Back in January, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda decided to set the internet on fire by claiming an interest in NFTs and all things blockchain. As expected, the response to his lengthy letter regarding the future of the company was hugely negative, with many pointing out Matsuda’s odd distinction between ‘serious gamers’ and those who ‘play to have fun.’ Despite continued outcries against taking Square Enix in this polarizing direction, it looks like the president hasn’t changed his mind. Even worse, he seems even more excited about play-to-earn titles.
In a new interview with Yahoo Japan, Matsuda discusses how things need to change in order for Square Enix to survive going forward. “In the future, we would like to try our hand at providing ‘autonomous game content’,” Matsuda said. Previously, the exec claimed that Square Enix could potentially create its own cryptocurrency.
“Until now, in most games, we provided the content as a finished product and the players played that content,” he continues. “However, there are a certain number of players in the world who want to contribute to making games more interesting, by creating new settings and ways of playing.
If, instead of relying on goodwill, we can also provide incentives to those who contribute to development by utilizing technologies such as blockchain, there is a possibility that innovative and interesting content can be created from the ideas of users.”
In Matsuda’s January letter, he discussed his potentially misguided belief that blockchain games may “hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth” by using the largely disliked ‘play-to-earn’ concept.
Despite the president’s unpopular plans, Square Enix saw an eight percent jump in its share price immediately after the letter was published three months ago.
One of the best responses to the executive’s plans came from consultant and game designer Brandon Sheffield.
“Among all the grossness of this whole letter, and even this quote, what gets me is the idea that people who play games to have fun are only ‘currently’ the majority, and the implication that changing this is a good idea.”
Not all of Square Enix’s recent ideas are terrible, though–the company has announced an interest in making more HD-2D remakes in the future.
