Ubisoft plans to develop blockchain-based play-to-earn NFT games
Blockchain technology is just beginning to impact the real world. In the early years (2008), the plan was to totally change how we view money and assets through the introduction of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, in more recent years, the creation of smart contracts and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) has led to a broader scope that expands blockchain use cases for many other industries, including video games. Analysts now believe that the video game metaverse is the next big thing for blockchain technologies and companies like Meta (formerly known as Facebook) are already exploring the implications. As one of the major game developing companies in the world, Ubisoft has recently announced that it too is planning to integrate blockchain tech with its future game titles.
As per its H1 2021-2022 earnings call, “Ubisoft recently took part in the latest funding round of Animoca Brands, a leading blockchain gaming company. Ubisoft has been exploring blockchain since the early development of the technology, supporting and learning from the ecosystem through initiatives like its Entrepreneurs Lab start-up program and the Blockchain Game Alliance as a founding member. This long-range exploration ties in with Ubisoft’s constant search for innovation and new ways to empower players as true stakeholders of its worlds. It also gives Ubisoft the perspective to reflect on the best ways to overcome blockchain’s initial limitations for gaming around sustainability and scalability.”
Ubisfot’s CEO Yves Guillemot further explains that the gaming “industry is changing regularly with lots of new revolutions happening. We consider blockchain one of those revolutions. It will imply more play-to-earn that will enable more players to actually earn content, own content, and we think it's going to grow the industry quite a lot.”
Additionally, Ubisoft is aiming to be one of the major players in the emerging blockchain-based gaming industry. This means that we could be seeing more Mixed Reality games released in the future, as Ubisoft is exploring the ramifications of the metaverse. Epic Games is also considering similar plans, while Valve's Steam platform is completely against blokchain-based games.
