Ubisoft hits back at NFT push, claims it’s in ‘research mode’
In a recent interview, Yves Guillemot admitted that Ubisoft should have handled its messaging about NFT research better.
Many will remember how late in 2021 and into early 2022, when conversations around NFTs, play-to-earn and Web3 in video games were hot, Ubisoft apparently went all in on trying to integrate NFTs into its ecosystem. It even launched a beta NFT project in the form of Ubisoft Quartz. However, Ubisoft has been quiet about NFTs or updates on Quartz for a while now, and there’s a reason for that. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shared in an interview that he doesn’t think the company handled its messaging on NFT projects well, and that the company is still in “research mode”.
Guillemot shared his thoughts on NFTs and Ubisoft’s progress with them in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. In the said interview, Guillemot talked about the craze of NFTs and Ubisoft’s first push into the market, as well as the current mood on the subject.
“We’re really looking at all the new technologies. We’re very much on the cloud, on the new generation of voxels, and we’re looking at all the Web3 features. We tested some things recently that give us more information about how it can be used and what we should do in the video game universe … but we’re still in research mode, I’d say.”
Source: Ubisoft
While Guillemot claims the company is still in research mode, Ubisoft’s efforts earlier this year seemed very advanced. The publisher launched the beta for its Ubisoft Quartz NFT program, and when fans cried foul, one Ubisoft executive even claimed that critics don’t understand why NFTs are good for games. During the interview, Guillemot claimed that everything could have been handled better.
“We probably weren’t good at saying we’re doing research,” Guillemot shared. “We should have said we were working on it and when we have something that gives you a real advantage, we will bring it to you.”
With that in mind, while Ubisoft has cooled its jets on NFTs and Web3, the tech is hardly done.
“As a company we were early into VR, early into Wii – we’re always trying new things,” Guillemot continued. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s always to make sure we can bring a new experience to players that will be innovative and interesting.”
Whether NFTs will ultimately work for Ubisoft remains to be seen. However, it appears that Ubisoft is still intent on continuing to explore the possibilities of Web3 for the foreseeable future.
