Ubisoft starts selling NFTs In Games

[Orby]

and it seems the first victim will be Tom Clancy's Breakpoint.
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-star...-tiny-numbers/

Well, those mad bastards did it. Ubisoft is not alone among the big publishers in having declared an interest in Non-Fungible Tokens, but now it is the first to launch its take on the most irritating digital trend of the moment. Ubisoft Quartz now has an announcement trailer, an official site, and my eternal scorn.

The first game they'll be featured in is Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and, well, basically the NFTs are hats with tiny numbers on them. Or bits of armour. These are cosmetic items released in 'limited editions' which are then, so Ubisoft says, made 'unique' by the number. Look at the way the camera zooms in on that tiny number on the helmet: Why are these things always such a parody of themselves?

There are also digits? I'm not even really sure what a digit is.

The language around this thing is tailor-made to raise your hackles: "Be Unique. Control. Play. The Beta of Ubisoft Quartz, the first playable NFTs designed by the Ubisoft Strategic Innovation lab, is coming to Ghost Recon Breakpoint!" I suppose it's technically true that numbering items makes them unique, but this does seem like a rather weak pitch: 'limited edition' cosmetics.

It's a bit weird: Selling an NFT that can be used in a single game is a bit like selling one glove. The strange thing is that Ubisoft would be in a position to deliver on the so-called promise of NFTs by creating, say, a beanie hat that you could wear in Assassin's Creed and Breakpoint and Riders Republic and For Honor. But that's not what's happening here: yet.

Ubisoft only announced this was coming in November, and it's part of a wider trend among big tech companies toying with the idea of NFTs, not all of whom are sold on them. EA is: it called NFTs 'the future of our industry'. But Xbox boss Phil Spencer's worried they might be 'exploitative', Discord teased their integration then swiftly u-turned after major backlash, while Steam's just decided to ban them altogether. If you ask me, the only good thing about NFTs is the endless line of funny scam stories.

Going by the official site, Ubisoft Quartz is not yet available for sale. But it will be soon enough, and the gates of hell will open: Triumphant crypto-bros are coming to your Discords, to your forums, to every part of the gaming world you like. And they're gonna stick this crap into every single game they can. Today Ubisoft: Tomorrow, sadly, the world.

a while back I made a thread called 'how long until Blizzard start using NFT's in game'. and the post was mostly people telling me how NFT's in 'video games will never happen'

I am usually wrong a lot but this time I wish I had been

I know NFT has its defenders... Like everything does these days. But I learned enough about NFT's to know this is dumb, stupid and dangerous.

[Lahis]

Of course those greedy fucks would jump into this absolute garbage fire of a bandwagon.

Can we drive a truck trough the front door of Ubisoft HQ? Might splatter few of the assholes who push for this on the way.

Do not ever wish harm upon others like this in these forums. Infracted. -Edge

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

A fool and their money are soon parted. I think I'm just too old now to even understand the idea of NFTs, they just seem dumb to me.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

A fool and their money are soon parted. I think I'm just too old now to even understand the idea of NFTs, they just seem dumb to me.

No, you understand the idea perfectly. It's a dumb idea.

[sensei]

"Pay no attention to our sexual misconduct scandal, look at these shitty hats you can buy instead!" - Ubisoft

[Yunru]

I guess this is now a new way for them to make money (since lootboxes may get banned in future).

But all it takes is a single drug, weapon or any other type of payment made by NTF via Ubisoft servers and shit hits the fan.
Right now are used as money laundering tools (similar like a fan art).

[Edge-]

I guess this is now a new way for them to make money (since lootboxes may get banned in future).

But all it takes is a single drug, weapon or any other type of payment made by NTF via Ubisoft servers and shit hits the fan.
Right now are used as money laundering tools (similar like a fan art).

Considering there are tons of infinitely easier methods via crypto to launder money or pay for illegal shit, I'm doubtful anyone is gonna care. Especially since I'm skeptical these will hold any value, especially for non-gamers. Gonna be hard to properly "cash out" any of them.

This is just them being dumb and trend chasing to try to get some of that sweet NFT money before it all crumbles like the scam that it is. Same dumb shit like when Nexon bought crypto for "longterm stability" and then cried crocodile tears a few years later when their crypto investment tanked.

[Gaidax]

So it begins...

[Yunru]

Considering there are tons of infinitely easier methods via crypto to launder money or pay for illegal shit, I'm doubtful anyone is gonna care. Especially since I'm skeptical these will hold any value, especially for non-gamers. Gonna be hard to properly "cash out" any of them.

This is just them being dumb and trend chasing to try to get some of that sweet NFT money before it all crumbles like the scam that it is. Same dumb shit like when Nexon bought crypto for "longterm stability" and then cried crocodile tears a few years later when their crypto investment tanked.

If they are server only based, players will probaly get rid of their Ubisoft accaunts via the ways people been doing it to trade NTFs.

