Square Enix, the developers of one of the world’s most popular game franchises, Final Fantasy, have announced that they expect NFTs to be a large part of the future of gaming.
President of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, released a New Year letter in which he extolled the virtues of the play to earn model of gaming, with NFTs at the heart of that. Matsuda suggests that the potential sale of the blockchain-based tokens gives the industry, and his company, hope to enable self-sustaining game growth and create a decentralized gaming ecosystem.
It’s not the first time this has arisen either, as NFTs have been making their way into conversations involving mainstream gaming with increased frequency over the past few months. Ubisoft was the first company to pop its head above the parapet when introducing NFTs after they opened their platform, Quartz, at the end of 2021. Initially, they brought their take on the assets by offering players of their games the chance to deck their playable characters out in one-off outfits.
This increase of interest in NFTs in gaming was almost destined to happen as they have been steadily creeping through various industries to great success over the past year or so. From musicians such as the Kings of Leon releasing an album via the blockchain to sports fans getting hold of branded NFTs through their favorite clubs. They have been particularly prominent in Europe, with soccer clubs, in particular, seeing sales of the fan token heading into tens of millions of dollars. However, the model there is a little different. Rather than just selling the unique digital item, the token also unlocks access for the purchaser to other experiences such as meet and greets and options to vote on club issues. There has also been the sale of various pieces of art via NFTs at Sotheby’s, with some fetching tens of millions. But one of the most intriguing NFTs of them all also went under the hammer at the auction house, the sale of the first-ever web browser code written by Sir Tim Berners Lee. After all, without the internet, this wouldn’t be possible at all, and gamers certainly couldn’t enjoy their social gaming over the globe without it!
To hear the President of Square Enix, who has sold over 160 million copies of their Final Fantasy franchise to date, talk so positively about the likely introduction of NFTs into their offering for gamers is enormous. However, in the letter, Matsuda doesn’t say precisely how they intend on doing so, which could indicate that they’re looking to see how the fruits of Ubisoft’s labor blossom before heading into the unknown realm for themselves. The same could go for EA, Take-Two, and other game developers, who have also nailed their positive thoughts to the mast in terms of NFTs. But one thing is for sure; blockchain will be very prevalent in gaming for quite some time yet.
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