Square Enix Invests ‘Aggressively’ In NFT Games Despite Backlash

Final Fantasy developer and gaming giant Square Enix has been heavily criticized for its plans to add NFTs to its upcoming games, but the company’s New Year letter shows that instead of halting its efforts, it is “aggressively” doubling down on it.

In his annual New Year’s letter, Square Enix’s President and CEO Yosuke Matsuda explains that despite “a grim series of news” surrounding NFTs in 2022, the company is still plowing money into the controversial currency.

“In terms of new business domains, we have named three focus investment fields under our medium-term business plan,” he says. “Among these, we are most focused on blockchain entertainment, to which we have devoted aggressive investment and business development.”

While he admits that NFTs and blockchain have been subject to a lot of negative press since its inception, he writes that Square Enix has “kept a steady eye on these environmental changes while considering from a higher perspective what Web 3.0 and blockchain” entertainment is actually about about.”

This “presents a different view than if we focus on them solely in technological or speculative investment terms. As I said in last year’s New Year letter, if we consider traditional gaming to have become centralized, then blockchain gaming must operate based on a self-sustaining decentralized model. It is that concept, that philosophy I see is the key.”

With this concept in mind, he says “our group [Square Enix] has several blockchain games based on original IPs in development, some of which we announced last year, and we are making preparations that will enable us to reveal even more titles this year.”

He goes on to conclude that “blockchain has been an object of excitement and a source of unease, but with that in the rearview mirror, we hope blockchain gaming will move into a new stage of growth in 2023.” So it looks like we can expect to see NFTs and blockchain in future Square Enix products.

In the wake of the FTX scandal, faith in NFTs and blockchain is at an all-time low – especially in the gaming sphere given the now-defunct company’s association with premier esports team TSM. FTX was declared bankrupt after a CoinDesk article highlighted potential leverage and solvency issues surrounding Alameda Research, causing investors to lose millions.

For many, games and NFTs should coexist but not coincide, but despite concerns, Square Enix seems to have thrown that caution to the wind.

Hopefully the games it mentions will be released alongside the main series rather than being made a “mandatory” part of them, but only time will tell. If you are interested in reading the rest of the New Year’s letter, you can find it here.

Square Enix has created one of the best MMORPGs out there in the form of Final Fantasy XIV Online, which is easily one of the best Final Fantasy games. If you haven’t tried it, I’d encourage you to – after all, it’s what I spent most of my vacation playing.