“Square Enix Plans for 2022 Include Blockchain Gaming and Token Economy”

Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda has written and published a New Year’s letter to the SE official website, disclosing the company’s future plans. Based on the mid- to long-term business strategy announced by Square Enix in 2020, single-player/multiplayer blockchain games that prioritize AI, cloud research, and token economy continue to dominate the priorities of R&D teams.

In his letter, Matsuda stated that 2021 would be “Metaverse: Year One.” Facebook has changed its name to Meta, and significant advances in augmented reality technology have helped solidify a global conversation about metaverse-centric business opportunities. 2021 was also, as Matsuda puts it, “NFT: It was a year of tremendous enthusiasm for NFTs due to their rapidly expanding user base.” So what does this mean for 2022?

Square Enix’s “Entertainment AI” and cloud project revolves around improving performance that leads to consumer accessibility and high-quality experiences. Mazda, on the other hand, wants Square Enix’s future blockchain games to “enable independent game growth.” It is intended to highlight the newly discovered concept of “play for profit” by changing the way players interact with their favorite titles. Mazda explains in more detail below.

It’s understandable that some people who “play for fun” and those who now make up the majority of players have expressed reservations about this new trend. But I do believe there will be a certain number of people who have a “play to contribute” motivation. In other words, we want to help make the game more exciting… It is the blockchain-based tokens that make this possible. By designing a viable token economy into our games, we will enable self-sufficient game growth. That kind of ecosystem is at the heart of what I call “decentralized gaming,” and I hope this will become a major trend in gaming going forward.”

This shift towards NFT and blockchain efforts is evident in the operations of other publishers and developers around the world. For example, Fable creator Peter Molyneux is making a “blockchain business simulation,” and Ubisoft has revealed plans to produce blockchain games and NFTs.