Assassin's Creed Maker Ubisoft Backs Yet Another Crypto Gaming Network

Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six: Siege publisher Ubisoft is joining Korean game publisher WeMade’s Wemix’s blockchain node council as a partner, Wemix announced late last week.

Ubisoft is now one of Wemix’s 40 partners running validator nodes for its new “Wemix 3.0” network, which is an Ethereum-compatible EVM blockchain. Previously, Wemix’s blockchain existed on the Klaytn mainnet. Now, WeMade has renamed the older chain and corresponding token “Wemix Classic.”

The new Wemix blockchain operates on a proof-of-stake authority consensus algorithm—which is a mix of a proof-of-stake structure and proof-of-authority model. Like other blockchains, Wemix’s network needs nodes to validate transactions. A blockchain node is a computer that runs a copy of the blockchain’s software and confirms transactions. Node operators typically receive automatically-distributed cryptocurrency rewards for their machines’ work.

All of the Node Council Partners (NCP) will run Wemix nodes to validate the blockchain, according to Wemix, with Ubisoft now set to join the group as number “26.” The Wemix team is calling each of these node partners “Wonders.” At time of writing, Wemix has announced 23 out of the total of 40 partners.

Ubisoft was early to the blockchain gaming space—especially among large, Western publishers—and it has shown no sign of slowing down its investment in the crypto industry. In 2021, Ubisoft added free in-game NFTs to its Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint shooter game, but faced considerable backlash from gamers for embracing crypto tech. 

Ubisoft continued to explore crypto, however, becoming a node operator for the Hedera blockchain in 2022 and for the Cronos blockchain in 2023. Last year, Ubisoft also teased its first blockchain game, the upcoming Champions Tactics, and launched the game’s first free NFT mint. It saw millions of dollars in volume traded in just a few hours.

Ubisoft Will Tap NVIDIA's AI Tools to Build Chatty Game Characters

Tech giant NVIDIA’s stock price has risen to all-time highs Monday as the computer chip-maker and AI tech developer announced advancements in its Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE)—and that game publishers like Ubisoft have vowed to use it. According to the announcement made during CES today, game developers and publishers can now apply for early access to two of NVIDIA’s ACE Production Microservices offerings and deploy its tech in their games. The first, Audio2Face, uses AI to make game character’s fac...

Ubisoft is casting its blockchain net far and wide with its latest commitment to Wemix—though it has also made fresh commitments to exploring AI-generated video game dialogue, as well.

Edited by Andrew Hayward