Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, has started the year by sending a New Year’s message on the company’s increased focus on NFTs, blockchain games, and the metaverse.
Matsuda opened his letter by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and said that the metaverse will be “a hot issue in 2021, driving a vibrant worldwide discourse first about what the metaverse is and then about what kind of economic prospects it brings.”
In addition to this, he said Facebook’s name change to Meta was “proof that the concept is not just a simple term but here to stay”. And that 2021 was the “Metaverse Year” due to all the attention.
Matsuda believes that the metaverse will “likely see a meaningful transition to a business phase in 2022. With a wide range of services appearing on the scene”. Thanks to advances in “extended reality (XR) technology, the increasing prevalence of the cloud and 5G, more sophisticated blockchain technology, and other technological evolutions that have taken place in a variety of fields over the past several years.”
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, were the next topic of discussion of Matsuda
The next subject of discussion was non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Matsuda began by referring to 2021 as “not just ‘Metaverse: Year One,’ but also as ‘NFTs: Year One’. It was an exciting year for NFTs, with a growing number of users embracing the technology.”
Despite the fact that there are terrible “examples here and there of overheated trade in NFT-based digital goods with somewhat speculative undertones, independent of the observable worth of the material delivered”. Matsuda believes the ship will eventually level itself.
In May 2020 Square Mix identified AI, the cloud and blockchan games
In terms of how this relates to Square Enix, Matsuda highlighted that the firm behind the Final Fantasy series. The forthcoming Forspoken. And much more “identified AI, the cloud, and blockchain games as new domains on which we should focus our investments” in May 2020.
As a result, users will have clear incentives to take action, resulting in increased motivation. However also producing a concrete advantage to their creative endeavors,” Matsuda says of the advancements in token economies.
“I expect that this will lead to more individuals committing themselves to such initiatives”. Matsuda adds, “and to more potential for games to flourish in new ways”. “A wide range of reasons will motivate individuals to interact with games and connect with one another. From having fun to earning money to giving. This will be made possible via blockchain-based coins.”
Matsuda believes the new technologies will provide us with numerous opportunities to enrich peoples lives
In conclusion, Matsuda believes that “the new technologies and concepts that I have discussed, as well as the changes that they bring to our business environment, will provide us with numerous opportunities to enrich people’s lives through digital entertainment, which is at the core of our business”. Against the backdrop of changing lifestyles and Square Enix learning to live and function during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
“At the same time, we’re witnessing the start of even bigger jumps forward for our company,” Matsuda concluded.
and then