Square Enix, the Japanese company that makes the popular Final Fantasy games, has joined the blockchain gaming project Oasys as a node validator. Square Enix and Oasys will also work together to make blockchain games.
Some people in the gaming community who don’t like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are upset that the company is still putting so much emphasis on blockchain technology.
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In an announcement on September 12, Oasys said that Square Enix had joined the project as the 21st node validator, filling the last spot for initial validators.
In the future, the two will also work together to make new games for Oasys’ Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, which is compatible with EVM and hopes to become a hub for Triple A games with Play-to-Earn (P2E) features.
Square Enix is joining other big names in gaming like Sega, Double Jump, Bandai Namco, and Ubisoft in partnering with Oasys. Ubisoft has a troubled past with gamers who have fought against the company’s NFT gaming initiative, Quartz.
People are ready to fight. In the blockchain world, the idea of big names in gaming supporting a blockchain project is good news, but the traditional gaming community has not taken Square Enix’s move well.
The news was written about in The Gamer with the headline “Square Enix Starts Its Feared NFT Plans by Teaming Up With a Crypto Company.”
The Gamer, by Square Enix: “Unlike most video game developers who decided to announce their moves into the jpeg-filled world of NFTs, Square Enix has only been doubling down on it,” the article says as it questions Square Enix president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda’s previous statements about putting P2E elements into games:
“He probably didn’t care that so many NFT games are not only scams but also look like they were made by an actual bored ape.”
@ShyVortex, a gamer, said on Twitter that the partnership was “truly disgusting. “I’ll never buy another Square Enix game again,” wrote @eramaster12. “What does it take to f*cking make them stop?” “I asked @eramaster12. ”
@Pilnok also said, “This is getting old and embarrassing,” and @ManuelRomer2 said, “How about just don’t do it at all?”
“Blockchain and Square Enix Despite pushback, Square Enix has been slowly stepping up its plans for blockchain in 2022.
Related: Xbox’s CEO is “apprehensive” of pay-to-win games.
Matsuda said in a New Year’s Letter in January that he was very interested in the idea of putting “token economies” that use blockchain technology into games to give players and users who make content for the games a reason to do so.
“As token economies get better, users will be given clear incentives, which will not only make them more consistent in their motivation but also give their creative work a real benefit,” he wrote.
Ubisoft has changed its mind about NFTs and blockchain and says it is in “research mode.”
Square Enix’s games don’t yet use blockchain, but the company got things started in July by selling tokenized figures of characters like Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy for $129.99.
