Game maker Ubisoft enters the meta universe! New platform Quartz free game compatible with NFT

Ubisoft, a game developer that has launched many popular games such as "Assassin's Creed", "Polar War Howl", "Watch Dogs", etc., announced yesterday (7) that it will launch a new beta version of the new platform Ubisoft Quartz, which will allow users to obtain available games NFTs used inside, such as weapons, clothing, or vehicles.

Quartz will be launched in the United States, Canada, Spain... and other countries at 6 pm UTC on December 9, and will be tested for the first time on the computer game "Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint". In addition, the official also stated that it will provide three sets of free NFTs (a gun, helmet and a pair of tactical pants) on December 9, 12, and 15 for players who reach level 5 in the game.

According to official instructions, Ubisoft Quartz refers to these NFTs as Digital and chooses to run them on the Tezos blockchain.

The determination to enter the meta universe

According to reports, Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab, said in a statement: Our long-term efforts have enabled us to understand how the decentralized approach of blockchain can truly make players become stakeholders of our games.

"Ubisoft Quartz is the first component of our ambitious vision to develop a true meta-universe. It cannot be achieved without overcoming the early limitations of blockchain on games, including scalability and energy consumption."

Didier Genevois, Ubisoft's blockchain technology director, added: Energy efficiency is a key requirement that drives blockchain technology into the future that can be widely used by millions of players. We chose Tezos because of its original proof-of-stake network and its leadership in NFT. A transaction on their network consumes the same energy as streaming a 30-second movie... This low carbon footprint means that both our developers and our participants can prioritize without compromising sustainability Innovation.

Many game companies actively participate in NFT

Recently, many traditional game developers have also shown great interest in entering the meta universe. For example, Niantic, the publisher of Pokémon GO, has cooperated with the financial services company Fold to launch a Pokémon GO-like game Fold AR in late November, allowing players to earn bitcoins while playing!

The gaming platform giant Epic Games also expressed in mid-October that the foreign media "The Verge" accepts cryptocurrency or blockchain-based games and is willing to cooperate with NFT developers to produce content. The company's CEO and founder Tim Sweeney also said on Twitter: As long as the game complies with the law and meets the requirements of age classification, Epic takes a friendly stand and welcomes innovation in the technology and financial fields.

Counter-case: Steam bans blockchain games

But not every company has a friendly stance on the blockchain. According to previous reports, Valve has 120.4 million active users and the parent company of Steam, the world’s largest PC game publishing platform, updated its content publishing specifications in mid-October. Games that issue or trade NFTs and cryptocurrencies are included in the prohibition list; one of the games, Ageof Rust, was immediately removed from the shelves, causing heated discussions among players.

Netizen parazopen left a message saying that Steam has taken a step in the wrong direction and will eventually regret it. Another netizen, Benjamin Freeman, said that Steam's move is no different from the taxi industry before Uber and Lyft appeared. If you don’t face the trend, it will be eliminated. .

Amy Wu, a partner of Lightspeed, a venture capital firm with businesses in Silicon Valley, Israel, and China, analyzed on Twitter that Steam’s approach is not surprising, and Web2.0 centralized platforms (such as Steam) earn value from the ecosystem. To take profit, the blockchain circumvents this and sends value back to developers and players, which conflicts with Steam's own profit model.