But as it stands right now, they are a hot potato and last loser who pays, losses everything.

[Nihilist74]

What is an NFT?

[Mysterymask]

What is an NFT?

From what I understand imagine a Jpeg on a website. An NFT is a weird cryptocurrency like token that says you own that jpeg. You don't actually have the picture or nothing you just have a little file that says you are the proud owner of that and since you own it you can sell it to someone else


If that doesn't make any sense cause it doesnt

[Edge-]

What is an NFT?

In this context, everyone gets to buy a hat. But each hat has a # on it that's unique to "that" hat, even if they're visually identical in every other way. Nobody can really SEE this number without looking closely, but you own that number! And then you can sell it to other players who might want "Helmet #69" for the dank memes.

Yes, it's that stupid.

[Fencers]

How interesting. A couple of years ago a friend was telling us about the notion of offering customers service in exchange for being able to crypto mine. Which his company was developing based on that folding @Home movement.

This was before NFTs or Bitcoin broke into the mainstream.

I think this is kind of an interesting idea. My local grocery store has a Bit Coin ATM and think that is kinda marvelous.

I don't own bitcoin or NFTs. But I like the idea of digital currency and ownership.

I saw an artist on 60 minutes sell an NFT for 6 million dollars. That's amazing!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A fool and their money are soon parted. I think I'm just too old now to even understand the idea of NFTs, they just seem dumb to me.

What is an NFT?

NFTs are basically this.

- - - Updated - - -

We'll see if this takes off. Hopefully not. After Overwatch exploded in popularity, loot boxes were shoved into everything.

[Video Games]

Stupid but my crypto wallet goin unf right now

[Edge-]

I think this kind of an interesting idea. My local grocery store has a Bit Coin ATM and think that is kinda marvelous.

If it's the kind like at a gas station near me, it's not an ATM, it's a Bitcoin vending machine. You can't "cash out" Bitcoin there, and you don't "get" anything from it, you can just use it to buy some.

I don't own bit coin or NFTs. But I like the idea of digital currency and ownership.

I saw an artist see an NFT for 6 million dollars. That's amazing.

Problem is the whole thing is a massive mess, with rampant theft and fraud. It's not actually benefitting artists, many of whom are boycotting it specifically because it leads to such bad behavior and they never actually see any money from the NFT's others have minted using stolen artwork.

Theoretically it's great, it's the digital version of "provenance" that exists for real-world art, where you can have endless reprints or remakes of a piece of art, but the provenance proves yours is the authentic one. To boot, it even provides the artist with revenue at each sale, which is even better. The problem is that practically, it doesn't work like that at all. Plus all the straight up scams like that "ape" nonsense that was supposed to be a whole game using NFT's but they just shot a bunch of shitty thumbnails, took the money and ran.

There's no real value for consumers in what Ubi's doing, it's just gross trend-chasing. I can't wait for all the various blockchain trends to finally fucking die out.

- - - Updated - - -

After Overwatch exploded in popularity, loot boxes were shoved into everything.

Lock boxes were hugely popular before OW and were commonplace both in mobile (the biggest gaming platform, like it or not) and in a lot of major games.

Though worth noting, they're not really "loot" boxes since they don't actually contain "loot", just cosmetics. And at least there's a way to buy them via in-game currency so you're not perpetually shit outta luck if you have bad RNG.

[Fencers]

If it's the kind like at a gas station near me, it's not an ATM, it's a Bitcoin vending machine. You can't "cash out" Bitcoin there, and you don't "get" anything from it, you can just use it to buy some.

I have no idea how it works. I just think it's neat.

There's no real value for consumers in what Ubi's doing, it's just gross trend-chasing. I can't wait for all the various blockchain trends to finally fucking die out.

I'm sure it will eventually settle or a newer more stable iteration of what today is BTC/NFTs will be normalized in a few years.

I think this is the future in a sense.

- - - Updated - - -

I looked into how this works. This seems terrific.

What an angle!

[kail]

What is an NFT?

Digital ownership.

[Fencers]

This is how game mods and game modes ought to work.

What if you applied this to a sports game where the professional players could control and sell their NFT likeness directly?

When you play franchise mode, you can have the players barter for professional player usage in their competitive franchise.

Or non-professional designers and artists could create NFTs that are sold in a marketplace disconnected from either a specific title or methodology.

Just marvelous.

[kail]

This is how game mods and game modes ought to work.

What if you applied this to a sports game where the professional players could control and sell their NFT likeness directly?

When you play franchise mode, you can have the players barter for professional player usage in their competitive franchise.

Or non-professional designers and artists could create NFTs that are sold in a marketplace disconnected from either a specific title or methodology.

Just marvelous.

A dupe-proof way to trade in-game items could be neat but my one issue is entirely on the RL money aspect this could open up. Imagine devs/publishers start auctioning off limited cosmetics in their games. NFTs would cater to only wealthy "whales" at that point.