In an interview published by Yahoo Japan, Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, said that focusing only on traditional games may “not be enough” for the future of the company and reiterated the intention to make play-to-earn games based on blockchain.
“In the future, we’d like to try to make ‘standalone gaming content,'” Matsuda told Yahoo Japan. “So far, in most games, we’ve provided content with finished products, and users have simply played that content.
However, there is a number of players in the world who want to help make the titles more interesting, creating new game modes and environments. In the future, we want to use the skills of these people to create games that will evolve continuously.”
To achieve this goal, therefore, the president of Square Enix explains that it is necessary to give users an incentive that pushes them to create new content, as well as for simple fun, and here play-to-earn systems and blockchains come into play.
“If instead of relying on goodwill, we can also provide incentives to those who contribute to development using technologies such as blockchain, there is a possibility that innovative and interesting content can come from users’ ideas.”
It’s not the first time Matsuda has shown support for blockchain-based gaming. In his last speech at the end of the year, the president of Square Enix in fact spoke about how NFT and metaverses will become widespread in the video game industry and that consequently, the company intends to invest in artificial intelligence, cloud and blockchain-based games capable of supporting itself independently.
Matsuda’s words were criticized by a good number of players, but on the contrary, they were appreciated by the stock exchange, given that Square Enix shares had soon risen by 8%.”