So I've had this letter from Square Enix's president open in a tab for 2 days now. I've been wanting to write a post about this but I just haven't had the time to sit down and fully digest it. You know, when you have like 45+ tabs open on your browser and don't know what half of them are because it's to the point where the tabs don't even show the website logo. I know, it's a problem. I'm a bit of a digital hoarder lol. I get it from my dad.
Square Enix
The Japan-based video game company is one of the most well known in the world. They created one of the most loved video game franchises ever with the Final Fantasy series. They also created Dragon Quest and one of my absolute favorites - Kingdom Hearts. The Square Enix logo is forever ingrained in my brain. I grew up with 3 older brothers that all played way too many video games. So you know, I'm a pretty hardcore nerd but not so much a huge gamer. You might know how much of a nerd I am if you've ever read any of my posts. I remember one of the first game series I ever played as a kid. I was instantly hooked. This is, however, just the most memorable one for me personally. This letter from their president was pretty interesting and a little odd.
Be they single-player or online games, games have traditionally involved a unidirectional flow whereby creators such as ourselves provide a game to the consumers that play them. By contrast, blockchain games, which have emerged from their infancy and are at this very moment entering a growth phase, are built upon the premise of a token economy and therefore hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth. The driver that most enables such self-sustaining game growth is diversity, both in how people engage with interactive content like games, and in their motivations for doing so. Advances in token economies will likely add further momentum to this trend of diversification. I see the “play to earn” concept that has people so excited as a prime example of this.
Yosuke Matsuda, Square Enix's president, kinda hit the nail on the head here. Gaming has started to evolve with blockchain and play to earn. The days of the company making the game and the players just playing it are ending. I remember when you bought a game for $50 and that was it. Then you just play the game for 1500 hours until you get bored... That evolved into in game purchases and DLC that costs you additional money. Some even make you pay monthly. So now you're paying for the game even more. Then along comes little old play-to-earn gaming to save the day.
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. 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. Traditional gaming has offered no explicit incentive to this latter group of people, who were motivated strictly by such inconsistent personal feelings as goodwill and volunteer spirit.
"Decentalized Gaming"
He then goes on to talk about token economies and the potential within their games. He highlights the importance of "self-sustaining game growth".
By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable self-sustaining game growth. It is precisely this sort of ecosystem that lies at the heart of what I refer to as “decentralized gaming,” and I hope that this becomes a major trend in gaming going forward. If we refer to the one-way relationship where game players and game providers are linked by games that are finished products as “centralized gaming” to contrast it with decentralized gaming, then incorporating decentralized games into our portfolio in addition to centralized games will be a major strategic theme for us starting in 2022.
While he understands that traditional gamers have their reservations, he understands that this is the future of gaming. I've said it before - gaming doesn't need blockchain/NFTs just like blockchain/NFTs don't need gaming. They do compliment each other well, though. They aren't going to be completely changing direction to "decentralized gaming", but rather adding it to their portfolio alongside traditional "centralized gaming". This is the way, Square Enix. Good job, very cool. I'm not for completely destroying what people know as traditional gaming. I believe that there will be games that incorporate NFTs and blockchain that coexist with those that do not. This is kinda where we're at but the blockchain games are usually from companies no one has heard of, not giant ones like Square Enix. I think overall this will be a good way for them to introduce this style of gaming to a a much larger audience. This way players can decide how to spend their time. Whether that be mindlessly playing Halo or earning crypto playing some other game. Power to the player and all that jazz, right?
What do you think about this?
Thanks for reading! Much love.
Links 'n Shit
| Play to Earn | Get paid to Search | Get free crypto every day | Get a WAX wallet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gods Unchained | Presearch | PipeFlare | WAX.io |
| Splinterlands | |||
| Rising Star |
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