Ubisoft drinks the crypto Kool-Aid, announces plans to develop blockchain games
The French publisher has been investigating Blockchain games since at least 2018.
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Ubisofthas formally announced its intention to develop “play-to-earn"NFTand blockchain games, the publisher revealed during last week’s Q2 earnings call.
Executives raised the subject of blockchain games several times in both its earnings report and during the call itself (thanks,IGN). The French publisher is one of the major investors behind crypto gaming firm Animoca Brands’recent $65 million windfall. But Ubisoft has been poking around with blockchain tech through its Strategic Innovation Lab since 2018, and is a founding member of the Blockchain Gaming Alliance.
“This industry is changing regularly with lots of new revolutions happening,” said CEO Yves Guillemot during the call (viaIBTimes). “We consider blockchain one of those revolutions. It will imply more play-to-earn that will enable more players to actually earn content, own content, and we think it’s going to grow the industry quite a lot.”
Crypto gaming has been a contentious issue lately. Steam flatlybanned all games featuring NFTs or cryptocurrencyfrom its platform last month. And while Epic boss Tim Sweeney had earlier expressed similar thinking, he chose to counter Steam’s announcement by saying thatNFTs were allowed on the Epic Games Store, actually. It’s still too early to assume what Ubisoft’s contributions to crypto games will be—whether it’s rolling NFTs into the rewards structure of its open-world behemoths, or creating entirely new blockchain games.
When pressed on crypto’s well-documented environmental impacts, Ubisoft CFO Frédérick Duguet is reported as saying the publisher is still in the early stages of exploring the technology, and that this of course includes “the impact on environments”. But it’s also worth a reminder that NFTs aren’t just environmentally devastating—they’re terrible at what they set out to fix, creatinga glorified Steam marketplace that doesn’t provide safety or security for digital artists.
The announcement comes amidst internal tensions at Ubisoft, asworkers this weekend demanded swifter concessions from leadershipafterActivisionappeared tofinally give groundtowards its own workers. 16 months after allegations of abuse and misconduct began, some Ubisoft employees feel the publisher has made little to no effort to remedy company culture.
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20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she’s not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it’s the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.
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