Ubisoft is the most active large game company in the Web3 field. Just recently, the gaming giant has made new moves.

secondary title

Leverage the big fire IP to enlarge the trick

recently,Official UbisoftAnnounceIn partnership with Integral Reality Labs, the Assassin's Creed NFT collection "Assassin's Creed Smart Collectibles" on Polygon will officially open for minting on May 16.Each minted "Digital Soul" NFT can be used to customize and redeem 3D printed physical collectibles. It's a protagonist of the game series suspended in a transparent cube, allowing owners to choose from a variety of outfits, weapons, and poses before the physical collectible is printed and shipped. Each NFT has a different rarity level, with higher level NFTs unlocking more customization elements.

These collectibles have an embedded Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. When tapped with a smartphone, users can view a digital version of the character in a companion app, as well as access other functions related to the project.

Integral Reality Labs will also release 1,500 "Piece of Eden" passes, offering holders airdrops to exclusive collectibles and priority access to 3D printing, among other perks.

Previously, Integral Reality Labs has partnered with Ubisoft to release customizable 3D printable collectibles based on game series such as Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six and For Honor, but there is no digital collection binding. According to Ubisoft, the Assassin's Creed franchise has sold more than 200 million copies since its release in 2007.

It is understood that Ubisoft's well-known works include "Rayman", "Assassin's Creed" series (Assassin's Creed), "Far Cry" series (Far Cry), "Prince of Persia", "Split Cell" "(Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell), "Rainbow Six" series (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six), "Watch_Dogs" series (Watch_Dogs), "The Division" series, (Tom Clancy's The Divisioner) "Ghost Recon" series ( Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon), the Anno series (Anno), etc.

secondary title

Unfinished business

In fact, this is the Nth time that Ubisoft has explored the NFT field, and the company’s interest in NFT began a few years ago. In March 2021, Ubisoft partnered with Sorare, a digital football NFT collection platform, to develop a fantasy football game called One Shot League, which is based on Ethereum and provides players with NFT collection cards.

In December 2021, Ubisoft even launched a beta version of its NFT-enabled native platform Ubisoft Quartz, which allows users to obtain NFTs of items that can be used in games, such as weapons, clothing or vehicles. Ubisoft Quartz calls these NFTs "Digits" and chose the Tezos chain as the underlying layer.The first batch of Digits appeared in Ubisoft Connect's "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" PC version, which was opened for collection in a limited amount in the form of Beta testing, and each Digit only contained a limited number of decorative items.

Complementary support is also following up, such as Aleph.im's announcement that it will provide Ubisoft Quartz with a decentralized storage solution to further incorporate NFT into Ubisoft's AAA games.

Unfortunately, although Ubisoft is full of confidence in this, it was poured cold water as soon as it came up.

The trailer, which was originally on Ubisoft's Quartz platform, was taken down after receiving a lot of negative interaction from viewers.

Additionally, within 10 days of the platform’s launch, the NFT resale market volume for Ghost Recon Breakpoint appears to have been only $400, with only 15 NFTs sold. This situation is undoubtedly very frustrating-because it shows that not only ordinary gamers are not interested in this, but NFT collectors are also.

Shortly thereafter, Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab, expressed his views on the negative player feedback Ubisoft received after launching NFT platforms Quartz and Digits in an interview with Finder.Gamers may not yet fully understand the benefits of NFTs, Pouard said.Quartz and Digits are a "matter of personal choice" for the player, and the player is not forced to use them "at any time". It is not difficult to see that, in the view of this Ubisoft executive, NFT has the meaning of "underappreciated talents and precious jade in the dust" in the game field.

secondary title

The more frustrated the more courageous?

However, all kinds of doubts and obstacles from inside and outside did not make Ubisoft stop after a setback and stop there.

In February 2022, Ubisoft announced a partnership with the well-known Metaverse project The Sandbox, which will bring its game IP into the Ethereum-based Metaverse game world.It is understood that Ubisoft will have its own LAND in The Sandbox's shared online world, which can be customized and monetized as needed. Additionally, Ubisoft will launch an interactive space for its Rabbids franchise in The Sandbox, available within the game's VoxEdit and Game Maker tools. Ubisoft also plans to bring IP from other popular game franchises to The Sandbox.

However, bad news also came unexpectedly. It may be due to various considerations such as cost, public opinion, and player feedback.Ubisoft stated in April that it has completely ended the development of the "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" game, and will no longer provide content updates, NFT or other content in the future.Perhaps with a lesson learned from the past, Ubisoft issued a statement after noticing the concerns of some players that it currently has no plans to add NFT to the new game code-named "Project Q".

secondary title

All roads lead to Web3

Despite repeated setbacks in the NFT business, Ubisoft's enthusiasm for Web3 has not faded. For a long time, the gaming giant has been investing in various game-related companies in the Web3 field, including participating in Animoca Brands’ $60 million financing in 2021, and investing about $60 million in the White Star Capital encryption fund focusing on DeFi and games in 2022 , In 2022, Cometh, the leading investment chain game studio, completed a $10 million seed round of financing and so on.

Of course, Ubisoft has not given up on Quartz, which has always had high hopes. In September, Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said in an interview that Quartz is in "research mode" for the integration of Web3-related technologies, "We are working on all Web3 features. Provides more information on how to use Web3 and what kind of game world we should build", and said that Ubisoft at this stage mainly wants to understand "how NFT can be applied to games and whether they will benefit gamers".

secondary title

Ubisoft's vision for Web3 games

So in Ubisoft's heart, what should the future game world look like? Guillemot talked about Ubisoft's long-term goals in the field of Web3 games in an interview. He said that Ubisoft in 2030 hopes that everyone can access games as easily as listening to music and watching videos on YouTube or TV, and is building Web3 tools to accelerate this trend. In the future, Ubisoft will allow players to appear in multiple metaverse virtual worlds, freely interact, create, own and transfer game assets between different games, and even move between different platforms and virtual worlds.

From Guillemot's description, we can also get a glimpse of Ubisoft's Web3 game vision. Admittedly, this road is destined to be full of thorns and bumps, but the Web3 world ushered in after overcoming the thorns and thorns will not disappoint players.