Ubisoft backs off NFTs and blockchain, claiming it is still in “research phase”

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, seems to be reversing part of the company’s excitement for NFTs after Quartz, its NFT project, faced significant opposition.

In a recent interview, Yves Guillemot, CEO of French gaming behemoth Ubisoft, stated that the firm was just in “research phase” with regard to Web3 tech integrations, which seems to have calmed the rhetoric surrounding the company’s NFT game project Quartz.

It differs significantly from previous statements made by Ubisoft executives, such as chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet, who said in October that the company wants to “be one of the primary players here” and that blockchain interfaces will allow consumers to own and earn content.

In an interview with gamesindustry.biz on September 10, Guillemot appeared to take back some of those statements, reiterating that Ubisoft is only investigating how NFTs can be used to games and if they will help players or not at this time.

Duguet said, they are very much on cloud, on the new generation of voxels, and they are looking at all the Web3 capabilities.

Furthermore, the noted that they tested a few things recently that are giving them more information on how it can be used and what they should do in the universe of video games.”

In addition, Frédérick Duguet said,

“So we are testing ground with some games, and we’ll see if they really answer the players’ needs. But we are still in research mode, I would say.”

After releasing a test version of Ubisoft Quartz in December with the intention of providing players with playable NFTs that could be used in games like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Ubisoft revealed its first venture into NFTs.

Some elements of the NFT-hating gaming community strongly opposed the decision, accusing the company of “milking” its well-known game franchises dry by incorporating NFTs into the equation.