Square Enix, the Japanese gaming company, is pressing on with its vision of integrating blockchain elements into its games. In a recent interview, president Yosuke Matsuda talked about the importance of user-generated content and the advantages that allowing this kind of development, as well as introducing blockchain-based self-sustained economies, might bring to the future of the gaming industry.
Square Enix will double down on blockchain and standalone content
Square Enix is doubling down on its business plan of including blockchain elements in its games in the not-too-distant future. The company, which had previously planned to make a robust entry into the blockchain gaming world, now seems interested in using these tools to create self-sustaining economies in gaming worlds.
Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, reiterated the compromise that he and the company have to deliver some of these experiences in the future in a recent interview given to Yahoo News. To Matsuda, user-generated content is very important, and he insists on rewarding creators of this content directly with some kind of game currency. He stated:
By using technologies such as blockchain instead of relying on good intentions, if incentives are given to those who have contributed to the development, it is possible that innovative and fun content will be born from the user’s ideas.
This inclusion of user-generated content would also ostensibly help create games able to thrive outside the hands of the original developers even after original support ends, if there is sufficient interest from third-party creators.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that Matsuda has expressed his views on the future of gaming and cryptocurrency items. In a New Year’s letter in January, Matsuda revealed how he thinks blockchain could change the way players and builders can be part of gaming experiences in more immersive ways.
On how to achieve this immersive engagement, Matsuda stated:
Blockchain-based tokens will enable this. By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable autonomous game growth.
However, Square Enix has been rather conservative when it comes to designing a game featuring franchises such as Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts around blockchain and token mechanics. In fact, Naoki Yoshida, director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV, denied any possibility of including NFTs in the game in February.
Other Japanese companies, such as Sega, have also been ambivalent about NFTs. While the company announced in January that it could scrap NFT experiences if they were viewed by gamers as a money grab, it also hinted at their possible inclusion in its “Super Game” framework.
