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Square Enix President Says Company Has 'Multiple' Blockchain Games in Development

Square Enix's president 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 that use 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 transition to 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 games. In addition, the company is engaged in global sourcing from an investment perspective.

Square Enix unveiled the story-based NFT collectible art project Symbiogenesis on November 3. The project will launch in spring 2023. Symbiogenesis revolves around the themes of monopolizing vs. sharing. The story features characters of various races and jobs, and it will feature six chapters and sales of about 10,000 NFT artworks. The project will be available in English and Japanese. Square Enix is partnering with LGG, a large NFT gaming guild in Japan, to market the project.

Square Enix is selling figures of 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 a previous New Year's letter in 2022 that he expected to see value of NFT-based digital goods to match their true estimated worth, and he looked for NFTs "to become as familiar as dealings in physical goods."

The medium-term business strategy that Square Enix had unveiled in May 2020 identified AI, the cloud, and blockchain games as new domains to focus its investments, in order to address these changes in the business environment. The company has subsequently been aggressive in its R&D efforts and investments in those areas.

Matsuda previously explained that Square Enix was keeping a close eye on societal shifts in the area of blockchain games, which are built on the premise of a token economy. Although he realized that some people who "play to have fun" and who form the majority of players have voiced reservations against the trend of blockchain gaming, he also believed that there will be people who are motivated to "play 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 game growth and "decentralized gaming" would become a major trend. Square Enix planned to ramp up its efforts to develop a business accordingly, with an eye to potentially issuing its 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 is thinking of entering into "blockchain games."

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 acquired 18.6% of Square in 2001.

Source: Square Enix