On December 7, 2021, Ubisoft presented Ubisoft Quartz, a platform for players to acquire and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) integrated into the company’s video games. The platform launched in beta for the game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC via Ubisoft Connect. The digital assets, named “Digits,” included cosmetic items such as masks, vehicle skins, and weapon designs. Each Digit featured a serial number and a transaction history recorded on the Tezos blockchain.
Ubisoft positioned itself as the first AAA video game publisher to integrate playable NFTs into its titles. The company allowed the trading of these assets on secondary markets such as Rarible and Objkt. Ubisoft’s official communication described Quartz as an experience where players could acquire the company’s first NFTs, playable in Ghost Recon Breakpoint and backed by an energy-efficient blockchain.
The response from the gaming community to the announcement was predominantly negative. The promotional trailer for Quartz on YouTube received more than 1.3 million dislikes, with an approximate ratio of 1:9 between likes and dislikes.
Critics stated that the initiative prioritized the company’s profits over the player experience, labeling it as a monetization strategy without real value for users. Additionally, they questioned Ubisoft’s statements regarding the environmental sustainability of the platform, arguing that the claims about Tezos’s low consumption did not address the broader environmental impact of the blockchain sector.
Within the company itself, the French video game workers’ union STJV issued a statement describing the NFT strategy as a “very bad idea.“
In January 2022, Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoft’s strategic innovation lab, stated that players “don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring them” and that the company viewed NFTs as a tool for players to resell their items once they were finished with them. Pouard also stated that players associated NFTs with environmental harm and speculation, while Ubisoft focused on offering the opportunity for resale.
Ubisoft Quartz commercial performance
Sales data obtained during the first weeks of operation showed limited adoption. According to reports from specialized media, during the first two weeks after launch, 15 transactions were recorded on the secondary market, with a total volume of approximately 400 dollars. Other sources raised the figure to 42 sales over one and a half months, with a total value of 697.59 dollars. Out of the 3,000 Digits initially available, only 42 units were traded.
These figures were recorded despite Ubisoft having minted 2,256 pieces at the time of launch. The requirements for accessing the NFTs included having accumulated 600 hours of playtime in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a title that did not have an extensive player base. The Digits that sold corresponded exclusively to weapon designs and pants; no sales of helmets or handguns were recorded.
The choice of Ghost Recon Breakpoint as the test title was also subject to analysis. The game, released in 2019, had received criticism for bugs and its mandatory online connection system.
End of support for Ghost Recon Breakpoint
On April 5, 2022, Ubisoft announced the cessation of content updates for Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The last major update, Operation Motherland, had been released on November 2, 2021. With this decision, the NFTs associated with the game were discontinued. The game’s servers remained operational, but no new content would be added.
The announcement came approximately four months after the launch of Quartz. Ubisoft indicated in its statement that players should stay tuned for future news about the platform and possible implementations in other games, although these did not materialize.
Closure of the blockchain division
In 2024, Ubisoft closed its blockchain hub (Blockchain Hub) and laid off the team responsible for the NFT strategy. This closure effectively ended the company’s commitment to non-fungible tokens as a business model.
Ubisoft’s total investment in blockchain and NFT-related initiatives was estimated between 70 and 100 million euros, including the investment from Animoca Brands, the acquisition of virtual land in The Sandbox, and the development and operation of the Quartz platform. Direct revenue generated by these initiatives was estimated at less than 1 million euros.
Financial consequences for Ubisoft
In May 2026, Ubisoft published its financial results for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which showed an annual loss of nearly 1.5 billion euros (approximately 1.7 billion dollars). This figure represented a record loss for the company.
As part of a restructuring plan, Ubisoft canceled seven games in development and delayed the release of six others. The company planned to integrate half of its development studios into five “creative centers,” while the remaining departments transitioned to support functions.
Ubisoft’s share price on the Paris Stock Exchange fell more than 15% following the presentation of these results. In March 2022, a group of American shareholders had filed a class-action lawsuit against the company.
Subsequent attempts in the blockchain sector
Despite the closure of Quartz and the blockchain hub, Ubisoft maintained some activities related to blockchain technology. In March 2024, the company became a node validator for the XPLA blockchain, created by the South Korean company Com2uS.
In July 2024, Ubisoft announced a partnership with the Japanese company Double Jump Tokyo to implement NFTs in the game Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles, an RPG that would offer user profile pictures as NFTs. The company stated that it already had more than 10,000 of these NFTs prepared for launch. The game, announced in 2023 with a projected release date of 2024, did not have a concrete release date at the time of the announcement. Ubisoft also announced in November 2024 a collaboration with the company Immutable for a web3 project for which no details were provided.
These initiatives did not reverse the decision to close the blockchain hub nor restore the Quartz project.
The failure of Quartz occurred within a broader context of declining interest in NFTs within the video game industry. According to reports from CoinGecko, since 2024 more than 14,000 cryptocurrencies had ceased operations, and approximately 70% of crypto projects launched during the 2020-2021 bull market had ceased their operations.
Several blockchain game projects also abandoned their plans. In August 2024, the NFT project Dimensionals, backed by Mino Games, announced its exit from the blockchain space after having raised 15 million dollars.
