Ubisoft’s “Building Block” For Its Metaverse Is Through In-Game NFTs In Partnership with Tezos (XTZ)

Video gaming giant Ubisoft, the developer of Assassin’s Creed, announced the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFT).

A new platform called Ubisoft Quartz has been announced for players to acquire Digits, the first NFTs playable in an AAA game. These Digits will be released as part of limited Editions, each composed of a fixed number of cosmetic items.

Digits are in-game collectibles that offer players different ways to connect with the games. Each of the Digits is a unique collectible that features its own serial number for others to see in-game. It will also keep track of the current and previous owners of Digits to make players an integral part of the game’s history.

Additionally, these cosmetic items come with a certificate of ownership stored on the blockchain and can be put on sale for other eligible players to acquire on third-party platforms outside of the Ubisoft ecosystem.

Ubisoft Quartz is being launched in beta on Ubisoft Connect for Windows PC. It will be available in beta starting December 9 at 6 PM UTC in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, and Australia.

Ubisoft will also airdrop three free Digits on December 9, 12, and 15 to reward early adopters with other drops planned for early next year.

Introducing Ubisoft Quartz 💎
We're bringing the first energy efficient NFTs playable in a AAA game to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint!

Try it in the beta from December 9 with three free cosmetic drops and learn more here: https://t.co/ysEoYUI4HY pic.twitter.com/owSFE2ALuS

— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) December 7, 2021

Ubisoft called this move the next step in its four-year exploration of blockchain technology and a building block in its mission for developing a metaverse.

“Our long-term efforts led us to understand how blockchain’s decentralized approach could genuinely make players stakeholders of our games,” said Nicolas Pouard, VP of Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab.

While many of its audience members shared their discontent with the NFT move in the comment section of Twitter, Ubisoft tried to assuage their concerns by saying they are more environmentally friendly.

This NFT integration has been made in partnership with Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Tezos (XTZ) blockchain, which claims to be more energy-efficient than its competitors.

“We chose Tezos because of its original Proof-of-Stake network and its leadership on clean NFTs,” said Didier Genevois, Blockchain Technical Director at Ubisoft.

This partnership helped XTZ spike 30% in the past 24 hours to as high as $5.85. Since then, XTZ has pared some of the gains and, as of writing, is trading at $5.49, down more than 26% from its all-time high of $9.06 two months back.

“This is pretty cool, but also complete bullshit, this energy efficient narrative Tezos are spinning is the most bullshit hurting everyone to give ourselves a tiny bonus narrative ever, it's disgusting and has caused so much damage to NFTs, its ludicrous,” commented popular crypto influencer Loomdart.