Square Enix wants a piece of the metaverse, promises ‘decentralized games’ in 2022

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What would a Final Fantasy, tomb Raider, or Deus Ex Does it seem like it was partly powered by the blockchain, so players could make money from their contributions? You can find out: Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has revealed that the company’s New Year’s resolution is to launch “decentralized games” starting in 2022.

While you won’t find any details in Masuda’s letter discussing the company’s strategy for the new year, you will find a good idea of ​​its cautious but optimistic stance, which is not surprising, given that other game companies than recently Leeroy Jenkins They got their On the NFTs he saw a whiplash so immediate that you could practically feel the vibrations over the internet.

Here is the most relevant section, nearing the end:

From having fun to making money to contributing, a wide variety of motivations will inspire people to play games and connect with each other. It is the blockchain-based tokens that will allow this. By designing viable token economies in our games, we will enable self-sustained growth of the game. It is precisely this type of ecosystem that is at the heart of what I call “decentralized games”, and I hope this will become a major trend in games in the future. If we refer to the one-way relationship in which gamers and game providers are linked by games that are finished products as “centralized games” in contrast to decentralized games, then incorporate decentralized games into our portfolio in addition to centralized games, it will be a problem. The main strategic theme for us from 2022. The basic and elementary technologies to enable blockchain games already exist, and there has been an increase in social literacy and acceptance of crypto assets in recent years. We will keep an eye on the societal changes in this space as we listen to the many user groups that populate it and redouble our efforts to build a business accordingly, with a view to potentially issuing our own tokens in the future.

It probably also helps that Square Enix doesn’t mention any special games that could get the blockchain / token treatment, so no specific fan communities ready to go out with forks yet, unlike Ubisoft’s or GSG’s Ghost Recon NFT announcement Stalker 2.

When giant gaming companies are faced with the conclusion that stacks of cash are locked into the buzzwords “Metaverse” and “NFT,” they are usually happy to say they’ve been there, done that, if they do. like Square. Enix: I’ve been dealing with the whole fantasy and reality and / or multiple worlds thing for years. Square Enix could have mentioned how it already merged Final Fantasy with beloved Disney lands through its kingdom hearts game series, or how it brought Cloud and Sephiroth and some Final Fantasy Nintendo elements, settings and music Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – the kind of cross-game pollination that proponents of the metaverse suggest we’ll see a lot more of once we discover the technology.

Instead, the company is putting a philosophical foot in the water, strongly signaling its intention and perhaps waiting to see how its passionate fans react to the idea of ​​Square Enix issuing its own tokens, Square Enix designing more economies in its games, and those games are becoming more about money than they are today.

Square Enix also promises “extensive investments in the cloud space,” although it is unclear if the company is talking about cloud gaming. “We are exploring potential efforts in the cloud space from two main perspectives, the first is leveraging cloud technologies to deliver content and the second is developing content that offers customers new forms of emotion enabled by the attributes of the cloud, ”writes Matsuda.