HomeNewsTom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
Ubisoft are launching Ghost Recon Breakpoint NFTs later this weekI love making my trousers scarce
I love making my trousers scarce
Well, they’ve done it. After declaring their desire to be"key players" in blockchain gaming, Ubisoft have 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 Ubisoft’s video introduction:
Ubisoft Quartz: Announce Trailer | Ubisoft [NA]Watch on YouTube
Ubisoft Quartz: Announce Trailer | Ubisoft [NA]
In aUbisoft news post, they announced that Quartz - the platform - would launch in beta with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC via Ubisoft Connect. The first three Digits - the NFT cosmetic items - will apparently be “rewarded” to early adopters for free on December 9th, 12th, and 15th.
Digits are purely cosmetic, conferring no gameplay benefit. From the video above, the first three digits seem to be a mask, a weapon skin, and some trousers. All three come with an “engraved” serial number, which is the element that makes them “unique”.
The rest of the announcement is structured as an interview with blockchain product director Baptiste Chardon and blockchain technical director Didier Genevois. They attempt to explain the benefits of NFTs, while downplaying the negatives.
Why is that value distribution a good thing? Why is it urgent that we introduce scarcity and split residents of digital spaces into haves and have nots? Is being “unique” meaningful when all it extends only as far as my trousers having a different serial number than yours?
But again, there’s no followup question. Does anyone actually desire the right to sell their Ghost Recon trousers outside of the game? Is any of this more fun or engaging, or is it just wringing money from investors and, more troublingly, the percentage of the playerbase susceptible to gambling? And in what way do NFTs magically allow for “interoperability”, or make it easier than having items tied to existing Ubisoft accounts? Do NFTs somehow make textures and skins created to fit one 3D model suddenly map cleanly onto another - not to mention resolving issues around different code, engine, art style and more? Isn’t the promise of “longer term” interoperability just a hook designed to reel in investors hoping that their deathmask might increase in value when one day it can also be used in Assassin’s Creed?
Yes, proof-of-stake is substantially less bad than proof-of-work. It’s still bad, and for a dumb thing that everyone can do without.
This isn’t Ubisoft’s first foray into the blockchain. As well as investing in several blockchain companies in recent years, they also released aRabbids token for charitylast year. Ubisoft Quartz is the first time the technology will be included in one of their games, however.
It is also, in many ways, AAA gaming’s first big step into the world of the blockchain. The next 18 months are going to be exhausting.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft employee group ABetterUbisoftcontinue to protest the company’s responseto allegations of workplace harassment and abuse.
