When Ubisoft launched its new NFT platform, Ubisoft Quartz, the move to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the PC version of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint left employees skeptical, according to Kotaku.
The publication revealed internal messages from Ubisoft’s internal social media hub, MANA which blew up with questions and concerns about the company’s recent NFT scheme. Staff messages posted on the media hub showed that employees were confused and disappointed in the news.
“[I] still don’t really understand the ‘problem’ being solved here… is it really worth the [extremely] negative publicity this will cause?” one Ubisoft employee asked
“How can you look at private property, speculation, artificial scarcity, and egoism, then say ‘yes, this is good, I want that, let’s put it in art’?” Another Ubisoft employee asked
“I normally try to stay positive on our announcements, but this one is upsetting,” a third employee stated.
An underlined narrative of the Kotaku story that is revealed by the messages is that staff employees were caught off guard by the news and probably heard the news at the same time as the public. Ubisoft announced its NFT platform alongside a video that is currently unlisted. Quartz reportedly received more than 95 percent of dislikes.
Quartz launched into beta with the PC version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, on December 9th. The publisher described Quartz as “the first platform for playable and energy-efficient NFTs in AAA games”. Players in the first NFT-enabled game are able to acquire Digits, the third-party publisher’s version of NFTs which are collectible in-game vehicles, weapons and equipment. Digits are part of a collection of ‘limited edition’ versions of cosmetics items, which can be sold on third-party platforms. Each Digit has its own serial numbers that can be viewed by other players in-game.
“Digits are a new way to experience cosmetic items, combining the fun of playing with AAA quality assets and the thrill of owning NFTs that represent unique, collectible pieces of Ubisoft game worlds,” Ubisoft said in a statement.
