Blockchain evangelists have long envisioned a time when NFT technology is used to allow you to Really Own the weapons, armor, and skins of the video games you play. This is not just an abstract matter of principle, but it would allow you to sell your items to anyone who is willing to buy them, or even exchange them for weapons or skins from another game. It is no longer a distant hypothetical. Ubisoft will make it happen on Thursday with the introduction of NFT in Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
In the largest experiment any gaming company has ever conducted with blockchain technology, Ubisoft will bring three elements to 2019’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint squad shooter designed to function as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which the company calls “Digits.” Each will be released in limited quantities and built on the Tezos blockchain, which requires a small fraction of the energy used to operate the more popular Ethereum blockchain.
There will be a pistol, a helmet, and a pair of leg armor to start with. More NFT gear will be at Ghost Recon Breakpoint in 2022, the company said.
Many giants of the game have expressed interest in integrating cryptocurrencies or NFT in their titles. The EA CEO called blockchain gaming “the future of our industry.” Square Enix experimented with NFT by selling a set associated with its Million Arthur online card game and plans to integrate the technology into more of its games. The CEO of Take-Two Interactive, which publishes Grand Theft Auto, said he is a “great believer” in the digital property that NFTs offer. But with the integration of Digits into Ghost Recon Breakpoint, an AAA game that is part of a prominent franchise, Ubisoft is diving deeper into blockchain technology than any major gaming company before.
To aid its NFT ambitions, Ubisoft has created a platform called Quartz. This is where players will be able to mint their NFTs, for which you will need a digital wallet, such as MetaMask. The digits can be minted for free (for now), but you will need to meet certain criteria to qualify. To gain access to any of the digits revealed by Ubisoft on Tuesday, you will need to be at least level 5 in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Once all available digits have been claimed, the only way to score them will be by purchasing them from another player.
Once you have the NFT, you can use it in the game like any other item. If you want to sell or trade it, you can do it through a secondary market, like buying a tool in real life and selling it on eBay. OpenSea, currently the largest NFT marketplace, will not be eligible to host Ubisoft’s Digits, as OpenSea does not currently support NFT on the Tezos blockchain. Ubisoft chose Tezos over Ethereum, the blockchain on which most NFTs are built, because Tezos is significantly more energy efficient.
“A transaction on its [Tezos] network uses the same amount of power as streaming 30 seconds of video, while the previous generation of blockchain networks can consume the same power required during a year of uninterrupted streaming,” said the technical director. Blockchain Officer from Ubisoft, Didier Genevois. ” This low carbon footprint means that both our developers and our players can prioritize innovation without compromising sustainability. ”
Ubisoft is implementing some restrictions on its digits. Each wallet will be restricted to having only one of each Digit, a measure that will prevent wealthy players from purchasing the entire supply of a rare Digit. Only players over the age of 18 using Ubisoft’s Connect PC client will be eligible to coin Quartz.
Digital ownership is one of two ways that blockchain enthusiasts have predicted that blockchain technology will change the games. The other is the advent of “play to win” (P2E) games, where playing and completing tasks grants you a cryptocurrency that can be used to make purchases within that game’s ecosystem, or exchanged for conventional cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. The most prominent example is Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-style game with more than 2 million daily active users.