Ubisoft showed off a prototype for a blockchain game called HashCraft at Blockchain Gamer Connects San Francisco, according to a write-up on the in-development project from the Australian website Finder.
Ubisoft is far from the first game developer to explore using emerging blockchain technology for video games, other companies have looked to the tech for digital publishing or social VR spaces, however, Ubisoft’s application shows off one of the ways in-game content can be stored and shared using the blockchain.
In its current state, Ubisoft’s blockchain project is a sandbox creation game, similar to Minecraft, that uses blockchain technology to store the uniquely generated and customizable islands on which the game takes place. While any changes made in-game are stored on the blockchain, players have the option to upload their island hubs and share those creations with other players, something Ubisoft says would be rewarded (and incentivized to upload) with an in-game currency that can be exchanged outside the game for bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
As Finder points out, allowing players to store changes to their in-game island bases on the blockchain means the online world is supported and kept alive by the community playing the game rather than Ubisoft’s decision to keep online servers up and running. The act of rewarding players who share their blockchain-based creations also has the effect of essentially making players stakeholders in HashCraft.
The team over at Finder has a more in-depth write-up of Ubisoft’s full HashCraft reveal, which includes some additional insight from the company’s blockchain initiative manager Nicolas Pouard.