Ubisoft's employees are reportedly pushing back hard on the company's continued NFT push, even if it seems their employer doesn't want to relent.
Gamers and show attendees play video game at Ubisoft booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. More than 45,000 people are expected to attend the annual three-day convention to see the latest games and announcements from the gaming industry.
Kitguru reports that some people are even asking whether Ubi is "competing with EA" for the title of the most hated video game company, mainly due to their constant pushing of NFTs in their games. One employee even went on to say that it's "deeply embarrassing" to work at the studio at this point.
These claims came right after the company called for a meeting, wherein they tried to explain the benefits of NFTs and blockchain integration to their employees. Safe to say, their efforts fell a bit flat-not to mention, company brass is disappointed that the comments from their employees are being made public knowledge.
In an official statement, Ubi claimed that sharing the said information violates their employment agreement. The reports are also in apparent violation of the trust that workers "place in each other" in the pursuit of "candid, productive discussions."
The original report comes from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who has earned a reputation for his relatively accurate exposés (usually game leaks) within the gaming industry.
In the report, Schreier claims a "conflict" brewing between Ubi management and rank-and-file concerning the studio's plans to adopt NFT technology into their games. But despite this, Ubi has also promised to address "current limitations and risks."
Ubisoft Only Sold 18 Out of 3,000 NFTS Earning Less than $2K
This news comes after the studio's first announcement of Quartz, their initiative to bring non-fungible tokens into "Ghost Recon Breakpoint," backfired in a spectacular way. The video announcing Quartz quickly became one of the most disliked videos in the history of YouTube, with a scathing 96% dislike ratio and over 24K dislikes in total.
Read also: Gaming NFTs: Why Do People Seem To Reject Them Left And Right?
Ubisoft Still Out Of Touch With The Backlash
All that Ubi ever received once they announced their foray into non-fungible tokens was a backlash from their employees and fans. But it just doesn't look like they get the message.
Recently, the company tried to keep pushing their NFT agenda by gifting "special" tokens to employees working on "Ghost Recon Breakpoint," in celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary. As per a report by Kotaku, it barely won over any hearts even among the developers of "Breakpoint."
The negativity surrounding Ubisoft's NFT plans is just so pronounced that even the French Trade Union has stepped in, calling NFTs "useless."
An illustration picture taken in London on December 30, 2021, shows a PsychoKitty NFT (Non-Fungible Token) created by psychedelic artist Ugonzo displayed on a phone and a NFT logo displayed on a computer screen from a Crypto.com NFT marketplace. - Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain with unique identification metadata that distinguish them from each other.
In a statement, the union criticized the company's non-fungible token project for apparently not bringing any improvements or benefits to games. Aside from that, they also called blockchain technology "harmful, worthless, and without a future," further saying that the entire market is a hotbed of rip-offs and multi-million-dollar scams.
But seeing how Ubi's management has responded to these reactions, they're still likely not going to, stop-especially not after one executive basically called gamers "clueless" about the benefits of NFT implementation in games (via Polygon).
Only time will tell now whether the studio finally takes the hint.
Related: Itch.io Says NFTs 'Are A Scam'--But Are They Right?
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
