The Backlash Against Ubisoft’s NFT Plans Isn’t Misguided, But Necessary

thegamer.com:

News of Ubisoft’s attempts to embrace NFT via its Quartz platform was almost universally panned. In short, no one aside from Ubisoft is excited about the prospects of pumping more NFTs into games. Here to educate the unwashed masses about the virtues of NFTs is Nicolas Pouard, vice president at Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab, and the face of Ubisoft’s Quartz platform, for Finder, who insists that using NFTs in Ubisoft’s games will always remain optional.

“It's something we've built outside the game's economy. So, you can use Quartz, or you can choose not to use it. It's really a matter of a personal choice,” said Pouard in an interview with the site. But neither are microtransactions, a largely reviled feature that are now prevalent in Ubisoft’s games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, as well as a litany of other triple-A games. In fact, you can read the full interview right here, but it essentially boils down to Ubisoft committing to going full-speed ahead with its NFT plans.

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One aspect of NFTs that Pouard insists players do not understand is the idea that NFTs are ultimately beneficial to the community. He went on to explain it’s predominantly about giving players “the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself”, and that NFTs are just a paradigm shift in gaming that will initially be difficult to accept.

“So, it’s really, for them. It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now,” said Pouard.

To wit, his colleague Didier Genvois, the blockchain technical director of Ubisoft, pointed out that Quartz is going to be built upon Tezos, a blockchain