In last years New Year letter Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda went all in on blockchain games, NFT’s, and the metaverse. “I see 2021 not only as “Metaverse: Year One,” but also as “NFTs: Year One” given that it was a year in which NFTs were met with a great deal of enthusiasm by a rapidly expanding user base,” he commented.
We’re still not sure where that “great deal of enthusiasm” and “rapidly expanding user base” was and wherever they were they ran a mile in 2022 with NFTs that had sold for millions of dollars, such as the NFT of the very first Tweet, up for sale and getting bids of around $6,200.
Unsurprisingly there’s little mention of NFTs in this year’s Square Enix New Year letter and instead the focus is on blockchain games of which Square Enix ” has multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development, some of which we announced last year, and we are undertaking preparations that will enable us to unveil even more titles this year. ”
“Looking externally, I think it is fair to say that blockchain gained significant recognition as a field in 2022, as evidenced by “Web 3.0” becoming a firmly established buzzword among businesspeople,” writes Matsuda.
However, there clearly has been a shift of thinking, the tone of last year’s letter was ‘let’s see how much money we can make out of people by using blockchain and NFTs’ while this year’s letter seems to be more focussed on content.
“Multiple blockchain gaming events held overseas recently produced more active discussion than ever before about what makes the games exciting and what their user community looks like. The market was driven more by speculative investors than by gamers though 2021. In other words, the content that was at the forefront was created based on the premise that blockchain and NFTs should result in monetization. ”
“However, in the wake of the aforementioned turbulence in the cryptocurrency industry, there is now a trend to view blockchain technology as a mere means to an end and to discuss what needs to happen to achieve the end of delivering new experiences and excitement to customers. I see this as a very beneficial development for the future growth of the industry.”
There’s also a video to accompany the letter which includes a section from “Creative Business Unit 2 Miyake”, heavens knows what his parents were thinking when they named him.
Source: Square Enix
