What did Ubisoft do right to make its game became popular before NFT was released?

In the cold winter, the call for “Summer of Games” suddenly sounded in the Web3 circle. One of the signs of recovery was that Ubisoft, a traditional 3A game manufacturer, was producing Web3 games, in which NFTs were launched first.

On December 19, the NFT series [The Warlords of Champions Tactics] (hereinafter referred to as “The Warlords”) of the [Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles] game was completely minted as soon as it was launched, with sales exceeding US$2 million within a few hours.

According to data from the NFT trading market Opensea, the floor price of [The Warlords NFT] is currently quoted at 0.18 ETH (equivalent to approximately 2,800 RMB). Only 8% of the 9,999 NFTs are currently on sale, and not much has flowed into the secondary market. This suggests that the majority of addresses minting this NFT are holding it, rather than selling it.

[The Champions Tactics] game has not yet been officially launched, and potential enthusiasm is lurking. The main reason is the official information. The gameplay and production of this game tend to be traditional chain games. It has also reached a cooperation with the Yield Guild Games in Web3. The guild is also a well-known “gold-farming commune” in the chain gaming circle.

This is a strong signal that this game not only provides users with entertainment value, but may also have economic value, which is the “Earn” in Play To Earn.

Only 8% of 9999 minted NFTs have flowed into the market

The chain game [Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles] produced by Ubisoft itself was exposed in July this year. At that time, the company released a trailer for the game film, and positioned it in a high profile as a Web3 game.

For a time, the Web3 game circle began to follow Ubisoft, a traditional 3A game giant.

On December 18, the NFT series [The Warlords] of the [Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles] (hereinafter referred to as “Champions Tactics”) game came first with a round of priority list casting, and more people who were not eligible were waiting for the next day.

The Warlords opened for public casting on December 19th and were all built in 20 minutes. Not long after, this series of NFTs appeared on the trading market Opensea, generating US$2 million in sales within a few hours, and quickly topped the market’s “24-hour hot list.”

The Warlords sales are booming

Official information shows that a total of 9,999 Warlords NFTs have been issued. The issuance chain of this series of NFTs is Ethereum, but the game [Champions Tactics] is deployed on the Oasys blockchain that is compatible with the Ethereum network. 8,000 NFTs are available for users to mint. It costs Ethereum fees (ETH) to mint, with another 1,000 provided to the Oasys community and 999 NFTs retained by Ubisoft for future marketing.

In other words, only 20% of NFTs remain in the hands of “team” groups, and more NFTs are targeted at the mass market.

On Opensea, the NFT secondary market, the floor price of this pixel-style NFT is currently quoted at 0.18 ETH. Only 8% of the total issued NFT is on sale. There are almost only 800 Warlords NFTs listed for sale in the market by minters. Most minters seem to keep the NFT.

In addition to the possibility of “holding the currency and waiting for it to rise”, this user intention is that some people are waiting to use it, and they cannot be ruled out as game users.

Because according to the official statement, holding Warlords NFT is equivalent to getting a ticket to visit the game’s “Foundry” and cast 5 characters from the [Champions Tactics] game for free at a later time; in addition, these “Creation NFT” are also with additional benefits such as “airdrop” and “minting whitelist”.

Let’s take a look at how the game is played.

[Champions Tactics] is positioned by the official project as a PVP tactical role-playing game, which should be familiar to users who have played [Honor of Kings]. The game requires players to have combat strategies and call on the character’s “champion” for team battles. From “Warrior” to “Wizard”, each champion has its own ability points, and players who control these characters can use tactics and terrain to achieve victory.

Game characters use NFT as a carrier

The developer of [Champions Tactics] promises to provide a rich narrative experience. Judging from the second half of the game’s name, “Grimoria Chronicles”, this game will tell a grand story, and NFT will be the character carrier in the game.

There are NFTs issued on the open public chain Ethereum, and there are also games deployed on the Oasys blockchain. Ubisoft’s “champion” can be called a true full-chain game, and given that there is an endorsement for 3A production capability of the French gaming giant, it’s no surprise that the market is so popular.

In fact, before [Champions Tactics], Ubisoft had been eyeing Web3 games for a long time, but it was not very successful.

