Ubisoft cancels Project Q, the rumored NFT blockchain game

Ubisoft has officially confirmed that one of the three recently canceled games was Project Q, a game announced in mid-2022 to a disappointed audience. The game was revealed as a multiplayer “team battle arena” experience – but it was the wording of the announcement that raised a lot of suspicion, as players began to question whether Project Q was a blockchain-based game including NFTs.

‘‍We are introducing code names Project Q, a team fighting arena let the players really own the experience! The game is in early development and we will continue to test, so for now all you can do is sign up for upcoming tests,’ Ubisoft announced.

Referring to “ownership” of video games had become trendy during this period – although the concept was largely linked to the rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and blockchain-based games that claimed to give players their own personal share of a game .

Companies looking to exploit players will offer digital goods that players can truly “own” – such as virtual houses costing upwards of US$900,000 (AU$1.3 million) – so they can feel like they were part of something bigger. At the bargain, players will receive a virtual product and a receipt on the blockchain to verify their ownership.

Read: Ubisoft CEO claims NFT launches were simply ‘research’

Ubisoft did not confirm the nature of the Project Q in its initial announcement, although fans were quick to speculate that NFTs and blockchain-based products would be part of the project. Ubisoft Quartz, a proprietary tool for selling NFTs in games, had just launched – and Project Q was thought to be a connection.

Quartz ultimately failed to find an audience, and Ubisoft later referred to the initiative as simply “research” as industry trends shifted.

In the following weeks Project Q was announced, the company denied it would include NFTs – but the wording surrounding ownership was never changed or clarified, leaving many to speculate about the true nature of the game.

Now it seems we will never learn more about what was planned. While closed beta invites were sent out in 2022, giving players a glimpse of the melee-based PvP arena combat game, those players likely saw the last glimpses of the game.

As first reported on Insider gamingand later confirmed by VGC, Project Q is officially dead in the water, with Ubisoft’s development team now redeployed to alternative projects.

The other games reportedly canceled have not been detailed yet, and it is unknown if these had been announced prior to Ubisoft’s cancellation announcement.