Ubisoft misses the mark with ‘Ghost Recon’ NFTs, obviously

The Ghost Recon: Breakpoint shooter game was ground zero for Ubisoft’s first in-game NFT project, and it does not appear to have been a success. According to the project’s US Rarible marketplace page, it has only secured nine resales so far since its launch earlier this month. In fact, the project is so lackluster that it’s nowhere to be found on Rarible’s top 100 collections of the month. This was hardly the splash Ubisoft might have hoped for. Instead, it’s looking like a shrimp among whales.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft launched three free NFTs it calls “Digits,” something that made a lot of anti-NFT gamers mad. Others disliked the fact that they had to have played Breakpoint for hundreds of hours just to unlock each item.

Low sales — The success and strength of an NFT collection can be determined in part by its “floor price,” or the lowest current price for one NFT in the project. Ubisoft Quartz currently has a floor of 15 XTZ (Tezos), which translates to about $60. That doesn’t sound so bad, until the total value of all sales is examined.

According to Apex Legends character artist Liz Edwards, Ubisoft Quartz has only traded just under $400 total worth of sales since its release nearly two weeks ago. For a billion-dollar gaming company, these numbers are not good.

Why it’s failed — Ubisoft’s NFTs are just straight-up boring. They aren’t visually unique, only differentiated by a tiny serial number on each item. This lack of uniqueness (and thus general lack of rarity) effectively devalues the entire project.

Currently, the NFT market is still in its infancy. It has not achieved mass adoption, and many in the gaming space have extensively criticized NFTs as a whole. Right now, NFT profile picture (PFP) projects and metaverse real estate projects make up the majority of the top collections, having trading billions of dollars in sales.

But Ubisoft’s project falls under neither category, providing no utility for those in the NFT community looking for a new avatar or land in a VR metaverse.

Power of community — Another reason Ubisoft’s NFT project has been a flop so far is because it has failed to harness the power of community. Anyone in the NFT space will opine about the importance of “community” and how it can make or break any NFT project. To some extent, they’re right.

What does “community” mean, in this sense? Well, the top NFT projects like the Bored Apes provide exclusive membership and access to parties and special events to all owners of their NFTs. Other NFT projects have large, passionate communities that regularly host dedicated Twitter Spaces and maintain sizable Discord servers with thousands of members, like the Doodles NFTs.

Dead game — Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, however, does not appear to have much of a community. It seems the game publisher did not take into account the game’s small player base and long queue times when choosing its first in-game NFT project.

Breakpoint is far below its more popular sibling, Rainbow Six Siege, in popularity. Breakpoint sits at #70 on the list of most-played games on PlayStation according to tracking website PS TimeTracker, while Rainbow Six is #8.

While it’s difficult to determine exactly how many people are playing these games across the board, examining current Twitch viewership metrics is a good indicator. Siege has over 10,000 concurrent viewers, while Breakpoint can barely reach 100.

If Ubisoft wanted its NFTs to be a smash hit, maybe it could have chosen a more popular title to launch on. Whether you love or hate NFTs, Ubisoft failed to get anyone excited about serial numbers on game gear.