Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda recently reaffirmed the company’s blockchain ambitions while acknowledging ongoing concerns about the new trend. Square Enix is the game developer behind Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts.
Matsuda stressed that adding blockchain technology into gaming has “the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth,” based on the assumption that each game would have its own token economy, in a new year’s message posted on the company website. He went on to say that the token economy will encourage players to engage in interactive game content and, as a result, will automatically foster game diversity, which is critical for self-sustaining game growth. Matsuda stated that his firm is considering creating its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency in the future.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the metaverse were also identified as key trends for 2021, according to Matsuda, who added that the company has since become more aggressive in allocating investments and R&D in areas such as identified AI, the cloud, and blockchain games — which were designated as the company’s new business domains in 2020. Matsuda acknowledged that the current speculative trading of NFTs is not ideal, but believes that the issue will be resolved when the tokens become more widely utilized.
Meanwhile, the company’s president acknowledges that some current game players, who “play for fun,” are wary of these new tendencie “However, I believe that there will be a certain number of people whose motivation is to “play to contribute,” by which I mean to help make the game more exciting. Then, Traditional gaming offers no explicit incentive to this latter group of people. That’s, those getting inspiration by such inconsistent personal feelings as goodwill and volunteer spirit,” Matsuda writes.
After expressing its support for NFTs in April last year. So, Sega, another big game producer in Japan, received backlash from fans of its own product, Sonic the Hedgehog. So, Some Sonic the Hedgehog fans points out that NFTs could potentially hurt the environment. Noting, it goes against the game’s ecological values.
Environmental worries over NFTs appear to be developing in tandem with their popularity; HYBE, the music agency behind the worldwide successful K-pop boy band BTS. Then, faces backlash from fans after announcing a deal with Dunamu. Inorder, to issue NFTs of K-pop items for the same reason. HYBE, on the other hand, has stated that it will continue to pursue its NFT endeavors despite the outcry. Thereby, claiming that the technology will provide fans new ways to express themselves.
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