Cryptocurrency remains an effective tool amidst internet assholes and perpetual basement dwellers, but major companies seeking to flog NFTs and morph their beloved assets into goldmines of digital permanence were met with derision and depreciation of value so extraordinary that you can’t help but laugh. Square Enix either hasn’t heard these complaints, or simply doesn’t give a fuck, and it’s a bad look no matter what.
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Square Enix CEO Yosuke Masuda published his annual letter of intent to mark the beginning of 2023 and it mentions the word ‘blockchain’ a grand total of 14 times. Much like last year, and despite the past 12 months being a monumental failure for NFTs and metaverse, the company keeps trying to carve a path forward for its own capitalist greed. Its love for blockchain isn’t about furthering the potential of its games or benefitting the consumer, it’s nothing but revenue streams and ways to take advantage of our good will wherever possible.
He talks about the potential of furthering interactive mediums and technology through the use of blockchain, but every single one of his points is drenched in cynicism, and a clear misunderstanding of its own market and the legacy it has spent decades building. Square Enix is known for iconic JRPGs and franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, even more so after selling off all of its western properties and studios for pennies to double down on all of this bullshit. It’s a company I grew up admiring as a young gamer and creator, and now I need to question my own moral position and whether supporting them is even worth it anymore when behind all the games I love sits an executive hierarchy who wants nothing more than to watch this planet burn. That’s the endgame for blockchain if we’re being blunt, a rejection of innovation and creativity in exchange for temporary profits and a decimated reputation. It blows my mind, and it’s a case of willful ignorance on the part of Square Enix that it has no intentions on walking back on. I have to wonder how the teams and individuals working beneath Masuda really feel, and if they’re seriously buying into all of this bollocks.
Developers like Yoko Taro, Naoki Yoshida, and Tetsuya Nomura have worked with the company for decades now, known for producing characters, worlds and stories that are eager to critique the shortcomings of corporate greed and how it will lead to our global downfall. Give it a few more years and Square Enix will literally become Shinra from Final Fantasy 7, but instead of ancient monsters and nuclear arms conjured up from the world’s literal lifeforce, it will be shilling JPEGs of anime twinks for thousands of dollars or piecing together a metaverse that disrespects years and years of blood, sweat, and tears from its library of properties. Now it’s all being thrown away for nothing, and it’s not like the people I mentioned are in a position to speak up or want to call out their superior for being wrong like he quite clearly is. So instead we’re marching forward into oblivion, or a backpedal so severe it will make the next annual letter read like a groveling apology.
The thing is, Masuda even brings up the clear pushback against NFTs and blockchain technology, but instead of actively addressing the criticism, he believes that new things like this will naturally attract detractors and those who don’t understand it. He isn’t relieving our concerns so much as calling us idiots for ever having them in the first place, which is very fitting for the CEO of a company that these days is a shadow of its former self.
“Blockchain has been an object of exhilaration and a source of turmoil,” he says, “But with that in the rearview mirror, we hope that blockchain games will transition to a new stage of growth in 2023.” They won’t, and I’m fairly sure Masuda knows that, although he’d much rather defend an unwise investment that has already been made in the billions instead of owning up to his mistakes and how none of this has any form of longevity. Square Enix should be pushing the medium forward and making history with its brilliance, and is very much doing so with the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Octopath Traveler 2, and a range of excellent new games and nostalgic remasters that recognise the value of its own origins.
#Yet when all of this serves a higher purpose of taking advantage of consumers and investing in technology that has been proven to be damaging and only ever benefits those at the top, I have to ask myself whether supporting them is worth it anymore. Square Enix hasn’t budged in the slightest, and judging by Masuda’s latest diatribe, blockchain is the future it wants.
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