The gaming company Ubisoft has been flirting with the idea of relying on the controversial blockchain technology for years. Now they have launched their first game using the technology. Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles (PC). The microtransactions in the game are NFTs: the most expensive costs almost 59,000 euros, the price of an upper middle class BMW.
What kind of game is this? Ubisoft announced 3 years ago that it would develop games with NFTs. Back in 2021, “NFT” was a buzzword in gaming.
The technology suggested that players could create “real value” in a game, purchasing specially signed digital items that could be traded and increase in value. However, NFTs proved to be a short-lived trend that was heavily criticized by gamers. Showcase projects also suffered huge price losses and turned out to be worth millions.
Nevertheless, Ubisoft has now brought Champions Tactics onto the market. According to Ubisoft, it is a “tactical role-playing game for PC with a focus on PvP.”
The game is about collecting figures of different warriors in the fantasy world of Grimoria: You then go out with 3 of these warriors and fight against other players in turn-based combat.
Launch trailer for Champions Tactics, the NFT RPG from Ubisoft
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Game replicates the look of tabletop miniatures
What does the trailer show? In the trailer you can see that the look of the game and how the characters are represented is reminiscent of a digitized version of tabletop miniatures as we know them from Warhammer: digital miniatures. There is little to see of the actual gameplay.
Other games had already had the idea of simulating miniatures in a computer game: Moonbreakers received some applause at gamescom back then, but later failed completely as a game.
Shop offers ridiculous prices for miniatures, but no one buys them
This is the idea behind the game: The in-game marketplace (via championstactics) of Ubisoft’s new game sells miniatures that cost between a few euros and 59,000 euros. For that money you can get a new BMW 5 Series sedan.
For 59,000 euros you can also get the “Swift Zealot” in the game.
The game itself can be purchased for free. But the expensive miniatures don’t really seem to be selling. At first glance, it appears that the most expensive limited edition miniature sold to date is the Thorned Diviner figure, which retails for around €300.
Who cares? When such games are released, there is often an initial gold rush atmosphere because the boundaries between game and investment are mixed up. Potential investors see such games as an opportunity to make quick money if they strike gold. The Champions Tactics Twitter account is quite impressive with 108,000 followers.
But the launch trailer only has around 3,200 views – that’s very low. The comments are even more hateful.
Ubisoft appears to be investing quite a bit in influencers to promote Ubisoft’s ultimate Web3 turn-based RPG.
However, one must warn against investing in such projects: players who enthusiastically get involved in such projects often lose their money after a euphoric initial phase and never get it back.
That’s what lies behind it. NFTs are actually an idea that seemed to have been buried in the mothballs of the video game industry. The entire system was harshly and sharply criticized. The gaming industry wanted to explain to gamers that they can only create real, digital value with NFTs and blockchain.
But gamers saw it primarily as a way for game companies to get even richer with little effort and rejected the idea outright. However, Ubisoft defended the idea of NFTs early and vigorously: Ubisoft says about NFTs: “They are really beneficial. But you don’t get it right now.”