Meanwhile Kitase teases future Final Fantasy titles
In aNew Year’s message, Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda reaffirmed the company’s focus on blockchain technology with “multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development” despite the public backlash against the initiative. This echoes Matsuda’sNew Year’s messagefrom last January, where the company first expressed its enthusiasm for an NFT-fueled, metaverse future. More recently,Squeenix partneredwith the “environmentally friendly” blockchain firm Oasys, probably to sidestep potential controversies about, y’know, theenvironmental impact of the technology.
Matsuda addressed some of the public pushback in his letter, claiming that new tech usually receives initial backlash before becoming widely accepted. “New technologies and frameworks lead to innovation, but they also create considerable confusion,” he wrote. “Having ridden out such societal tides, some such technologies and frameworks gradually become part of people’s lives, eventually giving rise to new businesses and growth.”
However, Matsuda did admit that “The market was driven more by speculative investors than by gamers” at this point. Although, he did point to “multiple blockchain gaming events held overseas” that “produced more active discussion than ever before about what makes the games exciting and what their user community looks like.” Square hasn’t made things less confusing, as we still don’t know how this tech could actually improve games.
Blockchain is clearly at the company’s forefront. After selling a handful of their western studios and IP for$300 million, including Tomb Raider andDeus Ex, Squeenix mentioned that they’d be able to use the additional cash to launch “new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.”
It’s not all bad news for Square fans, asFinal FantasyproducerYoshinori Kitaseteased fans with “another big announcement unrelated to FFVII” in a different New Years’ letter. Many fans have speculated that Kitase could be referring to aFinal Fantasy 9remake, based on the propheticNvidia leaks.Personally, Final Fantasy 9 is perfect as it is, so I have my fingers crossed for a new project. I’ll probably just replay FF9 anyway.
