A New Future for Square Enix - Is it Good or Bad?
By Editor | Last Updated 01.14.2022
President of Square Enix announces a new direction for the company moving forward by utilizing Blockchain technology
SQUARE ENIX, creators of the famed FINAL FANTASY SERIES (shown above), have announced Blockchain technology’s integration into its games.
Article Contents
The Letter
The Bad
The Good
The Reality
The Letter
On January 1st, the President of SQUARE ENIX Holdings, Yosuke Matsuda, announces a new direction in a LETTER for the year 2022 utilizing Blockchain technology.
In this letter, Yosuke Matsuda carefully explains to the millions of loyal players which direction he plans on taking the company moving forward. While Blockchain is the last of what he mentions, it has garnered the most response.
“Lastly is blockchain games. Be they single-player or online games, games have traditionally involved a unidirectional flow whereby creators such as ourselves provide a game to the consumers that play them. By contrast, blockchain games, which have emerged from their infancy and are at this very moment entering a growth phase, are built upon the premise of a token economy and therefore hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth.”
Yosuke Matsuda goes on to mention, “Advances in token economies will likely add further momentum to this trend of diversification…” and believes this shift in technology will drive player incentives, which leads towards this inevitable new future.
While we feel like this is the future of gaming and a significant step towards the future, not everyone agrees. We explore the reasons why and ask if this move by SQUARE ENIX is GOOD or BAD.
The Bad
The shift to blockchain, NFT’s, and Crypto Games inevitably creates a rift in the millions of players who love SQUARE ENIX games. While we here at CryptoGameNews.io understand that Crypto-Gaming and Blockchain technology is the future, we also understand that there are still many gamers who have many misconceptions about Blockchain gaming, NFT’s, and Cryptocurrencies, and rightfully so.
There is a growing resistance to Blockchain and gaming joining at the hip because of the misconceptions. I genuinely believe there is an increasing resentment towards NFT’s due to the placement of value people give to them when attached to a jpeg. Yosuke Matsuda touches on this in his letter where he states,
“…we do observe examples here and there of overheated trading in NFT-based digital goods with somewhat speculative overtones…”
Yosuke Matsuda goes on to state, “regardless of the observed value of the content provided This, obviously, is not an ideal situation, but I expect to see an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals as they become more commonplace among the general public, with the value of each available content corrected to their true estimated worth, and I look for them to become as familiar as dealings in physical goods.”
We believe that understanding is the key to transitioning over to this new era of gaming, and understanding comes from pointing out the differences between the legacy era and the new era that has not fully arrived. To judge blockchain games on their current state is like saying an infant will never make it because it is too short.
Many gamers out there have tried or looked at blockchain gaming in its current state and have declared it slow, expensive, and in many cases, more of a drain on their pockets than the traditional legacy games that they can play for free.
I have personally spent over $800USD to acquire three NFT’s to play the first blockchain game I ever discovered. I played that game for three months, earned the equivalent of $500 in Crypto, and the NFT’s, while they have gone down in value, have the potential to go up again soon with the release of the beta version of the game.
I broke even at this point. That would make my initial investment null, right? Some people may see it that way, but a few things need to be said here. I still own those three NFT’s that can go up in value. I still hold that Crypto that can go up in value. I own it. Not some company, I do; it is mine. I can use it to earn more Crypto, sell it to someone who wants to use it, or rent it to someone who wants to play and earn. Can this game disappear, and I lose my investment? Yes, of course! So I ask, what is the difference from any legacy game here?
Games that are ‘Free-to-Play’ that you can purchase in-game items eventually fail or change so much that you no longer desire to play it, and thus, your investment will be lost. The difference here is that with a legacy game, your loss of investment is inevitable in the end.
A good example is the $7000 I spent while playing the ‘Free-to-Play’ Marvels Contest of Champions (for three years) that I will never see again. While I didn’t have to spend that money, I was in a top-tier Alliance, and I didn’t want to let my fellow members down in our wars, so I spent and spent.
While you play Legacy games, they can suddenly make things more expensive, change the rules, alter game item stats, all without the consent of the majority of gamers that play that game. The difference here is in Blockchain games, players in a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) get a say in the future of a game.
The only real BAD thing here is that Blockchain and Crypto games are in the early stages of development, and they get a bad rap because of Ethereum. They point to the congestion and high gas fees thanks to its mass adoption before shifting over to a POS (Proof of Stake) consensus model from its slow and congested POW (Proof of Work) consensus model.
The Good
This is just the beginning! The start of 2022 will be remembered as the year of Blockchain and Crypto Gaming despite the resistance from legacy gamers. By utilizing Blockchain technology, such as NFT’s and Cryptocurrencies, player ownership comes into play, increasing involvement, incentive, and motivation, leading to a more enjoyable, more prosperous future for all gamers.
Once gamers realize what the future holds for them, they will realize why huge companies are shifting over to this new technology. The shifting tides over to this new era of gaming will be so great that no resistance will be significant enough to stop it, and the Gamers themselves will lead it.
Gamers who know there is a better way forward. Players who understand that this technology allows them to earn real value from the games they love to play and that working a job to pay for game items will no longer be necessary as the game itself will pay for itself.
The Reality
When it comes to new and emerging technologies, there will always be slow beginnings. It takes time to build infrastructure, and making it at scale for everyone takes even longer.
Thanks to the hype, mostly brought on by a company that wanted to bring about the future before it is here to sell a lot of old, outdated hardware, there is a perception that the Metaverse and Blockchain gaming is already here. And yes, I’m referring to the Oculus Pro and Oculus 3 leaks.
For those of us who have experienced the current state of Blockchain gaming, we have this understanding that the best is yet to come. And by all means, once player-owned economies get up and going, the players who resisted this unstoppable player-led revolution will be the ones shaking their heads as to why they were ever holding onto the failing legacy era of gaming.
A concept such as player-owned economies has not been around ever. This concept is very new and has not been implemented in a real-world setting to its full potential yet lends to the reasons why so many do not see that the majority of the good is yet to come.
Something that has often been overshadowed in this letter is the mention of SQUARE ENIX AI & ARTS Alchemy Co., Ltd. (“AI & AA”) and what this means for future development.
We believe this kind of R&D leads to some great Metaverse experiences in the future. Imagine having a full-on conversation with Cloud about your Final Fantasy VII memories or telling Tifa you were the one that saved her many times over. These are the kinds of experiences that will be possible, but few people can see that far into the future.
As a long-time SQUARE ENIX gamer, I am very excited about the future. There is no telling how SQUARE ENIX plans to implement these new technologies into their games, but we know that the future is exciting and full of possibilities for gamers and game makers alike.
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