Ubisoft think we’re all too stupid to understand NFTs

In a quite astonishing interview Nicolas Pouard, VP at Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab and the man behind Quartz, and Didier Genevois, Ubisoft’s Blockchain Technical Director, have repeatedly stated that gamers are not intelligent enough to understand NFTs and Ubisoft’s decision to build a platform around them.

The interview on Finder begins with the discussion of the negative reaction to Quartz, Ubisoft’s NFT scheme. “Well, it was a reaction we were expecting. We know it’s not an easy concept to grasp,” said Pouard. He then goes to explain they will continue to push forward with the venture and that “our belief is that, piece by piece, the puzzle will be revealed and understood by our players. We hope they will better understand the value we offer them.”

He is then asked about the benefits of a scheme such as Quartz and states “I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them,” following that up with “It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.”

“The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself,” he adds. This is just moments after explaining to us that gamers are mistaken and just see NFTs as “just a tool for speculation.”

Remind us Nicolas, what word could be used to describe the process of buying something with the hope of reselling it at a later date for profit?

He also doesn’t mention is that Ubisoft will take a cut of every sale, so they continue to make money even after the initial sale of the item.

Of course the game has to have built in support for your Quartz NFT to be of any use. At present you cannot transfer items between games, and even if you could it would make no sense. Eivor shouldn’t be wearing a combat jacket from a Tom Clancy game. The entire value of your purchase currently relies on the game being active and a willingness to add items from other games, and even other companies entirely – that’s not likely to happen outside of promo-filled titles like Fortnite.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative reaction and also stating very clearly “the players are always right,” the duo explain how Ubisoft is going to continue to push ahead with their plans. Thankfully they do state that “at no point will we force our players to use Quartz and Digits.”

Quick note to Ubisoft: The negative response is because we gamers do not want NFTs in games, not that we’re all stupid. Your comments are, frankly, very insulting.

Source: Finder