French publisher Ubisoft is responding to the outrageous reaction from gamers to NFTs, Digits and the Quartz platform.
If Ubisoft’s entry into the world of NFTs with Quartz and Digits (unique cosmetic items) is not successful, in part due to the extremely negative reaction of the players, Nicolas Poire, vice president of the French publisher’s strategic innovation laboratory, believes that changing opinions is only a matter of time: “I don’t think they understand what the digital aftermarket can do for them. At the moment, due to the current situation and the context of the NFT, they sincerely believe that it is primarily about the destruction of the planet and just a tool for speculation. But what we see is the completion of the work. The goal is to give them the opportunity to resell their items after they’ve finished with them or finished playing the game itself. So it’s really for them. It’s really helpful. But they haven’t figured it out yet.”
Ubisoft wants to attract new players with NFT
Far from being connected to the video game industry, this former philosophy professor turned blockchain expert wants to reassure Ubisoft about the future of NFTs, even if players don’t want to hear about it: a paradigm shift in gaming. Switching from one economic system to another is not easy. You have to go against many habits and ingrained states of mind. It takes time. We know that this concept is not easy to understand. But our Quartz platform is really just the first step towards something more. Something that will be easier for our players to understand.”
Nicolas Poiret is not ready to give up on this project because the goal is to invite a new audience to Ubisoft: “When you talk about a decentralized autonomous organization like Yield’s Guild Games, players really see themselves as a new tool to attract users to games. Because if you create a good gaming experience to win, these guilds will go into your game and they will strengthen your ecosystem, and as a result, you will have to engage the entire economy and community. So yes, it’s no longer just spending on marketing to attract new players, but how you build your game to attract those infamous guilds through the OAD.
We are interested in playing to earn. For us, this is the same logic as today. That’s why we try to see Ubisoft games as a place where your experience can be of maximum benefit. In other words, when you play a game, there are different values. The pleasure you get just by playing. There is a fact that you can learn something/
So Quartz is just an extension of what we’re already doing, but I would say it needs to be well managed. Or right. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to take an existing game with an existing economy and try to turn it into a “play to earn”type of economy. You really need to start from scratch because it’s a completely different take on the game’s economy and monetization. There is the fact that you can learn something.