Remember: in late 2021, the company announced it would create a node on the Tezos blockchain, launch its NFT store called Quartz and add skin Weapons and equipment in the form of NFTs in the game Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. We were baffled by the fact that most of the specialized media broadcasted a launch, and we were invited to the Saint-Mandé venue for a long presentation about the interest in these NFTs.If the commitment not to harm the environment is adhered to as a result of the agreement proof of stakeeach transaction on Tezos produces only 2.5 grams of CO2 equivalent (less than an email), and player interest still seems clear.
On top of that, Ubisoft got into the blockchain with a two-year-old game that was poorly received and played very little, as if it just wanted to try the temperature and not put too much money on the gamble. However, the official speech was far more ambitious than that.press release talks about “The first step in our ambitious vision is to develop a true metaverse.”
Unsurprisingly, the public response was lukewarm.After many communications, Nicolas Pouard, head of the Innovation Strategy Lab at Project Origin, announced “Still believe you can convince NFT interest” and say “Public has yet to grasp secondary market interest in blockchain”. However, Quartz closed in April 2022 a few months after launch. It must be said that the number of transactions that have taken place is absurd: according to Ars Technica, there are only 96 successful transactions.
In an interview with the media, the CEO of Ubisoft only said half a sentence about the invasion of the blockchain, and did not even mention it in full. In response to Eurogamer’s question, Yves Guillemot said:
“We’re interested in all technologies. That’s the case with cloud, next-generation voxels, or Web3. We’ve recently tested some things for research and informational purposes to figure out how we should use them for games. So we’re trying some game to see if it meets the needs of players. But I would say we are still in the research phase.”
“Our company started experimenting with VR very early, we were Wii firsts, and we are always trying new things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we always want to bring players innovative and interesting new experiences. Our goal is to Create the best experience, and new technology is a very interesting vehicle, thanks to less competition and appeal to the most curious players of technological innovation.”
Reading these words, it’s hard to believe that Ubisoft has already started working on blockchain. However, that’s exactly what happened with Quartz for the time being. As Virgile reported to us in his excellent survey on data use in video games, the failure of the company’s analysts was predictable.He cites Yanisse (name changed), ex Data Analyst From Ubisoft:
“For example, based on social network data, we analyzed commonly observed posts. We did a small study and we collected some summaries on Reddit about where NFT gamers stand, which is very negative. Obviously, we don’t Getting people to raise their hands and say, “Yes, give us NFTs in Ghost Recon.” In fact, this was a hastily done study because we didn’t have much time to try and tell Yves Guillemot not to do it.
His colleague Marc (whose name has also been changed) added:
“If you know a little bit about Yve’s character, he’s thorough. As long as it’s crap marketing that makes money, it’s gone. So he asked our department if we had any information on NFTs. Then the supervisor would ask the team The leader, and the team leader in turn will ask someone on my team who will do the analysis for her by collecting data from social networks and cross-referencing it with other data. He provides his analysis to the team leader, Then the team leader retorted: “Oh, no, we can’t say that to Yves”. Here, the story ends.”
At Ubisoft, it seems that we are no longer just contradictory.
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