As Square Enix looks to follow Ubisoft's suit into NFTs, what does the future of video games hold?
Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda came out with an open letter on January 1, going over the company’s plans for the coming year. It consists of a farrago of buzzwords like Metaverse, NFT, and blockchain technology.
The last month of 2021 saw the start of this trend in the video game industry as Ubisoft, and then GSC Game World (the team behind Stalker 2), laid out their plans regarding the implementation of NFTs into their games.
While GSC Game World eventually backtracked on their decision after facing huge backlash from fans, Ubisoft went ahead with their NFT plans with Ghost Recon Breakpoint. While the announcement of Ubisoft’s “Quartz” program was the recipient of intense negative community responses, the actual products have not seen many sales and have been mostly ignored.
In this light, Square Enix’s decision to come up with the contents of this letter seems baffling. Will more video game publishers dare to go the same route?
Note: This article reflects the writer's personal opinion.
The impetus to adopt NFTs for big video game corporations, after all, comes down to the money question. With user-generated content (UGC) and “play to contribute” as driving factors, it is the customers who will be essentially paying for the game, and keep on paying to keep the game running.
The loot box controversy is a thing of the past. However, NFTs most certainly seem like a much more cranked-up version of predatory microtransactions that have been present in several AAA games in the last decade. This portion of Square Enix president Matsuda’s letter is especially relevant here:
This is quite reminiscent of the controversy involving Bethesda and Valve regarding paid mods. There are a significant number of game communities that have
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