Square Enix president says company has ‘multiple’ blockchain games in development – News
Square Enixpresident and representative director Yosuke Matsuda posted a New Year’s letter on Sunday, and he revealed that Square Enix has “multiple” blockchain games, or games using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies, in development based on original intellectual properties (IPs). He added that the company had announced “some” of them last year. Matsuda hopes that blockchain games will enter a new stage of growth in 2023.
Matsuda also stated that Square Enix is focused on devoting aggressive investment and business development efforts to blockchain plays. In addition, the company is engaged in global sourcing from an investment perspective.
Square Enix unveiled the history-based NFT collective art project Symbiogenesis 3 November The project starts in spring 2023. Symbiogenesis revolves around the themes of monopolization vs. sharing. Featuring characters from different races and jobs, the story will feature six chapters and the sale of around 10,000 NFT artwork. The project will be available in English and Japanese. Square Enix is working with LGG, a major NFT gaming guild in Japan, to market the project.
Square Enix sell numbers on Final Fantasy VII characters Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith with NFTs. Customers who purchase the digital plus editions can redeem digital versions of the figure as well as a certificate of authenticity.
Matsuda stated in an earlier New Year’s letter in 2022 that he expected to see the value of NFT-based digital commodities to match their true estimated value, and he looked for NFTs “to become as well-known as physical commodity trading.”
The medium-term business strategy that Square Enix unveiled in May 2020 had identified AI, the cloud and blockchain gaming as new domains to focus its investments, to meet these changes in the business environment. The company has subsequently been aggressive in its R&D efforts and investments in these areas.
Matsuda has previously explained that Square Enix kept an eye on societal changes in the area of blockchain gaming, which is built on the premise of a token economy. While he recognized that some people who “play for fun” and make up the majority of players have expressed reservations about the blockchain gaming trend, he also believed that there will be people who are motivated to “play for to contribute.” He saw a token economy as having the potential to provide content-generating users with explicit incentives, which would lead to greater consistency in their motivation. Matsuda hoped that this self-sustaining gaming growth and “decentralized gaming” would become a major trend. Square Enix planned to increase efforts to develop a business accordingly, with an eye toward potentially issuing their own tokens in the future, while listening to user groups.
Square Enix had discussed in an earnings report in November 2021 that it was entering the NFT market and thinking about entering the “blockchain game”.
Square Enix was founded in September 1975 as Enix. Square was founded in 1983. A merger between Enix and Square was finalized in November 2002 after Sony bought 18.6% of Square in 2001.
Source: Square Enix
