Ubisoft lost 1.5 billion euros last year! The NFT dream was a failure, a lesson from Web3 pioneers to hitting rock bottom and seeking rebirth

French gaming giant Ubisoft releases fiscal year 2025-26 financial report, suffering a record loss of nearly 1.5 billion euros, with 7 games canceled and 6 delayed. Reflecting on Ubisoft's bold entry into NFTs with the Quartz platform in 2021, which now appears to be a failed venture, this Web3 journey not only failed to boost revenue but also became a catalyst for brand crisis due to strong community resistance and poor sales.
(Background summary: Despite players' "strong resistance," Ubisoft announced no change to its NFT plans, but sales only reached 400 dollars!)
(Additional background: Burning stock price over NFT ventures! Ubisoft spun off the "Assassin’s Creed" IP into subsidiaries, allowing Tencent to invest 1.25 billion USD)

Table of Contents

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• Quartz Platform Launch: A Disaster with 90% Dislikes
• Only $400 in Sales: The Harsh Reality for Web3 Pioneers
• From Annual Revenues of Billions to Massive Losses: The Downward Trajectory
• Tencent Investment, Classic IP Remakes: A Glimmer After the Bottom?

French gaming giant Ubisoft announced on Wednesday its fiscal year 2025-26 financial results, impacted by large-scale organizational restructuring, with annual losses reaching nearly 1.5 billion euros (about NT$52B), setting a company record. This transformation plan led to the cancellation of 7 ongoing games and delays for another 6 titles. To streamline operations, Ubisoft plans to consolidate half of its development studios into five "creative houses," with the remaining departments shifting to support functions.

Looking back at Ubisoft’s difficulties, besides the sluggish traditional gaming business, its NFT strategy launched in 2021 now seems more like an expensive gamble. That year, Ubisoft chose the Tezos blockchain to launch the Quartz platform, featuring "Digits" digital collectibles, becoming the world's first game publisher to integrate NFTs into AAA titles. However, the chain reaction that followed became a turning point for the company's brand image.

Quartz Platform Launch: A Disaster with 90% Dislikes

In December 2021, Ubisoft launched Digits NFTs in "Ghost Recon Breakpoint"—including a wolf head mask, a wolf skin truck, and a wolf brown weapon skin. However, after uploading the Quartz trailer to YouTube, it immediately received over 1.3 million dislikes, with a like/dislike ratio of about 1:9, setting the highest dislike record in Ubisoft’s channel history.

The player community’s anger was swift and fierce. Besides criticizing Ubisoft for not improving game quality and only wanting to harvest fans through NFTs, some pointed out that its "energy-saving" claim (Tezos being a PoS chain) couldn’t hide the environmental controversies surrounding the blockchain industry. Ubisoft’s internal dissent also emerged; the French game union STJV issued a rare statement, calling the NFT strategy "a very bad idea."

Only $400 in Sales: The Harsh Reality for Web3 Pioneers

If community outrage was just a surface issue, then actual sales data directly challenged the business feasibility. According to game media VGC, two days after Quartz’s launch, only 15 Digits transactions occurred in the secondary market; in the first week, total transaction volume was about $400, almost negligible compared to Ubisoft’s development costs.

Even more embarrassing, "Ghost Recon Breakpoint" itself, the platform for NFTs, was poorly received upon release in 2019 due to bugs and mandatory online connection. In September 2022, Ubisoft announced it would delist the game—effectively wiping out Quartz’s main showcase, rendering the NFT ecosystem dead in a scenario where there was "no playable game."

From Billion-Dollar Revenues to Massive Losses: The Downward Trajectory

Ubisoft has not tried to recover without effort. In 2023, they once announced the launch of the blockchain strategy game "Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles" and partnered with NFT game platform Immutable, but these plans ultimately failed. In early 2024, Ubisoft officially shut down the "Blockchain Hub," dismissing related teams, effectively ending its NFT strategy altogether.

Ironically, Ubisoft’s earliest blockchain research team was established in 2017, even earlier than most major game companies’ Web3 deployments. From Animoca Brands’ tens of millions of euros investment, the purchase of virtual land in The Sandbox, to the development and operation of the Quartz platform, external estimates suggest total NFT-related investments reached 70 to 100 million euros, with direct income possibly under 1 million euros.

Though this loss accounts for only a small part of the 1.5 billion euro annual deficit, the real damage of NFT failure lies in the dual blow to brand reputation and investor confidence. After Quartz’s debut at the end of 2021, Ubisoft’s stock price dropped 5% within a week; in March 2022, a group lawsuit was filed by U.S. shareholders accusing management of misleading statements about the NFT business outlook. Since then, the stock price plummeted from 100 euros in early 2021 to 13 euros in 2024, with market value evaporating over 80%.

Tencent Investment, Classic IP Remakes: A Glimmer After the Bottom?

Facing an economic winter, Ubisoft founder and CEO Yves Guillemot admitted that the 2026-27 fiscal year might still be a "low period," relying on remaking classic IPs to break through. The flagship remake "Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag" is scheduled for release on July 9, and a new "Far Cry" title is planned for 2027.

Notably, Chinese gaming giant Tencent has made strategic investments in Ubisoft’s Vantage studio, demonstrating long-term confidence in its core brand assets. Industry rumors also suggest Tencent may acquire Ubisoft outright; if so, the valuation could be around 4.5 billion euros—far below its peak market cap of 12 billion euros in 2020.

From Web3 pioneer to NFT’s dismal retreat, Ubisoft’s story leaves a vivid lesson for the entire gaming industry: the potential of blockchain technology itself versus "packaging NFTs as a new monetization method into games" creates a huge gap in player wallet votes. Whether the company can find a balance between classic IP and innovation will determine if this French gaming giant can truly emerge from the bottom.