The Square Enix president gave us all a gift we really didn’t ask for this holiday season. In a lengthy New Year’s letter, Yosuke Matsuda shoved coal into our collective stockings by highlighting his interest in NFTs and blockchain technology, claiming that decentralized games will be a “major strategic theme” for the company starting in 2022. While the internet collectively hated everything about this announcement, Square Enix stock didn’t reflect this at all, jumping by 8% on the first day of trading after the letter went public. This marks the largest jump in Square Enix stares since August, which is exactly what none of us wanted to hear. If shareholders like it but players don’t, the company will have to choose. Gamers are concerned that the decision has already been made.
NFTs have been poorly received since the term first appeared online, and Matsuda only exacerbated hatred for the very idea of non-fungible tokens by insinuating that people who “play to have fun” are somehow a minority in gaming. According to the president, many people would rather “play to contribute,” by which he specifies that giving these players a means to do so would “make gaming more exciting.” Nowhere in the letter are any of these ideas explained or expounded on in any way.
The community of Final Fantasy XIV has made it clear that NFTs don’t belong in the MMO, begging Square Enix to cancel any of these plans before they come to fruition. If the company needs proof as to why the NFT market isn’t as booming and promising as it is being made out to be, they need only look to Ubisoft for inspiration; even those working at the company are speaking out against the new Ubisoft Quartz platform. The announcement video is sitting at over 95% dislikes, and as of December 29, 2021, the company has only made around $700 in sales of non-fungible tokens. Ouch.
There’s still time for Square Enix to shift away from these plans. However, with such a massive stock market bump, they might have been given a reason not to deviate off course.
