Ubisoft launches Ghost Recon Breakpoint NFTs later this week

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Well, they did it. After declaring their desire to be a “major player” in blockchain games, Ubisoft announced in-game NFTs on a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz. They’re cosmetic items called Digits, and they’re coming to Ghost Recon Breakpoint later this week.

Here’s a Ubisoft video introduction:

In a Ubisoft news post, they announced that Quartz – the platform – will launch in beta with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC via Ubisoft Connect. Obviously, the first three numbers – NFT beauty items – will be “rewarded” to first adopters for free on December 9, 12 and 15.

The numbers are purely cosmetic, and do not confer any benefit in play. From the video above, it looks like the first three numbers are a mask, a weapon skin, and some pants. All three come with a “engraved” serial number, which is the element that makes them “unique”.

The rest of the announcement was organized as an interview with Blockchain Product Manager Baptiste Chardon and Blockchain Technical Director Didier Genevois. They try to explain the benefits of NFTs, while downplaying the negatives.

Their answers, especially when it comes to benefits, are usually vague. “Blockchain decentralized technology allows game companies to bypass current limitations imposed by more traditional technologies and lay the foundation for a new, ambitious and exciting ecosystem that is truly community-driven by design,” says Chardon. What are the limits, what is this ecosystem, and what does “really community driven” mean? This is a PR blast, not a real interview, so of course there are no follow-up questions.

“While this may seem trivial at first, it is a completely new approach compared to the digital walled garden environments we are accustomed to, and is transforming the video game industry by introducing concepts such as exclusivity and control, and thus the distribution of value in our game worlds.”

Why is this value distribution a good thing? Why is it so urgent that we introduce scarcity and divide the population of digital spaces into haves and have-nots? Is being “unique” meaningful when it only spans as much as a different serial number than my pants?

Similarly, the same answer continues by saying that decentralized technology “could, in the long run, open up new opportunities such as interoperability between games or an unprecedented level of autonomy for communities within game worlds thanks to the decentralized nature of technology.”

But again, there is no follow-up question. Does anyone really want to sell their Ghost Recon pants out of the game? Is any of this more fun or engaging, or is it just grabbing money from investors and, more worryingly, the percentage of the player base prone to gambling? And in what way do NFTs magically allow for “interoperability,” or make it easier than linking items to existing Ubisoft accounts? Do NFTs somehow make textures and skins that are created to fit a 3D model suddenly being drawn visibly over another—not to mention solving problems with code, engine, different art style, and more? Isn’t the promise of “long-term” interoperability just a hook designed to lure investors into hoping to increase the value of the death mask when it can one day be used in Assassin’s Creed?

More importantly, the Ubisoft blockchain gang is keen to make clear that Digits is powered by Tezos, a “proof of stake” blockchain technology that uses far less power than “proof of work” technologies like Bitcoin. “This type of blockchain achieves the same results while using much less power than Proof of Work protocols,” Genevois says. To give you an idea, a transaction on Tezos is equivalent to 30 seconds of a video stream, while on Bitcoin, it is equivalent to watching a video stream for one year in a row!

Yes, Proof of Stake is less bad than Proof of Work. Still bad, and for the stupid thing that everyone can do without.

This isn’t Ubisoft’s first foray into the blockchain. In addition to investing in several blockchain companies in recent years, they also released the Rabbids token for charity last year. Ubisoft Quartz is the first time that technology has been included in one of their games.

It is also, in many ways, the first big step for AAA games in the blockchain world. The next eighteen months will be stressful.

Meanwhile, the Ubisoft employee group ABetterUbisoft continues to protest the company’s response to allegations of workplace harassment and abuse.

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