Square Enix President Still Believes Blockchain Is The Future Despite Crypto Crash

2022’s big crypto crash and the subsequent demise of several blockchain and NFT games apparently isn’t enough to deter Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda’s ambitions to break into the blockchain market.

In his New Year’s Letter from the President, Matsuda asserts that blockchain technology is the future of games and that it remains an untapped market. He also insists that the failure of multiple blockchain companies and games over the past few months means that there’s less competition and more opportunities for Square Enix to succeed in the market.

“Multiple blockchain gaming events held overseas recently produced more active discussion than ever before about what makes the games exciting and what their user community looks like,” wrote Matsuda. “The market was driven more by speculative investors than by gamers though 2021.”

“In other words, the content that was at the forefront was created based on the premise that blockchain and NFTs should result in monetization,” he continued. “However, in the wake of the aforementioned turbulence in the cryptocurrency industry, there is now a trend to view blockchain technology as a mere means to an end and to discuss what needs to happen to achieve the end of delivering new experiences and excitement to customers. I see this as a very beneficial development for the future growth of the industry.”

Matsuda isn’t necessarily alone in his optimism about the benefits of blockchain and NFTs in video games, although most companies that tried to dip their toes into the world of cryptocurrency ultimately ended up crashing and burning as the price of almost every coin and token dipped significantly in the second half of 2022. These include WeMade Entertainment and its WeMix platform as well as Valofe and Reaper Games, publishers of the crypto-integrated versions of Riders of Icarus and Legends of Aria, respectively.