Ubisoft's NFT plans may have faced intense backlash, but they don't seem to want to give up on it. This was likely made evident by a recent interview with one of their company executives.
The Ubisoft logo is seen at the Ubisoft E3 press conference, June 10, 2019 in Los Angeles. - The E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center June 11-13.
Kotaku reports that the interview, which featured Ubi exec Nicolas Pouard, is an allegedly "extraordinary" one to behold. In it, Pouard reacted to the immense (and basically aggressive) feedback from gamers about their NFT plans, saying that users seemingly "don't get it."
He goes on to say that gamers were basically "wrong" to react so negatively to their foray into non-fungible tokens. The Ubi exec argued that digital secondary markets bring with them a handful of benefits, since it allows players to resell their in-game items once they're done with the items themselves, or are finished with the game.
Furthermore, Pouard calls NFTs Ubisoft's "endgame," as well as considers it a "paradigm shift" in gaming. He then basically chalks up the negativity towards NFTs to hard-to-break habits, which take time to change.
The interview was conducted by Australian media outfit Finder, who hosted a full transcript of it on their website. In it, there were more claims made by Pouard and fellow executive Didier Genevois.
For instance, they were asked about their launch of Quartz, which gained infamy on the web last year after its announcement video was absolutely bombarded by dislikes. It became one of YouTube's most hated videos in terms of dislike-to-like ratio: an insane 96%.
According to Genevois and Pouard, they tried announcing Quartz without ever mentioning NFTs or blockchain by calling them "Digits." Eventually, they decided it would "not be very smart" to hide the fact, claiming that they "know" their players and what they want.
Well, judging by the backlash, they likely don't even know their players at all.
Read Also: Ubisoft Quartz NFT Criticized for Being 'Useless' by French Trade Union
Why Ubisoft's NFT Project Faces An Immense Challenge
Non-fungible tokens have become a polarizing topic in recent times-if not the most polarizing of them all.
Gaming companies have been trying to get their own cut of the pie, but to no avail. Core console and PC gamers just don't seem to want anything to do with them, aside from mobile gamers playing play-to-earn games based on NFTs (i.e. "Axie Infinity").
There could be one good explanation for the backlash against gaming non-fungible tokens: gamers see it as just another form of microtransaction. For the unaware, microtransactions are a way for game developers/publishers like Ubisoft to make more money off their games, aside from the full price that people already pay to get them.
One can argue that microtransactions are as controversial and hated as gaming NFTs these days, and it is easy to see why. Both involve people spending extra money on something they already paid money for. Some players even go as far as to label NFTs as just another potential scam filled with "bad actors."
Related Article: Ubisoft Only Sold 18 Out of 3,000 NFTS Earning Less than $2K
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
