Square Enix President says keeping a close eye on NFTs

(Image Courtesy: Officelovin)

Japanese entertainment company Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda sees non-fungible tokens (NFTs) playing a role in the gaming industry and rationalising costs as their use grows.

In an open letter to fans, Matsuda talked about some 2021 trends and laid down a roadmap of where the gaming giant wished to go in 2022.

Metaverse was the buzzword in the tech world in 2021 and hasn't escaped Matsuda's attention. He said that Facebook changing its name to Meta was a sign that the term was more than a buzzword.

He called 2021 "Metaverse: Year One" and "NFTs: Year One". Matsuda foresees "eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals” as they become more commonplace, with the value of NFT prices correcting to their real worth.

He acknowledged skepticism and misgivings among fans that it would add to microtransactions that already litter countless games.

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"I realize that some people who “play to have fun” and who currently form the majority of players have voiced their reservations toward these new trends, and understandably so," he wrote.

"However, I believe that there will be a certain number of people whose motivation is to “play to contribute,” by which I mean to help make the game more exciting."

Response to the letter has so far been less than positive. Some noted that concepts such as "play to contribute" were all just marketing jargon for creating another monetisation system within games.

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Some players also discussed the environmental implications of using blockchain technologies to power games. Not many people were sold on the idea of Metaverse as well, calling it a worse version of the internet.