The studio has been looking into doing this since 2018.

Ubisoft officially announced their plans to develop "play-to-earn" NFT and blockchain games. This big and unfortunate announcement came during the studio's Q2 earnings call that took place last week. The subject was also touched upon several times during their recent earnings report.

Ubisoft started things off with this whole blockchain thing by funding Animoca Brands, a company that is focused on creating blockchain games. Ubisoft is one of the major investors behind a recent $65 million (USD) financial injection into Animoca. Beyond that, Ubisoft says that they have been looking into utilizing blockchain technology since at least 2018 through their Strategic Innovation Lab. The studio was also a founding member of the Blockchain Gaming Alliance.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shared some thoughts about the move to blockchain for Ubisoft.

Additional statements about the use of these new monetization methods were expanded upon by Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet. And let's not mince words here, the idea to implement blockchain, crypto, and NFTs into a game are just that: A new monetization method for game studios. If you thought microtransactions alone were bad, you've not seen anything yet.

Depending on who you are, the idea behind blockchain is either one of the dumbest ideas you've ever heard of, or it'll be the biggest thing ever. Valve recently banned all games featuring NFTs or cryptocurrency from Steam. After that announcement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney did a complete 180 on Epic Games' stance on accepting those types of games on the Epic Games Store. Though previously against even touching NFT-fueled games, Sweeney immediately changed his tune to say that they are open to games that support "blockchain-based assets."

The impact on the environment is a massive strike against the use of crypto, NFTs, and blockchain technologies. Duguet says that as part of their exploration of the technology, the company will take a look at "the impact on environments." The sale of NFTs is also a bit of a wild crapshoot. As PC Gamer notes, the sale and trade of NFTs is like trying to sell media that other people have created through an unsafe and unregulated Steam Marketplace-like environment. To put it simply: The sale and trade of NFTs are filled with scams.

Ubisoft's revelation about their interest in blockchain technologies came alongside continued internal tensions within the studio. Just this weekend, workers demanded that management take swifter action against those accused of sexual harassment and other egregious actions by employees. This comes in the wake of Bobby Kotick's announcement for changes being made to how Activision Blizzard is run. It has been almost a year and a half since the first allegations of abuse and harassment surfaced at Ubisoft.