Yosuke Matsuda, the Square Enix CEO, revealed that old school gaming bordered on what he termed as ‘play-for-fun’ while the next generation of gaming is blockchain-based and centered on play-to-earn as the main pillar.
Square Enix is one of the world’s largest gaming companies and if they see the wider adoption of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and play-to-earn games as the future of the industry, who can really deny the potential held by blockchain technology?
Through the Square Enix CEO’s new year’s message, he revealed the conglomerate’s intentions to dive into the blockchain and NFT spheres. The beginning of the letter touches on the Metaverse, in particular, the renaming of Facebook to Meta. In his own words, this serves
“as evidence that the concept is not a mere buzzword but here to stay.”
2021 was dubbed the “Metaverse Year” so what lies ahead in 2022? Yosuke Matsuda expects the Metaverse hype to garner even more traction this new year as other institutions and blockchain enthusiasts start to realize the potential it holds. 2022 is the year that society will realize the power held by virtual worlds, especially in their ability to connect individuals across geographical boundaries.
According to Matsuda, the growing use of cloud computing, 5G, and extended reality technology will all bolster the metaverse’s existence. While trying to merge this concept with his business, he wrote:
As this abstract concept begins to take concrete shape in the form of product and service offerings, I am hoping that it will bring about changes that have a more substantial impact on our business as well.
Within the letter, the CEO also touches on NFTs, then blockchain, and play-to-earn. He insists that 2021 was just ‘year one’ for the metaverse and NFTs and people should expect more as people are understanding crypto better. 2021 saw a lot of wild trading that was not at par with market speculations.
Through Matsuda’s letter, it is clear that the company is striving towards excellence by doubling down on their investments in developing technologies.
As Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts (EA Games) said, NFT and Blockchain Games are the future of the gaming industry. However, gaming companies need to take their time to figure out the concept of play-to-earn going forward.
Read more about cryptocurrency gaming here!
Image courtesy of pixabay
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