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Ubisoft is one of the few game companies that have decided to dive into the blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space. And while the gaming community appears to be largely in opposition to this decision, there are, of course, people who support the endeavor as well. When you"re making a controversial move, one thing that you should be careful of, as a big company, is to not antagonize the other side completely. However, Ubisoft seems to be doing the exact opposite.
Australian website finder.com (via @PaulTassi) interviewed Nicolas Pouard and Didier Genevois recently. The former is the vice president of Ubisoft"s Strategic Innovation Labs and essentially the mastermind behind the company"s Digits and Quartz NFT initiatives. Meanwhile, Genevois is the company"s Blockchain Technical Director.
The interview covers a lot of ground regarding Ubisoft"s strategy related to NFTs but what really stands out is how the company views gamers who are not supportive of the direction. When asked about what benefits NFTs actually bring to gamers, Pouard went on a Principal Skinner-esque tangent, saying that:
I think gamers don"t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it"s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they"re finished with them or they"re finished playing the game itself.
So, it"s really, for them. It"s really beneficial. But they don"t get it for now.
Also, this is part of a paradigm shift in gaming. Moving from one economic system to another is not easy to handle. There are a lot of habits you need to go against and a lot of your ingrained mindset you have to shift. It takes time. We know that.
Well, there you have it anti-NFT folks. Your feeble brains just can"t comprehend the benefit that NFTs will bring to the gaming community at large. Ubisoft is seeing the "end game" whereas you just want to enjoy your games for the fun they bring. Eat your heart out.