Ubisoft has taken its first step into bringing NFTs and blockchain technology into its games with the beta release of the Ubisoft Quartz platform. On December 9, 12, and 15, Ghost Recon Breakpoint for PC will receive the first round of Digits, which is Ubisoft’s name for playable, in-game NFTs.
Quartz is actually a mobile application whose aim is to ease the connection between the commodities in your digital wallets and Ubisoft’s games which will use the NFT cosmetics called Digits. Ultimately, Ubisoft’s plan is to have these Digits move from game to game, which will allow players to use and show off their unique gear outside of Breakpoint.
What are the Digits? Well, they are cosmetic items and Ubisoft is releasing them for free in limited quantities. For now, there is only one game that supports Digits and that is Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC. The Digits releasing this week are actually unique skins that you can use on your character with visible serial numbers textured onto the item. Ubisoft’s intention is to attach personal achievements and in-game stats to the skins so the players’ actions who use them will carry forward to subsequent owners of Digits. No less important is that there aren’t any boosts or buffs given to characters equipped with the Digit skins.
As we said, the items are limited. That’s why Ubisoft has some restrictions to claiming these items. Firstly, players have to be at least 18 years old or older if they would like to acquire Digits. Also, they have to have reached XP level 5 in Breakpoint. It has to be pointed out that not everyone can snag them upon release. Not only that but Digits are limited to a maximum of one per player, per Edition (unique item). Some Digit drops which include two of the initial three will feature other game-time play requirements in order to retrieve the items. However, the first items being given away for free by Ubisoft include skins for a gun, pants, and a helmet.
One of the most commented topics these days is NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technologies. According to www.gameinformer.com the company’s current stance on using the tech was contingent on it being energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. This was made clear at a presentation where members of the Strategic Innovation Lab at Ubisoft attended. Quartz and Digits, on the other hand, are using the Tezos blockchain for these digital items, which is using the Proof of Stake method of verifying transactions and recording them to the blockchain ledger. Ubisoft thinks that Quartz transactions “consume 1 million times less than a Bitcoin transaction,” which makes a considerably big difference compared to other crypto-tied goods.
Ubisoft defines it as an experiment, but the truth is that the company has been working on it for four years. At the same time, the Ubisoft Strategic Innovation Lab team has worked with a variety of blockchain-related companies like the developers of the NFT game Axie Infinity with the aim to figure out the most appropriate way to implement NFTs into Ubisoft’s games. The Innovation Lab, on the other hand, worked on different kinds of concepts like interoperability of NFTs between games by building the game One-Shot League, which uses digital items that are originally made for another game called Sorare, born among other experiments.
Quartz is created to be a welcoming experience for all users who are meeting the crypto-tied digital goods for the first time. It is expected to be a place where people can create their first wallets and collect Digits, NFTs, or other cryptos. It is important to point out that if you’re not comfortable using or supporting blockchain technology, no one has to participate in using Quartz or Digits to play Ghost Recon Breakpoint, as both are completely optional.
