Ubisoft Making The Next Generation Of NFT Games

In brief

• Game publisher Ubisoft recently released the crypto fantasy soccer game One Shot League with Sorare.
• The Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance publisher is exploring ways to bring its big franchises to blockchain.

The blockchain gaming world is largely populated by startups built specifically to pioneer the burgeoning industry of crypto games, whether it’s Immutable with card-battler Gods Unchained, Sorare with its popular fantasy soccer platform, or Sky Mavis behind the Pokémon-inspired Axie Infinity.

However, there is one very big exception: Ubisoft, one of the largest traditional game publishers in the world, and the storied brand behind mega-franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Just Dance, and various Tom Clancy-branded shooters. The gaming giant, which has dozens of international studios, first signaled its interest in blockchain technology by unveiling a proof-of-concept prototype called HashCraft, a crypto-infused riff on Minecraft, in 2019.

Ubisoft has since continued on in the space by working closely with crypto gaming startups and releasing its own small-scale experiments. The publisher’s blockchain ambitions come from its Strategic Innovation Lab, which is headed up by Nicolas Pouard, Blockchain Initiative Director. “It’s a think tank and a ‘do’ tank, as we like to put it,” Pouard told Decrypt during a recent phone interview. “Our mission is to anticipate the future and help Ubisoft to be prepared for it.”

Until recently, Ubisoft’s moves in the space have erred more on the side of “thinking” than “doing,” primarily providing support to blockchain game developers and other crypto projects. But with the recent release of One Shot League, a free-to-play fantasy soccer game created in collaboration with Sorare, we’re starting to see the firm put more of those ambitions into action. Given Ubisoft’s stature in the game industry, it could prove to be a leading force in blockchain adoption.

Taking their Shot

On one hand, One Shot League looks like an attempt to create an accessible on-ramp to Sorare and to the idea of crypto gaming as a whole. The free-to-play game, which is in the midst of its initial five-week beta season, requires a Sorare account. However, it does not force players to buy cards or handle cryptocurrencies. Tied into the last few weeks of the current Belgian Jupiler Pro League season, the game provides free digital cards for users to arrange into fantasy lineups to try and earn the most points on the in-game leaderboard.

However, there are benefits to using purchased Sorare cards in the form of performance boosts. For existing Sorare players, it’s another way to make the most of their investment. Perhaps more importantly, for newcomers, One Shot League can be a bridge into crypto gaming—with the lure of added benefits and ongoing participation luring them into the real-deal Sorare experience.

While officially a collaboration between Ubisoft and Sorare, the Ubisoft Strategic Lab is actually the developer behind One Shot League. It is not branded primarily as a Sorare product, but rather a separate experience that makes use of Sorare’s assets. According to Pouard, that was one of the big lures from their end: the prospect of interoperability between games that can seamlessly share the same crypto assets.

It’s one of the big, key hooks that blockchain gaming has to offer over traditional game experiences. Crypto gaming firm Enjin, for example, has made interchangeable Ethereum “multiverse” assets a key pillar of its development platform, and has even developed a server plug-in for Minecraft that lets users bring cryptoassets into the game. Pouard pointed to a collaboration between CryptoKitties and Gods Unchained in 2019, and said that kind of idea is something they wanted to explore further with One Shot League.

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