Ubisoft employees ask ‘are we competing with EA for most hated company?’ as NFT push continues

A good number of developers at Ubisoft have been just as confused as the rest of us by the publisher's recent push into the NFT market. Ubisoft recently attempted to change the minds of its employees by offering them a free NFT, but as you might expect, that didn't exactly do the trick, leading to another surge in complaints on Ubisoft's private company-wide feedback forum. 

According to sources speaking with Bloomberg this week, Ubisoft employees are once again pushing back on the company's push for blockchain and NFT integration in its games.  One employee said it was a “deeply embarrassing day” to work at Ubisoft, while another asked if the company was “competing with EA for the ‘most hated game studio' title”.

Another employee suggested that Ubisoft changes its focus back to “making fun spectacular ground-breaking blockbusters”, which Jason Schreier sees as a shot at Ubisoft's upcoming games line-up, which is looking quite thin for 2022. In a separate report, PCGamer was told by one Ubisoft employee that the company's recent ‘workshop' to try and explain the benefits of NFTs and crypto was “condescending” – which isn't surprising, as the event ended with management offering employees a free NFT.

Ubisoft management is not particularly pleased that information from its private employee forum, MANA, is making its way to the public, giving the following statement:

“How players can benefit is and always will be at the core of our thinking. At Ubisoft, we value these internal exchanges and think they help make our games and our company stronger. However, sharing confidential information, including from internal forums, is a violation of our employment agreement, and, more importantly, a violation of the trust that team members place in each other to be able to freely express themselves and have candid, productive discussions.”

Ubisoft Strategic Innovations Lab has been working on blockchain technology for a few years now and with the recent rise of the NFT market, Ubisoft decided it just had to be part of it, leading to Ghost Recon Breakpoint being the first game to include NFTs. The public response to this has been overwhelmingly negative and with employees seemingly also sharing these opinions, Ubisoft is going to find itself in a very uncomfortable PR position for the foreseeable future.

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KitGuru Says: Unfortunately even with all of this backlash, it still seems unlikely that Ubisoft with relent and drop this. Instead, we're looking at a future of ‘play to earn' Ubisoft games, which will no doubt require hundreds upon hundreds of hours of game time to ‘earn' anything.

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