Square Enix kicked off the new year of 2022 with a letter from the company’s president, Yosuke Matsuda. And in the letter, he said that the company will not only see NFTs as a major trend in gaming, but also something that the company will be pursuing.
Matsuda also notes that the current situation with NFTs is not ideal, with “overheated trading” and “speculative overtones”. But he also claims that there will be an “eventual right-sizing” in the prices. Then there’s the same spiel of “decentralised gaming” that Ubisoft tried to pull when it announced Quartz.
One other part in the letter that would trip some cynic’s alarm bells. One is the way Square Enix, or at least the company president, frames gamers as people who “play to have fun” against modders as people who “play to contribute”. Then there’s the complete misunderstanding of the motivation of modders in the first place in order to make NFTs sound like a good idea in gaming.
Overall, company president Yosuke Matsuda paints a grim picture of Square Enix in 2022. Sure, the letter is devoid of specifics, so no one can call it out the way Ubisoft got called out for Quartz. But it gives a clear idea as to the direction the company wants to go to for the rest of the year. And the year has only just started. Hopefully the still upcoming Final Fantasy XVI remains unaffected despite its development getting pushed back.
(Source: Square Enix)
