTs at Ubisoft, Nicolas Pouard, expressed his belief that gamers don’t understand what NFTs bring to the table, such as a secondary digital market for in-game items – something that Valve has offered through multiple games on Steam for years, without the use of blockchain.

Here is the full quote: “I think gamers don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it's first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself. So, it's really, for them. It's really beneficial. But they don't get it for now.“

For now, Pouard says that Ubisoft was anticipating some push back and scepticism around its NFTs in the beginning, It is not just gamers that have taken issue with Ubisoft’s foray into the NFT market though, even some of the publisher’s own developers have been questioning the move. For now though, Ubisoft plans to keep pushing ahead in hopes that NFTs will become the new norm, similarly to microtransactions and loot boxes previously.

KitGuru Says: We will likely see Ubisoft integrate Quartz and ‘Digits’ (NFTs) into more games later this year and we are likely to see other publishers beginning to explore the idea too. We already know the likes of EA and Square Enix are watching the NFT situation, as are a good number of independent developers. 

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