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NFTs and gaming are seemingly setting up to establish an expanded relationship in 2022 and onward, but the beginnings of these efforts have not garnered universal appeal, to say the least. When STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl announced NFT integration with “metahuman” NPCs, fans responded so aversely that the NFT implementation was entirely canceled within hours of the studio doubling-down on its functionality. More recently were the comments made by Square Enix’s president and their belief in the “play to contribute” playerbase and its potential benefits. So far, Ubisoft is one of the earliest corporations to dive into NFTs and blockchain in a big way.
Starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Ubisoft is pushing forward with a beta program for “Ubisoft Quartz,” a platform designed to integrate NFTs into the publisher’s games. “Digits,” the NFTs themselves that players will be able to claim and trade, are all unique blockchain-based items in-game that each come with unique serial numbers, just like more conventional examples of NFTs like art pieces. Problem is, even beyond the inherent negative impact on the environment from NFTs and blockchain, Ubisoft’s implementation of NFTs is unsustainable. Even if this is a beta/trial period for the company, Ubisoft Quartz’s initial launch doesn’t make any sense.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Is A Strange Foundation For Ubisoft NFTs
For one thing, Ubisoft betting on Ghost Recon Breakpoint initially to implement such an ambitious system is a perplexing notion, especially if Ubisoft is committed to its NFT/blockchain efforts. Ghost Recon Breakpoint was not well-received on release, nor has the game notably improved post-launch to the point where players are returning to the game or singing praises of any improvements.
Putting aside any opinion on NFTs as a whole, attempting to kick off a form of digital gaming ownership in a game that received a poor reception, contributed to the delay of Ubisoft’s entire AAA release schedule back by months, among other issues, doesn’t align with Ubisoft’s vision of “an ever-greater connection between you and the game worlds you love.”
There’s also the prerequisites necessary to acquire these Digits in Ghost Recon Breakpoint in the first place, as well as the problematic terms of “ownership” associated with them. Between the limited amount of time to claim these Digits, paired with the necessity of up to 600 hours of playtime to acquire three NFT items in a critically panned release, just seems unrealistic to any genuine NFT and/or Ghost Recon fan. It’s not even that far-fetched to expect that any of the players who did log around 600 hours in Ghost Recon Breakpoint likely were not doing it under the motivation that they genuinely love the game that much, especially within as short of a time frame.
Value And ‘Interoperability’ Of Digits In Quartz
Then there’s the problem of genuine “ownership” of Digits, which for NFTs is the intended benefit of investing in blockchain technology for gaming (and other industries) in the first place. The problem lies with the reliability of owning and being empowered by Digit assets, and their mutability within the Ubisoft publishing portfolio. Ownership of Digits is still very much tied to the game’s playerbase, especially in Quartz and Digits’ current implementation by the publisher. The inherent “value” or “uniqueness” of Digits doesn’t make sense when there aren’t multiple games to utilize these Digits other than strictly within Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft’s Blockchain Product Director Baptiste Chardon specifically emphasized the potential “interoperability” of in-game assets, and the capability of blockchain technology to encourage a more “decentralized” gaming experience. Granted Quartz is still a “beta” experience, so the promise of this capability with Digits does have potential, but there’s not an infrastructure in place for this to be proven initially. If players even want to trade or acquire a Digit from Ubisoft Quartz, they still need to own Ghost Recon Breakpoint regardless.
Without this inherent value, Digits are only available in the context of Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its playerbase. If Ghost Recon Breakpoint goes offline, players will retain ownership of the Digits, but they become effectively unusable, as laid out in article 10 of Ubisoft Quartz’s Terms of Use. These Digits can be sold on common NFT marketplaces, but with the caveat of these items not being usable in any in-game context, what would the value of these Digits be? The rarity or value of NFTs can be extremely volatile, meaning Digits may not necessarily retain any value beyond the context of the game, despite being tradeable elsewhere.
Then of course there are the elements of anti-NFT sentiments and negative factors, like the impact of blockchain technology, NFTs, and cryptocurrency on the environment. Plenty of NFTs and blockchain platforms, including Ubisoft Quartz and Tezos (the blockchain foundation that Quartz is based on), allegedly are “energy efficient” alternatives to most blockchain and NFT efforts. That being said, the carbon emissions caused by machines maintaining blockchain infrastructure are still harmful to the environment as well.
Overall, as it stands currently, Ubisoft Quartz and Digits are very much looking like a failure to launch, or at the very least the interest is waning or non-existent currently. There is a degree of promise in what Ubisoft Quartz aims to do, based on what Ubisoft has said, but the current implementation needs a serious overhaul if it’s even going to remotely resemble a promising new technology and functionality.
Source: Ubisoft
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