Q&A with two Ubisoft executives, one of whom says NFTs are a paradigm shift in gaming and gamers “don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them”
yet they somehow “misunderstand” NFTs Bradly Shankar / MobileSyrup : Ubisoft saying you 'don't get' NFTs proves just how out of touch gaming companies can be Jason Faulkner / GameRevolution : Ubisoft thinks its NFTs flopped because gamers are too dumb to understand them Tom Phillips / Eurogamer.net : Ubisoft's NFT bosses say players just “don't get it” Eric Abent / SlashGear : Ubisoft exec inexplicably blames gamers for dire NFT reception Steve Wright / Stevivor : Ubisoft says hating players “don't get” NFTs Mark Knapp / PCMag : Ubisoft Exec on In-Game NFT Backlash: Gamers 'Don't Get It' Ryan Leston / IGN : Ubisoft Exec Says 'Gamers Don't Get It' When It Comes To NFTS Robert Carnevale / Windows Central : Insulting its customers over NFTs is vintage Ubisoft Alice O'Connor / Rock, Paper, Shotgun : Ubisoft think people “don't get” the thrilling benefits of NFT items Ornella Hernández / Cointelegraph : Ubisoft executive responds to the backlash over new NFT platform Jessica Howard / GameSpot : Ubisoft Responds To Backlash Over NFT Program Eric Van Allen / Destructoid : Ubisoft exec talks NFTs, says gamers 'don't get it' Reynaldo Marquez / Bitcoinist.com : Ubisoft Replies To Gamers, What “They Don't Get” About NFTs And Project Quartz Owen S. Good / Polygon : Ubisoft exec: Angry gamers 'don't get' NFTs Nathan Brown / Hit Points : #90: Line goes down — As I mentioned the other day, the discourse around NFTs has turned a bit of a corner of late. PC Gamer : Ubisoft VP says players 'don't get' NFTs, but can't explain what there is to get Kris Holt / Engadget : Ubisoft executive complains NFT critics just 'don't get it' Filip Galekovic / Game Rant : Ubisoft Executive Defends NFTs, Claims Players Just Don't Get Them Paul Tassi / Forbes : The Best Use Case For Gaming NFTs Is One Publishers Like Ubisoft Won't Discuss Carley Garcia / Gameranx : Ubisoft Exec Still Defends NFTs: “Players Don't Get It” Vlad Mazanko / thegamer.com : Ubisoft Exec Thinks “Gamers Don't Get” NFTs Andrew Highton / Dexerto : Ubisoft Executive mocked for NFTs claims that gamers “don't get it” Alex Atkin / MSPoweruser : Ubisoft insist their failing NFTs is our problem somehow Ethan / Waivly : Ubisoft says players don't understand NFTs Pure Xbox : Ubisoft Thinks Players Just “Don't Get” NFTs Callum Bains / TechRadar : Ubisoft thinks players don't like NFTs because they 'don't get it' Tweets: Brad Sams / @bdsams : Still waiting to cash out my pogs in the secondary market https://twitter.com/... Corey Quinn / @quinnypig : “The haters just don't get it” is the web3/NFT rallying cry, but it's head-turning to see an executive of a purportedly serious company say it so bluntly. https://twitter.com/... Kyle Russell / @kylebrussell : So many cool things you could do and they focus on the lamest part 😩 https://twitter.com/... Tom Farnsworth / @tomfromtheweb : To quote the interview: “So, it's really, for them. It's really beneficial. But they don't get it for now.” Gotta love the classic “you just don't understand it” angle to this scam. But oh, we know. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Fizhy / @ejwoodgates : If players don't get it, what is the business model? https://twitter.com/... George / @longearedfox : Really need Microsoft to buy Ubisoft and fire all the execs https://twitter.com/... Skill Up / @skillupyt : Until publishers let us resell our actual games, you can absolutely ignore every word that comes out of their mouths about their desire for you to ‘truly own what you purchase’. This is only about fattening out their micro-transaction revenue. Nothing more https://www.finder.com.au/... Chris Scullion / @scully1888 : Despise this narrative. Any time NFTs are criticised, the response is always “oh, you just don't understand it”. Hook in the gullible, paint everyone else as idiots to make the gullible look like they're joining the Smart Club™ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/ ... VGC / @vgc_news : A Ubisoft executive has said the company will proceed with its NFTS plans, claiming players just “don't get it”. https://www.vgc.news/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Ubisoft's defense of NFTs framed a digital secondary market as a player benefit, but the response became a dispute over who captures value: later coverage described gamers' crypto backlash as resistance to developers extracting more money, rather than treating NFTs as collectibles. The ensuing gamer backlash to crypto monetization gives the remarks their commercial stakes.
The episode also preceded reports of internal disapproval of crypto and NFT plans at Ubisoft and other major publishers. That makes the public messaging more than a one-off PR problem: it exposed tension between executive-led monetization initiatives and the people expected to build and buy games.
First-order effects
- Ubisoft's NFT advocates face immediate credibility damage with the players whose participation is required for any in-game secondary market, while the public backlash shifts attention from the proposed benefit to the company's monetization motive.
- Ubisoft employees opposed to crypto plans gain a concrete example of the reputational cost of executive-led NFT messaging, as later reporting documented internal turmoil across Ubisoft and peers.
Second-order effects
- EA, Zynga, and other publishers considering game NFTs must account for player trust and employee resistance alongside resale-market revenue, rather than treating the feature as a standalone product addition.
- Game companies promoting NFTs are pushed to explain how players benefit from resale more clearly, because the related coverage shows audiences distinguishing ownership-oriented collectibles from mechanisms that add spending to games.
Third-order effects
- If player resistance and internal dissent persist, blockchain-based game monetization will be constrained less by technical implementation than by whether publishers can establish that a secondary market serves players rather than primarily extracting value.
- The broader publisher playbook may shift toward monetization changes that can be justified through existing game value, with public messaging becoming a central test for executive initiatives that alter the player-developer bargain.
The trend: Gaming's NFT debate is part of a wider clash between publisher-led monetization experiments and players' and developers' demands for a credible share of the value created.