Not marked as 3A but with “gold-farming” expectations

In 2021, Ubisoft ventured into the world of Web3, primarily through exploration and investments. This included the creation of the Ubisoft Quartz platform, designed to support NFTs. On this platform, Ubisoft introduced “playable NFTs” for PC players in the 3A game [Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint].” Additionally, Ubisoft invested $65 million in the blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands.

As for the return on investment, the details are not known. However, the NFTs given as free rewards to users in [Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint] did not resonate with PC players. In fact, it garnered criticism from some users who questioned the purpose of these NFTs. By April 2022, the subsequent development of [Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint] came to a halt, and the NFTs, which already lacked significant popularity, faded into obscurity.

But Ubisoft didn’t intend to give up on the Web3 game market.

Baptiste Chardon, the company’s blockchain product director, believed at the time that in the long run, the integration of games and blockchain fosters new opportunities, “such as interoperability between games… We believe that blockchain is a way for creators to put the value they create back into the hands of players via games.”

Ubisoft has always been known for its narrative and production capabilities in game masterpieces. Since it began to make a trial of Web3 games, blockchain gamers have been looking forward to this major manufacturer to produce a great game with both 3A quality and blockchain technology, that’s, in short, a chain game with good graphics, strong playability and the ability to “farm gold”.

However, this requirement is not easy to achieve, because the current blockchain network is far less smooth than the bottom layer of the traditional Internet and cannot support 3A games that “make miracles with great effort”.

The AAA large-scale production concept proposed by Japanese game manufacturers. It invests in money to create visual impact and gaming experience, but whether it can recover the cost depends on the market response. In recent years, Ubisoft has not been able to replicate the popularity of the AAA masterpiece [Assassin’s Creed], and its market value has continued to shrink, and it even had to rely on classic IP to advertise the same game repeatedly.

Against this background, Ubisoft’s long-running Web3 games finally saw the light of day in the NFT sales of [Champions Tactics]. If you notice, [Champions Tactics] isn’t labeled “AAA” either. Ubisoft, which has been deeply involved in Web3 games for two years, has finally figured out this market. Whether it is NFT in the game or the chain required by the game, it cannot be built on its own platform, but needs to rely on a wider open Blockchain providing the huge pool of traffic and funds.

This is also the biggest difference between [Champions Tactics] and [Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint] launched two years ago. The latter is that the game is online and the NFT is on the chain. The result of “two sides” is that users on both sides do not buy it. PC Players cannot understand NFT, and NFT players have no benefits to earn in the game.

It can be seen that Ubisoft has also figured out that if it is only obsessed with designing Web3 games to be “as good” as traditional games, then it will save a little but lose a lot and is comparing the weaknesses of blockchain with the strengths of traditional games.

Let’s talk about the Web3 game circle. Although developers are indeed creating “big productions” silently, judging from the market response, 3A-level exquisite graphics are not an absolute “magic pill” to stimulate players’ nerves. The most popular Web3 game [BigTime] this year is indeed a step up from other chain games in terms of graphics and sound effects, and the token BIGTIME, which has increased by 265% in a week, is the fuse that directly ignited market enthusiasm.

Excellent production is at best the icing on the cake for Web3 chain games, but more importantly, the design of the economic system in the game can attract capital inflow. [BigTime] has attracted more than 20 game guilds to compete, and the funds entered into the game have exceeded 21 million US dollars.

The most prominent attribute of Web3 games is value circulation, which is why it is called Play To Earn. Players play games on the chain because the time spent in the game can be monetized through various created NFTs and tokens.

Warlords NFT has started the prelude to character collection, and [Champions Tactics] has also attracted game guilds. The famous chain game guild [Yield Guild Games] (YGG) has cooperated with it. The guild has set a record in the phenomenal Web3 game [Axie Infinity] with a monthly revenue exceeding US$100 million.

By partnering with an organization like YGG, [Champions Tactics] can undoubtedly speed up its efforts to open up the Web3 player market.

As for how quickly it can gain a foothold, it still depends on when the game will be officially launched. One user on Reddit believes that the game can only become a crucial milestone in the development of Web3 games if it can provide a new gaming experience and attract a lot of attention and active players.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, the articles published on this site only represent the personal opinions of the author and guests, and have nothing to do with the position of Web3Caff. The information in the article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice or offer. Please comply with the relevant laws and regulations of the country or region where you are located.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [Metaverse Sun Explosion] team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.