In a New Year’s message, Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda reaffirmed the corporate’s deal with blockchain expertise with “a number of blockchain games based mostly on unique IPs below growth” regardless of the general public backlash in opposition to the initiative. This echoes Matsuda’s New Year’s message from final January, the place the corporate first expressed its enthusiasm for an NFT-fueled, metaverse future. More not too long ago, Squeenix partnered with the “environmentally pleasant” blockchain agency Oasys, most likely to sidestep potential controversies about, y’know, the environmental impact of the technology.
Matsuda addressed a few of the public pushback in his letter, claiming that new tech often receives preliminary backlash earlier than changing into broadly accepted. “New applied sciences and frameworks result in innovation, however in addition they create appreciable confusion,” he wrote. “Having ridden out such societal tides, some such applied sciences and frameworks steadily develop into a part of folks’s lives, ultimately giving rise to new companies and progress.”
However, Matsuda did admit that “The market was pushed extra by speculative buyers than by avid gamers” at this level. Although, he did level to “a number of blockchain gaming occasions held abroad” that “produced extra energetic dialogue than ever earlier than about what makes the games thrilling and what their person neighborhood seems to be like.” Square hasn’t made issues much less complicated, as we nonetheless do not know the way this tech might truly enhance games.
Blockchain is clearly on the firm’s forefront. After promoting a handful of their western studios and IP for $300 million, together with Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, Squeenix talked about that they’d have the ability to use the extra money to launch “new companies by transferring ahead with investments in fields together with blockchain, AI, and the cloud.”
Elsewhere in Square’s kingdom, a handful of live-service games are quietly shutting down. The Final Fantasy 7 battle-royale spin-off, The First Soldier, ends companies on January eleventh, adopted by Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights on February twenty eighth. This follows from kart racer Chocobo GP which stopped receiving assist in December 2022, 9 months after its launch.
It’s not all unhealthy information for Square followers, as Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase teased followers with “one other large announcement unrelated to FFVII” in a special New Years’ letter. Many followers have speculated that Kitase may very well be referring to a Final Fantasy 9 remake, based mostly on the prophetic Nvidia leaks. Personally, Final Fantasy 9 is ideal as it’s, so I’ve my fingers crossed for a brand new undertaking. I’ll most likely simply replay FF9 anyway.
Regardless of any game shutterings, blockchain controversy, or traditional remakes, Square Enix is poised to have a fairly good 2023. Their magic-flinging parkour game Forspoken releases in just a few weeks on January twenty fourth. On June twenty second, Square’s greatest collection returns with Final Fantasy 16 – presently a timed unique for PS5. Then the subsequent a part of their FF7 saga continues with Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth subsequent winter, additionally debuting as a timed unique for PS5.