It's that time again where companies have their earnings calls to note their third-quarter results. This morning, Ubisoft announced that it is investing in a blockchain gaming company, Animoca Brands, and planning to use blockchain technology in future games. NFTs and blockchain gaming have been getting a lot of press recently and Ubisoft's announcement that it will pursue play to earn gaming has released only vague plans. However, in embracing blockchain and NFT gaming plans, Ubisoft is distinguishing itself from some of its rival companies.
NFTs and blockchain technology are having a moment when it comes to games. While not completely new, development has been ramping up and major players are deciding how they’ll handle these games. Developers continue to try to mine the potential market for play to earn games, with some patterns emerging only recently. Valve took a stand last month and decided that it would block all NFT and blockchain games from Steam, while Epic games CEO Tim Sweeney said that Epic was open to including them in the Epic Games Store with some rules and restrictions.
Ubisoft's CFO Frederick Duguet referred to new types of monetization in play to earn, as a next chapter that the company sees potential in pursuing. In the call he said that using the technology “will enable more play to earn that will enable more players to actually earn content, own content, and we think it's going to grow the industry quite a lot". Animoca Brands is behind Revv Racer and The Sandbox.
Wherever the future of blockchain and play to earn in games is going is still to be determined, but it’s clear that none of this is going away anytime soon. A new revenue stream that possibly also cuts players in certainly has its appeal, but selling people on the value may be a challenge.
