On December 7, Ubisoft officially entered the world of NFTs by presenting Quartz, a platform to distribute non-fungible tokens associated with its video game franchises. The first title involved in the initiative was Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which was launched in 2019. However, after several weeks in operation, the French company has not obtained the expected results.
The Digits, as Ubisoft has named their NFTs, are cosmetic items –skins for weapons and characters, for example – with serial numbers that can be used in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. To obtain them, it is necessary to complete certain objectives, such as accumulating a certain number of hours in the game. Once you have obtained the NFT and therefore the certificate of ownership of the digital object, you are free to sell it on two third-party platforms authorized by Ubisoft: Rare and Objkt.
How are the sales going? Well, bad enough. According to the data it collects Input, in Rarible, only 9 sales so far in December, while in Objkt it is no more than 6. Liz Edwards, character artist from Apex legends, reported that Total sales generated by Ubisoft Quartz on Rarible equals just $ 400, about. Of course, they are numbers well below what Ubisoft expected.
Why did Ubisoft start off on the wrong foot?
There are several factors that could be hurting Ubisoft’s adventure in the NFTs. The first, and most obvious, is that Ghost Recon: Breakpoint not a game that boasts a broad community of players. This significantly reduces the number of people interested in acquiring NFTs. Another important point is that a good part of the Digits they are visually identical. They are only distinguished by a serial number that no one observes while playing games.
On the other hand, few are fond of the arrival of NFTs to videogames. If a few years ago microtransactions were widely criticized for being an abusive model — and they continue to be so in many cases — one could not expect less from NFTs despite being different proposals. However, at a certain point both involve the pocket of the players, and this is always going to generate controversy. We will see if Ubisoft is able to correct the course by introducing NFTs to other games.