When Ubisoft launched their Ubisoft Quartz platform for the sole purpose of selling NFTs, they trialled it with weapon skins for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, but the problem is they’ve racked up fairly poor sales. Of the 2,000 skins listed six days ago, just six have sold. Despite this, Kotaku reports Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has told the company’s developers that these NFTs are just the beginning of the company’s move into blockchain technology.
Ubisoft’s debut into NFTs did err on the side of optimistic. The Quartz platform went live with 2,000 versions of the Wolves skin for the M4A1 Tactical weapon in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. The only difference between them is a four digit number. Since then, Ubisoft has also added 750 versions of the Wolf Enhanced Pants and 250 versions of the Wolf Enhanced Helmet A, the latter being the NFT rewarded to players who had clocked up more than 600 hours in the game. Again, the difference between them boils down to a number.
Over six days of trading, just six weapon skins have sold and none of the clothing. The lowest asking price for a weapon skin is 39.99 Tezos ($159.96) and they go as high as an eye-watering 100,000 Tezos ($400,000). Despite this, they’re not selling for anywhere near that value. Finalised sales have ranged from just 5 Tezos ($20) to 20 Tezos ($80). The highest offer anybody has placed for the remaining NFTs is just 5 Tezos.
The lukewarm reaction is not deterring Ubisoft. Yves Guillemot has told concerned staff members that the company has many more plans for implementing blockchain technology into their games, although he didn’t elaborate on this. Apparently Ubisoft anticipated the backlash to the announcement of Ubisoft Quartz, and Guillemot compared it to the initial outcry when players were told about DLC, microtransactions, and loot boxes.
Ubisoft is hoping the backlash dies down relatively quickly. However, bearing in mind a similar backlash was so severe that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World has promised to scrap all plans to add NFTS to their upcoming title, only time will tell if Ubisoft’s plans will come to fruition.
