Ubisoft to experiment with gaming NFTs in The Sandbox metaverse despite player backlash

French video games giant Ubisoft has teamed up with the The Sandbox metaverse platform in the latest sign of the fusion between game development and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based blockchain company behind The Sandbox, said on Tuesday that it formed a strategic partnership with the Paris-listed company, where Ubisoft would receive its own land in the metaverse and develop game experiences with NFTs in the virtual world.

The company said work was already under way to recreate characters and features from Ubisoft’s Rabbids games.

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Ubisoft’s move reflects a broader trend of traditional gaming giants looking to sell player items in the metaverse in the form of NFTs, blockchain-powered vouchers used to prove ownership of digital assets.

However, gamers are grappling with NFTs’ place in video games, with some pushing back because they believe it represents a new form of monetisation which could be predatory, or even ruin the game experience if abused.

In the statement issued Tuesday, Guillaume Mammi, Ubisoft’s senior manager of new business and partnerships, said the company was “excited” to bring the Rabbids to The Sandbox community, but Ubisoft did not say what other gaming franchises would be included, nor did it give a timeline for further roll-outs.

The partnership with Ubisoft is seen as a major win for The Sandbox as the metaverse platform – which is still under development and yet to announce a launch date – was little known only a year ago, but has now become one of the poster projects for the blockchain gaming community as interest in NFTs soared last year.

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In its latest fundraising round last month, Animoca Brands saw its private valuation surge to US$5 billion. Last November, The Sandbox itself raised US$93 million in a funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.

In December, Ubisoft became the first big international gaming developer to introduce NFTs to a video game, after the space was originally dominated by smaller gaming start-ups.

The company then launched Quartz, an NFT platform that lets people buy and sell unique digital items, but the move was met with widespread anger from gamers who feared the inclusion of NFTs could ruin Ubisoft’s games.

In another case of player backlash, Team17, the developer behind the Worms franchise, was forced to cancel its NFT MetaWorms project just 24 hours after it was announced last week.

Gamers threatened to boycott the company’s products, while many Team17 business partners distanced themselves, and some even publicly condemned the move.

Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab, said in an interview with Finder.com.au last month, that many gamers still do not understand the utility of NFTs, which has contributed to the outpouring of anger.

Besides Ubisoft, big game companies including Zynga, Square Enix and Take-Two have dabbled with or expressed interest in NFTs.