The Internet may have bullied NFTs out of mainstream gaming (opens in a new tab), but Square Enix isn’t going to let a little thing like ‘what players want’ get in the way of their blockchain dreams. The company has released a new trailer for the upcoming Symbiogenesis, its NFT-based game that will, it threatens, feature “10,000 pieces of collectible art” with “real game tools.”
You’ll find that trailer above, but don’t get your hopes up. It mostly consists of images of (what I assume to be) in-game scenery, with pretty much no new information at all. Square Enix is road more interested in telling you about all the thousands and thousands of NFT crimes you’ll be able to pick up in the game than it is in actually describing what it’ll be like to play it. So instead of speculating, let’s focus on this unhinged slide from the game’s project evaluation report (opens in a new tab)made by “web3 game guild” LGG.
(opens in a new tab)
Originally discovered by GreatCheshire (opens in a new tab) on Twitter, I feel this simple slide gives a better insight into what kind of game Symbiogenesis is going to be than some of the vaguely detailed bullet points on the site. To be fair, it was put together by a third party rather than the company itself, but Square Enix is linking the report in the “Official Links” section of the game’s Discord, and it feels like it has more thought behind it than pretty much anything else we have yet seen about Symbiogenesis’ gameplay or narrative so far.
While Square Enix promises that “the main story consisting of all 6 chapters and missions is playable to the end even without having any Character NFT,” it feels like the game’s design process started with someone writing that “Revenue” box on a whiteboard and working backwards from there.
Square Enix has yet to release any proper in-game footage, the art we’ve seen has been made heavy and obvious reuse of assets (opens in a new tab)and the games section of the Symbiogenesis website (found on the About page (opens in a new tab)right below more text about NFTs) says you’ll “advance through the main story and quests while also unlocking the stories that the characters have,” which could pretty much describe any game ever.
Of course, many big games spend a lot of time thinking about monetization, and I bet more than a few of them have created equally nightmarish flowcharts. Still, it’s something especially wondering about Symbiogenesis, which feels like the heavier gameplay was developed as an afterthought to justify the monetization. Even more confusing: the NFT market has shrunk dramatically (opens in a new tab) since its heyday, so who are all these things for?
Well, Square Enix executives, probably. The company looks set to replace its current, crypto-loving president (opens in a new tab) with a new crypto-loving president. Takashi Kiryu, who is tipped to replace current president Yosuke Matsuda at the company’s June shareholder meeting, previously worked at Dentsu, which is deep into Web3 and blockchain stuff, where he focused on “scouting new and disruptive technologies”. So don’t expect a stop to this nonsense anytime soon.
If the game’s roadmap (opens in a new tab) if it is to be believed, its first chapter (of six) will be released in mid-May.
