Square Enix Wants To Get Into NFTs To The Unsurprising Dismay Of Gamers

Though melding of NFTs in video games has yet to work for any major gaming publisher, Square Enix appears poised to dip their toes in the theoretically lucrative pool after a recent announcement.

On January 1st, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda posted an open letter that attempted to sell the public on its excitement and potential plans to get into the Metaverse, cryptocurrency and, of course, NFTs, though the writing was about as clear as the plot of Kingdom Hearts (meaning: not very).

Portions of the letter read:

I realize that some people who “play to have fun” and who currently form the majority of players have voiced their reservations toward these new trends, and understandably so. However, I believe that there will be a certain number of people whose motivation is to “play to contribute,” by which I mean to help make the game more exciting. Traditional gaming has offered no explicit incentive to this latter group of people, who were motivated strictly by such inconsistent personal feelings as goodwill and volunteer spirit.

By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable self-sustaining game growth. It is precisely this sort of ecosystem that lies at the heart of what I refer to as “decentralized gaming,” and I hope that this becomes a major trend in gaming going forward. If we refer to the one-way relationship where game players and game providers are linked by games that are finished products as “centralized gaming” to contrast it with decentralized gaming, then incorporating decentralized games into our portfolio in addition to centralized games will be a major strategic theme for us starting in 2022.

For fans who aren't into NFTs (aka, the people who play games to "have fun"), this is precisely the buzzword-laden paragraph that raises alarm bells. Sure enough, a vast majority of the public did not share Matsuda's enthusiasm for his bold new vision for the video game future. Kotaku rounded up some Japanese gamer responses on 2ch, 5ch, Twitter and the gaming site Hachima Kikou, none of which were positive. Some of the comments included:

"This is disgusting. NFTs are a money-game commodity with no value."

"So they don’t have any ability to make games anymore, so they’ll have players sell things to each other and then live off the commissions?"

"Even as a joke, this isn’t funny."

The English-language internet was seemingly equally as unenthused.

We're yet to see if and how Square Enix will implement cryptocurrency into its games, though if recent history is any indication of the plan's viability, it will likely not be met well.