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Jason Schreier: This week, Ubisoft posted a defense of NFTs on its internal message board, Mana. The employee responses were not pretty.

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IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

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Oct 29, 2017
16,554
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www.bloomberg.com

Ubisoft Employees Push Back Hard on Blockchain Initiative

A conflict between Ubisoft Entertainment SA and many of its employees over a plan to adopt crypto technologies in the company’s video games intensified this week.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com



The French publisher, which makes popular titles including Assassin's Creed, outlined its thinking on the use of blockchain technology in a message to staff on Thursday. The announcement on an internal message board prompted hundreds of negative comments from employees posted for all of their colleagues to read.
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NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are controversial in the video game industry. Some game companies like Ubisoft, seeing a potential for big profits, have experimented heavily with blockchain in their titles. But many fans and game developers are opposed because of the environmental cost of mining cryptocurrencies and the sense that NFTs are full of scams and make games feel less fun and more like jobs. Several game companies have announced plans to invest in NFTs and then swiftly backtracked following harsh responses.
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After posting the memo to "answer key questions about blockchain and communicate as clearly as possible," Ubisoft updated the message with a promise to also address "current limitations and risks." That didn't stop the scathing comments from pouring in.

"Are we competing with EA for the 'Most hated Game Studio by the public' title? Because this is how you do it," wrote one.

"I think the kids call this entire comment section 'being ratioed,'" wrote another. "Seriously, our confidence in management was already shaken by the handling of harassment cases, and now this?"

Some people, using their real names, even took shots at Ubisoft's lineup. "You know what else makes a lot of money? Making fun spectacular groundbreaking blockbusters. Why don't we focus on that instead?"
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Update: Ubisoft is big mad that this information has found it's way to the public
 
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Razgriz417

Razgriz417

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,110
Some people, using their real names, even took shots at Ubisoft's lineup. "You know what else makes a lot of money? Making fun spectacular groundbreaking blockbusters. Why don't we focus on that instead?"
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"fun spectacular groundbreaking blockbusters?" Ubi doesnt know how to do that anymore, they just make more bloated open worlds every 2 years
 
Astandahl

Astandahl

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,011
Ubisoft quickly joining EA and of course the Goat Activision (impossible to beat at this point).
 
mael

mael

Avenger
Nov 3, 2017
16,813
That's a fantastic article to read!

jason, you keep doing the lord's work.
 
adj_noun

adj_noun

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
17,220
I guess their employees also "don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them".
 
Evolution of Metal

Evolution of Metal

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
Cess007 said:
But that takes effort, money and time. These poor, small companies like Ubi cannot afford any of that!
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Ubisoft literally has a blockchain department who spent years cobbling these schemes to cash-in on NFT/Crypto pozni schemes.

I am unsure if this is a sunk-cost-fallacy for Ubisoft to tripled-down on crypto, or if it is a belief that they will successfully cash-in peddling their microtransactions masquarading as NFTs.
 
danhz

danhz

Member
Apr 20, 2018
3,244
"You know what else makes a lot of money? Making fun spectacular groundbreaking blockbusters. Why don't we focus on that instead?"

we-dont-do-that-here-chadwick-boseman.gif
 
Raide

Raide

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
16,596
My biggest worry over all this NTF stuff is that at some point Ubi will probably just sneak them in and hope nobody figures it out till it's too late.
 
Delaney

Delaney

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,223
The employees dragging the management on their internal boards using their real names, they are fed up đź’€
 
Soap

Soap

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,198
Do you remember how we celebrated when Ubisoft escaped a hostile takeover? If only we knew what the outcome would have been…
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,050
Raide said:
My biggest worry over all this NTF stuff is that at some point Ubi will probably just sneak them in and hope nobody figures it out till it's too late.
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Like how though? Even if they slip in NFTs, it has to work by people buying and selling them. Ubisoft wants a new way to make moneys off their IPs as well as a cut of the transaction fees. If the audience rejects them strongly enough, it doesn't do anything for Ubisoft.
 
OP
OP
IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman
Member
Oct 29, 2017
16,554
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Brick said:
Tweet deleted?
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I just checked and I can't even load Jason's twitter, it say it's gone lmao

Conditional-Pancakes said:
Seems like it... Here's the article the tweet linked to:
www.bloomberg.com

Ubisoft Employees Push Back Hard on Blockchain Initiative

A conflict between Ubisoft Entertainment SA and many of its employees over a plan to adopt crypto technologies in the company’s video games intensified this week.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
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Adding to OP

Turkoop said:
Twitter is down for some, Tweetdeck is still working
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This makes more sense
 
Dust

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,288
Someone high at Ubisoft is either a crypto fantatic or someone who got duped by crypto "advisor".
 
Raide

Raide

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
16,596
L Thammy said:
Like how though? Even if they slip in NFTs, it has to work by people buying and selling them. Ubisoft wants a new way to make moneys off their IPs as well as a cut of the transaction fees. If the audience rejects them, it doesn't do anything for Ubisoft.
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Don't underestimate Ubisoft. They do stuff and then backpedal later. They will probably try and do something with trading items in the next AC.
 
Plinkerton

Plinkerton

Member
Nov 4, 2017
6,061
Delaney said:
The employees dragging the management on their internal boards using their real names, they are fed up đź’€
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What do they have to lose? The labour market is crazy right now, any of these people could probably walk into another company if they wanted to.

Its great to see this sort of pushback on management on bullshit stuff like this.
 

Fabs

Member
Aug 22, 2019
1,811
Ubisoft is on the Governing Council of Hedera which is a crypto technology but isn't blockchain. I doubt they stop pushing it but hashgraph has been proven to be a way more efficient version of DLT.
 
Glass Arrows

Glass Arrows

Member
Jan 10, 2019
1,414
I'm not a businessman or anything, but continuing to push something both your audience and employees hate and which doesn't seem to be gaining any traction with said audience doesn't seem like very good business to me. Not that this will stop Ubisoft I guess.
 
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