Major video game publisher Ubisoft has revealed Quartz, the company’s new platform that will allow players to earn, collect, and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of so-called Digits—“the first NFTs playable in AAA games and running on energy-efficient technology.”

“Each and every Digit is a high-quality asset and a unique, collectible piece of a Ubisoft world,” the company said. “The first three Digits will be rewarded to early adopters for free on December 9, 12, and 15.”

Introducing Ubisoft Quartz 💎We're bringing the first energy efficient NFTs playable in a AAA game to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint!

Try it in the beta from December 9 with three free cosmetic drops and learn more here:

Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) December 7, 2021

Coincidentally, the company has chosen its “live service” shooter Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for this NFT debut—a game that was almost unilaterally lambasted on release for its technical issues coupled with an abundance of microtransactions.

Mainstream gaming meets NFTs

NFTs are a special type of non-interchangeable, cryptographically unique tokens that cannot be replicated or counterfeited. Thanks to these qualities, they became quite popular among collectors and their prices can reach tens of millions of dollars.

In their turn, Ubisoft’s Digits will be represented in the company’s games as various cosmetic items that players can use to change the appearance of their characters, weapons or vehicles, for example.

“Between the uniqueness of each item, materialized by the serial number engraved on them, and the higher control offered to players to use their Digits or trade them with others in a safe and secure environment, Ubisoft Quartz offers new and exciting ways for our community to engage with Ghost Recon Breakpoint,” explained Baptiste Chardon, blockchain product director at Ubisoft.

According to the announcement, Digits will leverage Tezos (XTZ), an open-source decentralized blockchain based on a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol. Unlike proof-of-work (PoW) networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, PoS blockchains are much less computationally and energy-intensive.

“We have been focusing on the exploration of this energy-efficient alternative, driving us to leverage Tezos, the Proof-of-Stake blockchain technology Ubisoft Quartz relies on,” noted blockchain technical director Didier Genevois. “This type of blockchain achieves the same results while using significantly less energy than Proof-of-Work protocols.”

As an example, he noted that a transaction on Tezos is equivalent to 30 seconds of video streaming, “while on Bitcoin, it is equivalent to watching one year straight of video streaming!”

“Ubisoft Quartz is a new experience that will co-exist with existing systems, most notably the current in-game store available in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. And keep in mind that the first Digits will be free for our players to claim,” Chardon added.

Gamers’ breaking point

However, comments on Twitter showed that many regular gamers don’t share Ubisoft’s enthusiasm when it comes to new monetization tools, despite Chardon reassuring that “Digits are cosmetics only” and “would not unbalance the experience for our players.”

This attitude is partly understandable since Ubisoft has become notorious in recent years for adding controversial monetization systems in its games. Apart from cosmetic items, the company is also known for offering numerous “boosters” that have seemingly become mandatory in most of its projects.

Ubi coming in with another reason that I feel like “AAA” devs need to collapse and let the industry heal. Unfinished games all over the place, greed running rampant, not caring about their quality anymore, all of them need to vanish so we can reset stuff.

Captain Coco (@ImNovaG) December 8, 2021

For example, many accuse Ubisoft of intentionally creating “problems,” such as slow and tedious progression and character levelling, in popular series like Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry—only to se...