Ubisoft continues to innovate within the realm of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as it announces the launch of a new title aimed at merging traditional gaming with blockchain technology. The Paris-based publisher, known for its blockbuster franchises including Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, introduced Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles on Wednesday. This free-to-play, turn-based RPG features NFT integrations and is available for download on the Ubisoft Connect launcher for PC gamers.
Set in the ominous universe of Grimoria, Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles is a competitive multiplayer tactical RPG where players form teams of unique digital collectible “Champions.” With these Champions, participants engage in strategic, turn-based combat against one another online. The Champions themselves are NFTs, making them tradable or sellable on the game’s marketplace. Additionally, players have the option to craft new Champions by merging two existing ones for a fee.
The game’s official website elaborates on the concept: “Champions are magical playable figurines in the dark world of Grimoria. Each one of them is a living relic, an intricately crafted embodiment of Grimoria’s history, a testament to the legendary Champions who once shaped its fate.”
To play Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles, users must have an active Ubisoft account, be at least 18 years old, and possess a compatible Blockchain wallet such as Metamask or Sequence.
At launch, Ubisoft made available a total of 75,000 NFT “Champions.” These NFTs are minted on Oasys, a gaming-oriented public blockchain that employs proof-of-stake consensus protocol.
Champions are priced starting at $6.33 (approximately ₹532), based on the OAS token, which is the native currency of the Oasys blockchain. Currently, the OAS token holds the 340th position in CoinMarketCap’s rankings, trading at $0.03582 (around ₹3.01).
Players can invest in these NFT Champions and utilize them in the game’s ranked mode to earn rewards. Utilizing the Forge system, players can merge existing Champions to create enhanced characters for battle, with crafting fees payable either in in-game currency or in OAS.
Initial announcements regarding Champions Tactics were made earlier this year, following the closed and open beta phases. The game officially launched on October 23 and is exclusively available on PC through Ubisoft Connect.
This venture marks another chapter in Ubisoft’s exploration of NFTs. In 2021, the company introduced the Ubisoft Quartz platform to allow players to purchase NFTs known as Digits, which were first tested in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Following significant backlash and low engagement rates, Ubisoft decided to discontinue Quartz Digits in 2022.
NFTs serve as blockchain-based digital collectibles, often accompanied by potential monetary rewards and trading value within gaming ecosystems. Despite some backlash from the gaming community regarding NFT integration, several publishers are keen on incorporating these tokens in their games.
According to Global Markets Insights, the global gaming NFT market was valued at $2.76 billion (approximately ₹23,204 crore) in 2023, with projections indicating a growth of over 60 percent between 2024 and 2032.
A recent report from Fortune Business Insights predicted that the blockchain gaming sector could generate as much as $614 billion (around ₹51,07,086 crore) by 2030.
While NFTs in gaming have garnered criticism, Web3 games facilitate the internal trading of related NFTs, potentially allowing players a source of passive income. Data indicates that in-game asset sales grew by 21.8 percent from 2017 to 2021.
In an additional development, this past April, Samsung collaborated with Wilder World Metaverse Game to provide NFT rewards as part of its Web3 television bundle.
