Ubisoft has made itself the first major company in gaming to bring NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to the medium. Through a new service called Ubisoft Quartz, players will be able to earn playable NFT cosmetics in games, with the first such game being Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.
According to a trailer posted to Ubisoft’s YouTube page, players who sign up for Ubisoft Quartz will earn Digits, the publisher’s own name for its NFTs. These Digits are unique cosmetic collectibles that make no difference in gameplay aside from changing how a player character or a player’s weapon appears. Each Digit has a serial number and carries the names of its owners for “years to come,” according to Ubisoft.
And since NFTs are around to make money, Digits can also be sold whenever a player wants. It’s not clear what marketplace they can be sold in or if they’ll be traded in cryptocurrency at this time. However, Ubisoft claims that, unlike normal NFTs, Digits will also have a measurably smaller impact on the environment than Bitcoin or Etherium. That’s thanks to the Tezos blockchain, which Ubisoft is working off of to launch its NFTs.
Ubisoft Quartz is launching in beta at 10 a.m. PT on December 9 in the U.S., Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and Brazil. The program will also kick off with a free Digit drop on December 9, with two others coming on December 12 and December 15. Other Digit drops are coming later on in 2022, although it’s not clear if players will be able to earn Digits outside of these drops.