The legendary game studio Square Enix will continue to improve Blockchain technology and digital assets in 2023. In a letter published by company president Yosuke Matsuda, the company is committed to focus on “blockchain entertainment” and Web3.
In 2022, Square Enix is exploring a non-fungible token (NFT) initiative. According to the company’s latest financial results, digital assets and blockchain-based businesses are getting positive feedback and good reception. Matsuda said:
(…) we are most focused on blockchain entertainment, where we have made aggressive investments and business development efforts. Looking externally, I think it is fair that blockchain will gain significant recognition as a field in 2022 (…).
Square Enix Keeps Faith In Blockchain Technology For Entertainment
As seen in the chart below, interest in the sector can be based on the surge in sales of mobile games. Net sales revenue from smart devices and PCs has been on an upward trend since 2020, becoming a bigger part of the company’s contribution.
In terms of physical games versus digital game sales, the latter has become more critical for the company since Q3 2020. This metric continues to rise today and, combined with net sales revenue, explains the interest in expanding digital sales and entertainment.
As part of its expansion in the blockchain space, Square Enix will launch an overseas entity dedicated to “issuing, managing, and investing our own tokens” and publishing games in countries with “wide cryptocurrency adoption.”
In addition, the company is exploring launching a Corporate Venture Capital unit, publishing exclusive products as NFTs, and launching new NFT brands and IPs based on this technology.
In this sense, the company includes blockchain entertainment as a critical part of its medium-term business strategy. From 2021 to 2022, Square Enix launched “Shi-San-Sei Million Arthur” season one, a free-to-play mobile video game for Android and iOS.
The positive reception of this product is another factor that has led to the expansion of the company’s digital assets and blockchain business. In the second season of this series, Square Enix will implement a new strategy to explore features such as NFT ownership, “income structure,” and more.
Working on Crypto and NFT Regulations
The president of the company believes that the implosion of FTX and other important players in the sector will push for stricter regulations on blockchain technology. Thus, Square Enix will approach Japan and other governments to work on these regulations.
The company will help clarify regulations on the new sector based on the idea that “new technologies and frameworks lead to innovation.” The president of Square Enix wrote the following about the future of NFT and its maturity in the coming months; he encourages people to think about these assets beyond their speculative capacity:
NFTs and the metaverse in 2021, 2022 is a year of great volatility in the blockchain-related space. However, if this proves to be a step in the process that leads to making the rules and the business environment more transparent, it would have been for the good growth of blockchain entertainment.
As of this writing, Ethereum is trading at $1,210 with a sideways movement over the last 24 hours.