Blockchain technology will be a “major strategic theme” for the company from 2022 onward, says Yosuke Matsuda, President of Square Enix. In a New Year’s letter, he highlighted that future games would incorporate distributed technology.
Matsuda says Square Enix would incorporate token economies to foster self-sustaining game growth. He believes that some gamers want to “play to contribute”. The executive pointed out that blockchain games provide a direct incentive to players to build their own content. Players no longer have to rely on goodwill and volunteer spirit.
He said basic and elemental technologies to boost blockchain games already exist. Matsuda noted that in the past few years, there has been an increase in the societal literacy and acceptance of crypto assets. As such, Square Enix is keeping a close watch on societal shifts and listening to the users that populated this space. The platform will ramp up its efforts to develop its business models and games accordingly.
In regards to NFTs, Matsuda said they have seen overheated trading in NFT-based digital goods with speculative overtones. This is regardless of the value of the content provided. Square Enix wants to see an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals. The platform wants the value of each available content corrected to its true estimated worth.
In Spring of 2021, Square Enix collaborated with Double Jump Tokyo for NFTs, but it didn’t get the response it had been looking for. The platform sold a limited number of Million Arthur NFT digital stickers. Investors said this project was a proof of concept designed to see if it could sell NFTs.
Matsuda shared that many gamers have voiced their reservations toward these new trends and want to stay clear of them. He also said that he intends to make things interesting for those who want to “play to contribute”.
