Ubisoft’s recent announcement of Project Q was met with severe backlash, and it has everything to do with the game’s potential inclusion of NFTs.

After Ubisoft unveiled its plans to sell playable NFTs, the company faced plenty of backlash from the gaming community. Now, after the official announcement of Project Q, Ubisoft is facing a similar negative reaction. This is the case even though little is known about Ubisoft’s newest team battle arena game.

Nonetheless, there’s a reason why the gaming community reacted the way it did to Project Q, and it’s connected to Ubisoft’s entrance into the NFT sphere. Suffice to say, people aren’t happy about it.

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A few days ago, Ubisoft announced Project Q, its upcoming team battle arena game. Though still in the early development stage, the company provided a registration link for players interested in getting updates. Based on the signup page provided, the game will likely be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox X/S. Ubisoft also said that Project Q wasn’t a battle royale game but would feature multiple PvP modes.

While there isn’t much to go on officially, there have been Project Q gameplay leaks that showcase the title’s early build. Its aesthetics are similar to Fortnite, with bright colors and cartoonish characters. As for the gameplay, players can make use of ranged and melee attacks, plus some special items to defeat their opponents. This, however, isn’t what caused a stir among the Twitter community.

The announcement of Project Q garnered negative reactions from the community, and it’s mostly because of its potential connection to Ubisoft Quartz, the company’s NFT platform. Ubisoft Quartz was made to sell playable and supposedly energy-efficient NFTs to the community. However, many players didn’t appreciate the addition of purchasable in-game NFTs, as it presented yet another avenue for gaming companies to include microtransactions in their products. Additionally, the Project Q announcement tweet seemed to be hinting at the inclusion of NFTs as the caption reads, “a team battle arena letting players truly own the experience.”

Despite all this, Ubisoft quickly replied to the initial tweet, clarifying that the company doesn’t have plans to add NFTs to Project Q. This only made things worse, as Twitter users began to question why Ubisoft was using NFT buzzwords if the company didn’t intend to add NFTs in the first place. However, others pointed out that Ubisoft’s lack of plans didn’t necessarily mean it had no intention of adding NFTs sometime in the future. All in all, the gaming community isn’t looking forward to what Project Q might have in store, especially given Ubisoft’s questionable marketing.

The general aversion to NFTs can be seen in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which is the first game where Ubisoft implemented the Quartz NFT system. Following the release of the NFTs in early December, third-party reports soon surfaced, detailing how the Ghost Recon NFTs weren’t selling all that well. Finally, earlier in April, Ubisoft announced that it would no longer be supporting Ghost Recon Breakpoint, including its NFT program. That said, Ubisoft also promised to incorporate the Quartz NFT program into its future games — a statement that doesn’t bode well for many in the gaming sphere.

The trend of NFT video games has been heavily criticized ever since NFTs started cropping up in the industry. To many, they’re far too harmful to the environment, requiring large amounts of energy to store and transact with. This renders the NFT business unsustainable, as the more there are to deal with, the more energy the entire system will require to remain active. Thus, unless the enterprise shifts to more environmentally-friendly methods of keeping afloat, the gaming community’s general opinion of NFTs is unlikely to change.

Project Q is in development.

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Freelance writer who enjoys overanalyzing games. If she's not gaming, she's probably tending to her drama queen of a dog.