Despite linear players stumbling upon NFTs, Square Enix is doubling down on its commitment to non-fungible tokens with the launch of two projects designed to support next year’s Final Fantasy VII 25th anniversary. In a major show of confidence in its decision to invest in blockchain technology, Square Enix is bringing NFTs to its biggest and most prestigious game franchise, Final Fantasy VII.
Still, fans are not happy with the decision. They took to Twitter (where else?) to vent, with @confusionmydude writing: “Yeah, why are you making NFTs? Especially FFVIIs? It goes against the message of the game and the way you package them somehow ” I don’t quite follow the logic of NFTs either. This is a product for no one. Make it better.”
The Final Fantasy VII series focuses on a climate disaster and has a strong environmental message, so it’s somewhat ironic that this will be Square Enix’s first major NFT release. Historically, NFTs have been seen as a new energy-intensive technology and believed to harm the environment. You can read more about this and exactly how non-fungible tokens work in our guide, What are NFTs?. Our guide to the best NFT marketplaces also highlights which blockchains are actually carbon neutral.
Square Enix seems to be listening to fans, or at least acknowledging concerns. Its upcoming NFTs will be created in collaboration with Enjin, and will be minted on the Efinity blockchain, a sidechain of Polkadot, which is less energy intensive than Ethereum. Enjin plans to make its Efinity platform open to developers to create NFT power games, so we may even see Square Enix’s first tokenized games appear on this blockchain.
In response to the negative reaction, some fans are coming to Square Enix’s defense. @AC0DEM0NK3Y wrote on Twitter: “Gaming media looks even sadder today when they say how ironic it is and cooperate for NFTs in FFVII given the message about the environment… without spending 5 minutes reading about and its consensus mechanism. Keep pushing past the ignorance.”
Controversy aside, what does Square Enix have planned? First, next year’s Final Fantasy VII 25th anniversary will be used as a springboard for blockchain-enabled digital and physical collectibles, likely tied to the two game releases Final Fantasy VII Rebirth coming in 2023 and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion; a PS5 remake of the classic RPG released this winter.
Two new NFT projects, Art Museum and Bring Art, will be launched in 2023 as NFTs on the blockchain. Bring Art will be a single-edition, physical figure that will be linked to a digital NFT version, while Art Museum will be physical trading cards that unlock a related digital NFT card.
In a press release, Square Enix stated: “While the company currently focuses most of its business on tangible products such as figurines and miscellaneous objects, the new Bring Arts and Arts Museum products are part of its early growth into new opportunities created by new technology .”
It continued: “In addition to giving consumers another way to collect items, the company uses technology to protect against piracy and counterfeit products by providing them with a digital letter of authenticity for their Bring Arts action figure collectibles.”
Square Enix’s collectibles business is a huge asset to the company, so it’s not too surprising that the first real exploration of NFTs will come from offering fans unique figures tied to NFTs, to offering new tools as well as souvenirs. Interestingly, you will be able to purchase a figure without an NFT for $130, while the Digital Plus Edition, which will include an NFT, will be priced at $160.
Currently, the best NFT games are released from smaller startups and studios, so it’s encouraging to see a major developer like Square Enix reveal their plans and adapt NFTs to arguably the biggest franchise. While it focuses on collectibles, it will be interesting to see how any planned tools will be implemented. Of course, it must keep the fans in place if this is to be a success.
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