This is certainly one way to deal with NFT backlash. In late December, Ubisoft became one of several gaming publishers to announce they were getting into non-fungible tokens with the creation of their new platform Ubisoft Quartz, an announcement that made very few people excited. Furthermore, the platform seemed quite unpopular at launch, as seemingly nobody was using it.

Whereas some may have quietly backed away from NFTs, as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developers did when fans made their voices heard, Ubisoft has instead doubled down, insisting that Quartz is great, actually, and its critics just don't "get it."

In an interview with Finder, Ubisoft executives Nicolas Pouard and Didier Genevois insisted that their vision for NFT-filled games is actually good for gamers. In the interview, Pouard said:

I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself.
So, it’s really, for them. It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.
Also, this is part of a paradigm shift in gaming. Moving from one economic system to another is not easy to handle. There is a lot of habits you need to go against and a lot of your ingrained mindset you have to shift. It takes time. We know that.

The idea that NFTs are "really for the players" raised eyebrows among readers. Kotaku opined that the idea gamers could "resell their items" for their benefit rang hollow, suspecting the real reason Ubisoft was so insistent on pushing NFTs in their games was so they could rake in a cut of every transaction, amassing money while doing essentially nothing.

Social media users were having no part of the Ubisoft executives' spin either, as the backlash to Ubisoft's interview was fierce.

It's one thing if a company tries implementing scams like NFTs ONCE. Try, and fail. But it's ANOTHER thing if they go, "See you're all too STUPID, and we're gonna be pushing forward with this regardless of all your legit concerns/fears." That's next level corporate bullshittery.

— Matt McMuscles (@MattMcMuscles) January 28, 2022

That Ubisoft reaction is a good exemplar of why most people find all this NFT/cryptosmeg stuff so damn annoying. It's the fact that we're just being railroaded into it regardless of whether we want it or not.

— a stinky ox 🐂 (@llamasoft_ox) January 28, 2022

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://t.co/T3ooicAHIb

— Skill Up (@SkillUpYT) January 28, 2022

Ubisoft really decided to full on insult their consumer base i.e. gamers as "negative to the point of being aggressive. As gamers are want to do." and tried to basically say you need a particularly high IQ to fully grasp their NFT motivatations pic.twitter.com/edMhHQOKXI

— Kung Fu Man (@KungFuMan316) January 28, 2022

Ubisoft is so out of touch, like don't tell people what they should like or not.
Yeah NFT is a very easy way to make money, but maybe JUST MAYBE people play games to enjoy them.
But again, this is a company that doesn't understand the concept of "NO MEANS NO".

— Pyo 5️⃣ (@mrpyo1) January 28, 2022

Perhaps one day we will all be so wise as to think purchasing a helmet in Ghost Recon with different numbers on it is the way of the future. But for now, gamers are still largely not into this NFT push.