Sega scraps blockchain gaming plans, says play to earn is 'boring'

Sega, along with fellow Japanese peers Square Enix and Bandai Namco were optimistic about Web 3.0. (Image: Sega)

Sega's co-chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi has said the Japanese video-games company plans to withhold its popular franchise like Sonic and Yakuza from any future blockchain gaming-related projects.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Utsuni, once an advocate for Web 3.0, said Sega is scraping all plans to develop its own games based on the technology. It has also scrapped ongoing projects.

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Utsumi called the action in play-to-earn games "boring" and there was no point if the games were, no fun".

Sega, Japanese peers Square Enix and Bandai Namco were optimistic about Web 3.0, a collective term used to describe a vision of the internet based on technologies like blockchain, decentralisation and token-based economics.

Play-to-earn games let you earn tokens for putting time into the game. Following the crypto winter and the collapse of FTX exchange, a lot of companies are re-evaluating their vision for Web 3.0.

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Sega said it doesn't want to devalue its franchises by associating with Web 3 projects, though it has allowed characters from Virtua Fighter and Three Kingdoms to be used in NFT projects from partners.

Utsumi also admitted to being unsure of the technology, telling Bloomberg that Sega was "looking into whether this technology is really going to take off in this industry, after all".