Daily Briefing: Wednesday 8th December

Ubisoft enter the NFT game for some reason

When it came time to place bets on which of the major games companies would be the first to try their hand at the baffling concept that is NFTs, a lot of people probably had money riding on Ubisoft. It turns out this was completely the right call, as the publisher announced this week that NFTs will be coming to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint as unique in-world cosmetics. Ubisoft detailed in their announcement that this new implementation of NFTs is "an experiment," and emphasised that their venture will be "energy efficient" and "environmentally sustainable."

• The overall programme is called Digits, which Ubisoft say will be the first NFTs "playable in a AAA game." Digits are coming to the PC version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint via Ubisoft Connect, while the company are also establishing a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz to manage the acquisition of these NFTs. The marketing blurb reads "each Digit is a unique collectible that features its own serial number for others to see in-game." They're playable cosmetic items that “provide players the ability to personalize their experience and complete their missions with style.” So it all sounds like faff.

Phil Spencer understands not every Xbox user will subscribe to Xbox Game Pass

Speaking in a new interview with Edge Magazine, the Xbox Boss was asked whether Xbox Game Pass would be the sole focus for Xbox in the coming weeks and months. Spencer replied, "No, it's not. And I know it’s easy – I’m not picking on you when I say that, but you know, the thing I get a lot is ‘it’s all about X’, or ‘it’s all about Y or Z’. And when you’re running the platform, it’s all about X, Y and Z, right? It’s all of those things." So, while Xbox Game Pass will certainly be a focus going forward, it won't be the only one.

• Spencer went on to say, “Do I want, or do I envision, everybody who’s on Xbox being a Game Pass subscriber? I don’t. I want people to make their choice. Some people want to buy all the games we ship and create their own library.” It's nice to see a bit of genuine realism come out of a big gaming figure like Spencer, as the industry so often gets completely wrapped up in ridiculous absolutes. Of course not every single Xbox user is going to be an active Game Pass subscriber, it's just not going to happen, but Spencer's willingness to actually openly admit that indicates a very welcome sense of self-awareness.

343 Industries apologise for lack of Halo Infinite campaign pre-load

Halo Infinite's campaign launches this week after its multiplayer component has had a few weeks to frolic about on its own, and it appears that players are facing quite the chunky download of 30GB at the very least. Players who already have Halo Infinite's multiplayer modes installed will need to download a 4GB multiplayer update alongside the 26GB campaign download, while players who haven't installed anything yet will face a download size of closer to 50GB when the game launches in and around 6pm UK time.

• It's certainly not the biggest download in the world, especially if you've played a Call of Duty game at any time in the last few years, but 343 Industries have nevertheless apologised to fans who are disappointed at the lack of pre-load for the campaign. About the only time-saving measure open to players ahead of the campaign launch is to get a head start on downloading the multiplayer component, as both downloads are necessary even if you have no intention of playing multiplayer. We haven't had any word on why pre-load isn't available, it's pretty par for the course for big modern releases, we just know from 343 community director Brian Jarrard that it isn't. Go team.