Game Not Released, but NFTs Are Already Hot—What Did Ubisoft Do Right?
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Game Not Released, but NFTs Are Already Hot—What Did Ubisoft Do Right?
This game offers not only entertainment value but also potential economic value to users.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Mu Mu
Amid the cold winter, the Web3 community is suddenly buzzing with talk of a "Summer of Gaming." One sign of revival is that traditional AAA game giant Ubisoft is developing a Web3 game—and its in-game NFTs have already launched.
On December 19, the NFT collection "The Warlords of Champions Tactics" (hereinafter "The Warlords") for the game Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles sold out immediately upon public minting, generating over $2 million in sales within hours.
According to OpenSea data, the floor price of The Warlords NFTs currently stands at 0.18 ETH (approximately 2,800 RMB). Of the 9,999 NFTs, only 8% are listed for sale, indicating limited supply on the secondary market. This suggests most minters are holding rather than selling their NFTs.
While Champions Tactics has not officially launched yet, anticipation runs high—largely due to official announcements revealing that the game will follow a traditional play-to-earn (P2E) model and has partnered with Yield Guild Games (YGG), one of the most well-known Web3 gaming guilds, often referred to as a "gold farming collective."
This strong signal indicates the game isn't just about entertainment—it may also offer economic value, the "Earn" in Play-to-Earn.
Only 8% of 9,999 Minted NFTs Reach the Market
Ubisoft’s blockchain game Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles was first revealed in July this year, when the company released a trailer and boldly labeled it a Web3 game.
Suddenly, the Web3 gaming community turned its attention to this traditional AAA gaming powerhouse.
On December 18, The Warlords NFT collection held a pre-mint for whitelisted users, leaving many others waiting for the public mint the next day.
On December 19, the public mint opened—and all NFTs were minted within 20 minutes. Soon after, they appeared on OpenSea, racking up $2 million in trading volume within an hour and quickly topping the marketplace’s “24-Hour Trending” list.
The Warlords sees strong sales
Official details show that The Warlords consists of 9,999 NFTs issued on the Ethereum blockchain. However, the game Champions Tactics itself is deployed on Oasys, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain. Of the total supply, 8,000 were available for public minting (requiring only ETH gas fees), 1,000 were allocated to the Oasys community, and 999 were reserved by Ubisoft for future marketing use.
In other words, only 20% of the NFTs remain with team-affiliated holders; the majority were made available to the general public.
On OpenSea, these pixel-art-style NFTs now have a floor price of 0.18 ETH, with only about 8% of the total supply—roughly 800 NFTs—listed for sale. Most minters appear to be holding onto their assets.
Beyond mere speculation ("HODL for price gains"), some holders likely intend to use these NFTs in the game—possibly genuine gamers.
According to official statements, owning a Warlords NFT grants access to the game’s "Foundry," allowing holders to mint five in-game characters for free at a later date. Additionally, these "genesis NFTs" come with perks such as token airdrops and whitelist access for future mints.
Now let’s look at the gameplay.
Officially described as a PvP tactical RPG, Champions Tactics should feel familiar to players of games like Honor of Kings. It requires strategic thinking and team coordination, pitting squads of unique champions against each other. From warriors to wizards, each champion has distinct abilities, and skilled players can leverage tactics and terrain to secure victory.
In-game characters are represented as NFTs
The developers promise a rich narrative experience. Judging from the subtitle "Grimoria Chronicles," the game aims to deliver an expansive story world—where NFTs serve as vessels for playable characters.
With NFTs on Ethereum and the game hosted on Oasys, Ubisoft's "champion" project qualifies as a truly cross-chain game. Backed by the French gaming giant’s AAA-grade production capabilities, its market热度 comes as no surprise.
In fact, before Champions Tactics, Ubisoft had long been exploring Web3 gaming—with limited success.
No AAA Label, But Fueled by 'Gold Farming' Expectations
2021 marked Ubisoft’s entry into Web3—a year of cautious experimentation and investment. The company launched Ubisoft Quartz, a platform designed to support NFTs, and introduced "playable NFTs" usable in its AAA title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for PC players. That same year, Ubisoft also invested $65 million in blockchain gaming firm Animoca Brands.
While returns on investment remain unclear, the free NFTs offered in Breakpoint failed to resonate with PC gamers. Some even criticized them, asking, “What are these NFTs even for?” By April 2022, development of the NFT integration ceased, and the already lukewarm interest faded away.
But Ubisoft wasn’t ready to give up on the Web3 gaming market.
At the time, Baptiste Chardon, Ubisoft’s Blockchain Product Director, argued that long-term opportunities lie in integrating games with blockchain—such as interoperability across games. “We believe blockchain is a way for creators to return the value they generate back to players,” he said.
Ubisoft has long been praised for its storytelling and production quality in major titles. Since venturing into Web3, blockchain gamers have eagerly awaited a blockbuster from the studio—one combining AAA polish with true P2E mechanics: beautiful graphics, deep gameplay, and real earning potential.
Yet achieving this balance remains difficult. Current blockchain networks still lag behind traditional internet infrastructure in speed and scalability, making it hard to support graphically intensive AAA experiences.
The AAA standard, pioneered by Japanese game studios, relies heavily on massive budgets to deliver visual spectacle and immersive gameplay—but profitability ultimately depends on market reception. In recent years, Ubisoft has struggled to replicate the success of hits like Assassin’s Creed, facing shrinking market valuation and resorting to rehashing classic IPs.
Against this backdrop, Ubisoft’s persistence in Web3 finally shows promise through the NFT success of Champions Tactics. Notably, the game isn’t branded as "AAA." After two years deep in the Web3 space, Ubisoft seems to have learned a key lesson: neither the game’s NFTs nor its underlying chain should exist in isolation. To attract traffic and capital, they must integrate with broader, open blockchains—the real liquidity pools.
This marks the biggest difference between Champions Tactics and the earlier Breakpoint experiment. The latter kept the game online and NFTs on-chain as separate entities—an awkward "two-skin" approach that satisfied neither traditional gamers nor NFT enthusiasts. PC players didn’t understand NFTs, while NFT holders found little incentive to engage with the game.
Clearly, Ubisoft now understands: if you obsess over making Web3 games as polished as traditional ones, you’re playing to blockchain’s weaknesses. You’re chasing peanuts while losing the watermelon.
Looking at the broader Web3 gaming landscape, while developers strive for AAA-level productions, market reactions suggest that stunning visuals alone aren’t enough to win players. Take BigTime, one of this year’s hottest Web3 games. While it boasts superior graphics and sound compared to most chain games, it was the 265% weekly surge in its BIGTIME token that truly ignited market excitement.
High production values may enhance a Web3 game, but what really drives capital inflow is a compelling in-game economy. BigTime has drawn over 20 gaming guilds and more than $21 million in funding.
The defining feature of Web3 games is value circulation—which is why they’re called Play-to-Earn. Players go on-chain because time spent in-game can be monetized through NFTs and tokens.
The Warlords NFT launch kicked off character collection, and Champions Tactics has already secured a partnership with YGG, the legendary Web3 gaming guild that once generated over $100 million in monthly revenue during the peak of Axie Infinity.
By collaborating with organizations like YGG, Champions Tactics can rapidly expand its reach within the Web3 gaming community.
How quickly it establishes itself, however, depends on when the full game launches. As one Reddit user put it, only when the game delivers a novel experience and attracts significant attention and active players can it become a milestone in Web3 gaming evolution.
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