Square Enix NFTs: President Pushes for Metaverse Integration

As time goes on, the metaverse seems poised to dominate the digital space. In recent months, we’ve seen several ‘big name’ developers sniffing the crypto-ridden air, tempted by the potential offered by NFTs and the metaverse in general. Now, in a communique written to address the year ahead, Square Enix’s president has shown intense interest in these spaces. As he talks about the immense benefits these verticals offer to gaming, it seems there may be Square Enix NFTs in the near future.

There’s no big secret surrounding the fact that the crypto gaming industry is growing exponentially with each passing day. It’s an attractive space to any digitally-focused organisation, and now, the likes of EA, Ubisoft, and Sega are all looking to the opportunities it creates. In this communique, Square Enix’s president, Yosuke Matsuda, said:

“By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable self-sustaining game growth. It is precisely this sort of ecosystem that lies at the heart of what I refer to as ‘decentralised gaming,’ and I hope that this becomes a major trend in gaming going forward.”

The Future is Digital?

Recently, Ubisoft came out and announced an all-new NFT trading platform known as Quartz. It was met with immense resistance from the community in general, and all-in-all, it seemed to be a flawed launch, with almost no uptake from the word ‘go’. In fact, weeks after the platform had launched, Ubisoft’s NFT platform had seen just fifteen NFTs being traded. Ultimately, it was seen as nothing more than an experiment – and a failed one at that.

In similar news, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developers announced their withdrawal from an NFT offering in their 2022 release. As soon as this news was announced, fans of the franchise took to the airwaves to voice their displeasure, and, understandably, the developers relented.

The announcement regarding potential Square Enix NFTs has been met with similar resistance, particularly from the Final Fantasy 14 markets. This title is Square Enix’s massively successful MMO, set in the Final Fantasy universe, and likely the staging ground for any NFT-based activity. On popular message boards such as Reddit, fans of FFXIV expressed concerns about the impact NFTs would have on their beloved game:

“Let us take solace in the fact that when Ubisoft tried this, there was a total of 15 sales and most were to one person trying to corner the market.”

However, the future of Square Enix NFTs may already have signs of being a successful venture…

The Proof of Concept

Almost a year ago, Square Enix took to its Japanese market to trial a ‘proof-of-concept’ NFT project. In March of 2021, Square Enix partnered with Double Jump Tokyo to design and release a series of ‘trading stickers’ related to the Million Arthur franchise, an anime-based video game series made popular in Japan. These trading stickers were digitally produced, and came in the form of NFTs – and they were a huge success.

Within the space of a few short months, Square Enix announced a second run of Million Arthur NFTs. However, there’s a slight cultural bias in place, as Japan has long been seen as a firm supporter of collector behaviour such as this. If Square Enix NFTs were to launch in a ‘Western market’, they may not fare so well.

One thing is for sure, though – if the Square Enix president is to have his way, we may see metaverse-styled, play-to-earn integrations in Final Fantasy XIV in the near future.