Facepalm: You'd be forgiven for thinking that most companies have sensibly abandoned any plans for NFT-based games after the market collapsed last year and AI became the next money-making scheme. Surprisingly, one studio has just quietly launched a blockchain game. Unsurprisingly, it was Ubisoft.
Last week, Ubisoft stealth-launched a web3 game called Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles on PC, reports IGN. This free-to-play PvP tactical RPG involves collecting virtual figurines who engage in turn-based combat in squads of three. It doesn't look too bad in the trailer, which has a Darkest Dungeon vibe, but then it doesn't mention the fact this is an NFT game.
While new players are given temporary characters to use, they will eventually need to buy some of the character NFTs. These can be bought using crypto or in-game gold, or you can craft them, which also requires in-game currency or crypto.
The game's marketplace shows these figures are not cheap, ranging from $7 to more than $63,000 for a character called Swift Zealot. Of the other 2,732 Champions, one is going for $25,000, while the rest are $5,000 or less.
Most companies frame F2P games' microtransactions as ways to speed up gameplay or they might just be for cosmetics, but the stat boosts enjoyed by the premium Grimoria Chronicles' characters means this competitive PvP-only title is about as pay-to-win as you can get.
While the idea of spending so much money on an NFT game might seem bewildering to most people, with the majority of companies abandoning them (remember that they were almost part of Stalker 2), there are those still willing to hand over the virtual cash. It never looks good for the firms behind the games, but then Ubisoft has never been one to care about its public image.
Ubisoft was one of many gaming companies to dive into non-fungible tokens in 2021, adding NFT-based cosmetics to Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which very few people bought. The French firm said it would stick to its principles and not back down from NFTs before endearing itself even further to the public by insisting that gamers "just don't get" NFTs.
Ubisoft seemed to forget these principles in April 2022 when it said it was no longer making updates or NFTs for Breakpoint.
