Ubisoft is officially into NFTs. The publisher has announced ‘Digits’, a form of non-fungible token that will provide unique versions of in-game items to players who purchase them. The Ubisoft Quarts platform is launching to allow players to manage their Digits. The first rollout of Digits will land in Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Three drops of free Digits will arrive for the PC version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint on December 9, 12, and 15. The beta version of Ubisoft Quartz will be available starting December 9 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT. Ubisoft says that Digits can be “put on sale for other eligible players to acquire on third-party platforms outside of the Ubisoft ecosystem”.
These Ghost Recon Breakpoint items feature unique serial numbers that will be visible in-game, so other players know exactly who to shoot in PvP. As Ubisoft explains in a press release, “Digits are a new way to experience cosmetic items, combining the fun of playing with AAA quality assets and the thrill of owning NFTs that represent unique, collectible pieces of Ubisoft game worlds.”
Ubisoft says its NFT solution is quite energy efficient, as Quartz “leverages Tezos, a blockchain running on a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, using exceedingly less energy to operate than Proof-of-Work blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.”
Whether or not Ubisoft’s claims of energy efficiency prove true, players are unlikely to be happy about yet another avenue for microtransactions in the publisher’s games. But hey, who knows, maybe everyone will love being able to buy and sell in-game items via an external marketplace – it didn’t work out so well for Valve’s Artifact, though.