Sure, sure: it seems more like where the prominent publishing executives smell money, they jump on it. (See Square Enix and the blockchain.)
Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said in an interview with Gamesindustry that the company is looking at all the possibilities of Web3 to keep up with the needs of gamers before doubling down. It is a different tone to what we saw from the French last year: at the time, there was opposition within the company to the development of play-to-earn games (they use the blockchain), but eventually, Ubisoft Quartz was created, where we could buy NFTs for our Ghost Recon character, which provided a unique headgear. This option was shut down in April.
There doesn’t seem to be a silent majority that stands up for artificial scarcity. Just over a year ago, Nicolas Pouard, Ubisoft’s vice president, said that gamers didn’t realise what NFTs could provide them. In contrast, now Guillemot says they weren’t good at saying what they were looking for and should have done is: say they were working on it and then bring it when it could be genuinely beneficial. It took them a while to realise that blockchain technology, which is also damaging to the environment, is not everyone’s cup of tea.
And Guillemot told Axios that Skull & Bones, coming in November (and skipping the PlayStation 4/Xbox One pairing), will be $70/euro for a reason, as that will be the norm for the more significant titles planned for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. Thus, the avalanche that started in August 2020 (Take-Two, NBA 2K21) has since swept Activision Blizzard, Sony, Electronic Arts and Square Enix (which has also raised prices on PC).
When will Microsoft raise prices? As for Nintendo, it is not clear what the future holds, as the Japanese company has set a different course from its two Western rivals (yes, PlayStation has become more of an American brand!).
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