HomeNews
Ubisoft want to be “key players” in blockchain gamingYet another reason not to play their games
Yet another reason not to play their games
Image credit:Ubisoft
Image credit:Ubisoft
Not content withpivoting to free-to-play gamesthat their audiencedoesn’t want, Ubisoft also want to be one of the “key players” in blockchain gaming according to CEO Yves Guillemot.
Far Cry 6 Is At Its Best When You Just Explore | My Fav Thing In… (Far Cry 6 Review)Watch on YouTube
Far Cry 6 Is At Its Best When You Just Explore | My Fav Thing In… (Far Cry 6 Review)
“This industry is changing regularly with lotsof new revolutions happening, and we consider blockchain as one of those revolutions,” said Guillemot. “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. So we have been working with lots of small companies going on blockchain and we’re starting to have a good know-how on how it can impact the industry, and we want to be one of the key players here.”
Earlier this month, Ubisoft invested inAnimoca Brands, a company that makes “branded blockchain games”, including several licensed racing games, as well as open-world sandbox game The Sandbox. All of these games feature NFT in-game items.
Blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs have been heavily criticised for theirgross environmental impact. Guillemot didn’t address that, although Ubisoft’searnings report does allude to it.
“Ubisoft has been exploring blockchain since the early development of the technology, supporting and learning from the ecosystem through initiatives like its Entrepreneurs Lab start-up program and the Blockchain Game Alliance as a founding member,” says the report. “It also gives Ubisoft the perspective to reflect on the best ways to overcome blockchain’s initial limitations for gaming around sustainability and scalability.”
TheBlockchain Game Alliancewere one of the signatories of theopen letter released last weekasking Valve to unban blockchain-based games from Steam.
Large companies invest in and dabble with all sorts of new technologies that may never emerge in their actual products. Perhaps I won’t ever earn some STAB coins for silently taking down every goon in aFar Cryoutpost, and their experiments will go no further than last year’sRabbids tokens for charity. Perhaps they will pull back, just as the free-to-play Ghost Recon Frontline wasindefinitely delayedshortly before its closed beta test.
But probably not, because blockchain’s inclusion in an investor call is an indication that Ubisoft’s investors are keen on the potential profits of selling digital nonsense.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft employee group A Better Ubisoft havecriticised the company’s “weak response” to abuse allegations, saying the publisher has done very little to address employee demands in the past 16 months.
