Welp, Ubisoft’s New NFT Grift Game Features Rayman

Just as it started to feel like the NFT hustle had gone the way of the dodo, Ubisoft pulled an NFT game out of its back pocket, with some big names, such as Rayman, at the helm.

This new NFT game is titled Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. and doesn’t have much going for it other than its many mindless ties to Ubisoft IPs. Captain Laserhawk is tied to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and a Netflix series of the same name, which actually scored a decent critical reception on release.

The game itself is a top-down, old-school arcade action title that, to be fair, would have done just fine with the Far Cry and Rayman IPs holding it down. But, this entire NFT grift has once again tainted something otherwise unremarkable with the grubby fingers of corporate greed.

This is all a part of the same plan Ubisoft devised years ago, back when blockchain and NFTs wouldn’t get you immediately scorned by critics. They have now repeatedly tried to get the general public stoked on the little digital tokens that no one wants, always getting shunned by the fans they pander to.

If you go to the Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. website, you’ll find a decent landing page advertising the new game. But before anything catches your attention, you’ll get a little popup telling you to “buy your ID card now!” These NFT ID cards, by the way, are needed to play the game.

When clicking on this link, which is prominently displayed all over the website, you’ll be forwarded to an NFT buying website, as shown in the image above. The page is filled with wallet connections, the current crypto market prices, and little cyberpunk-looking cards that feel entirely disconnected from the game itself.

Although I refuse to do so myself, a journalist at Kotaku sacrificed their sanity by going down the Captain Laserhawk NFT rabbit hole. They went through the entire process of checking the marketplace and later installing the game, only to find out that all 10,000 cards available had already been bought.

This means that the game Ubisoft is branding as finally out can not be played until cards are refreshed in 2025.

NFTs Kill The Subtlety Of Microtransactions

The biggest reminder we must enforce is that this is supposed to be a video game.

The gameplay itself is unremarkable but looks fine. But really, that’s the most infuriating part. Instead of releasing a mediocre top-down action game, getting their 7/10 score, and moving the team somewhere else, this became another step forward in Ubisoft’s crusade of NFTs.

W ith NFTs, Ubisoft can directly funnel the cash of the top 1% of gamers into their wallets. It’s all crypto, blockchain, and rare NFT collectibles, each as shiny as the first holographic Charizard you pulled out of a Pokemon pack.