Ubisoft is going the Blockchain way even as Valve moves in the other direction.
The Ubisoft Q2 earnings call highlighted the company’s ambitions of a blockchain-based future. The company aims to become a leader in the play-to-earn category where players can earn cryptocurrency by playing video games. This announcement comes despite Steam’s decision earlier this month to ban NFT-based games.
Ubisoft: Aims to Be a Leader in Blockchain Gaming
Ubisoft recently took part in the funding round for Animoca Brands, a blockchain gaming company. It is also a founding member of the Blockchain Game Alliance and its press release states Ubisoft has been exploring the technology since early development.
As you see, this 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. So we have been working with lots of small companies going on the blockchain, and we’re starting to have a good know-how on how we can impact the industry. We want to be one of the key players there.
What is Play-To-Earn?
In the current landscape, players own a copy of the game they 'purchase'. They don’t actually own the game itself, whose rights still rest with the developer. In Blockchain Gaming, players can own small segments of the game providing a real and monetary value to this ownership.
Play-To-Earn in its simplest terms is when a company pays you to play their game. Players can earn via completing missions or spending time in these games. It is still a relatively new but rapidly developing field.
[Blockchain] will enable 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. We've been working with lots of small companies going on blockchain and we're starting to have a good know-how on how it can impact the industry, and we want to be one of the key players here.
Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet
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Is Blockchain Gaming the Future?
Facebook recently announced the Metaverse which gave a significant boost to Blockchain Gaming. The Metaverse is basically a virtual world where people can interact, buy properties and perform daily activities. This has been the stuff of science fiction for several decades, but it seems we are slowly moving to it becoming reality (virtually).
For now, Ubisoft aims to invest and develop companies with a blockchain focus. The company also aims to employ new monetization methods - play-to-earn.
Ubisoft clearly believes blockchain gaming is the way forward and is already investing significant time and resources into the technology. With Steam banning NFT-based games from its platform, it is still unclear what this means for Ubisoft titles’ future on Steam.
Presently, Steam is the only game publisher to be sternly against blockchain. Shortly after Valve’s announcement, Epic Games clarified it supports blockchain gaming. More recently, a group of NFT game developers wrote an open letter to Valve urging it to embrace modern technology and reverse the NFT ban.
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