In a turnaround so rapid it's likely to cause whiplash, it looks like Square Enix may not be staking its future on NFTs and the blockchain after all. In its most recent financial report, the venerable purveyor of fine JRPGs has walked back its intentions somewhat. In an outline of the results, translated into English, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda, said the following:
“Rather than using the proceeds from the divestiture in new investment domains such as NFT and blockchains, we intend to use them primarily to fund our efforts to foster solid IP and to enhance our development capabilities in our core Digital Entertainment segment.”
After the sale of many of its Western studios to the Embracer Group, Square Enix had announced its intention to invest in "fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud", which caused some concern amongst fans, as nothing screams "out of touch" more than a company deciding to jump on the rapidly-imploding NFT bandwagon.
Are you glad Square Enix has had a change of heart or, put another way, listened to criticism? Equip your hottest takes in the comments section below.
[source hd.square-enix.com, via psu.com]
Comments 25
Now they are saying what Sony wants to hear... Hmmm. Is it possible Sony might finally lock Square-Enix down for good? I'm not a fan of industry consolidation, but Sony can't just keep waiting while Microsoft buys a publisher every other year. They'll eventually have to make moves to secure games synonymous with PlayStation, like Final Fantasy.
Shame it would have driven their price down for Sony to acquire them. Trolololololo
Better to flip-flop now then go down the NFT route and sink a bunch of money into a losing cause.
Hopefully Square Enix takes the money from the sale and invests in some good 2nd party games.
Hoping this means they’re focusing on making fewer, high quality games more often.
@TheCollector316 I was very speculatively thinking that it's odd to hear them say one thing somewhat enthusiastically, then backtrack on it a few weeks later.
It made me wonder if they weren't being asked by someone else to clear things up.
Again, just speculation.
Well good on them for seeing the light.
Good, it was stupid invesment, just focus on making great games. And more 2D-HD remake please, I want ff6 and chrono trigger 2D-HD version 😃
Go get them Sony...Now your chance lol..
Still not adding up. You don't toss away all those assets with the Eidos-Crystal Dynamics deal and then immediately bail. I think the people above are right, it feels like they're trying to get to Sony
I find it funny how often and quickly companies are backing off of NFTs compared to other things like microtransactions. If it was just pure gamer backlash, they wouldn't do half the stuff they do.
Which leads me to believe that once these companies really start to look at NFTs, it becomes really clear that it's not a good investment to make.
They must have all been sold on the model by NFT bros, and are getting the reality hit afterwards.
Wow, even SE stood down. The NFT scheme might well and truly be dead. That's one minor victory in a sea of scummy practices but heck, I'll take it.
@JSnow2 It's because just after the sale the NFT market crashed hard, with likely no way of recovery.
I feel like it's just a matter of time until Sony swoops in and buys the rest of Square Enix. I feel like Sony x Square just makes so much sense. Plus imagine what some of Sony's first party studios could do with some of Square's IP's. Would be awesome.
Somebody bought them.
This likely has more to do with the overall collapse of the nft market than any criticism they've received.
Surely nothing to do with that dumpster fire tanking & I think certain NFT databases recently getting hacked?! 😋
They could spend some of those Embracer $$ & port over Octopath Traveller to playstation after porting it to everything else!
Glad someone talked sense into Matsuda. Investing into their library of old games could help too.
Example: Parasite Eve
That game is perfect for this generation of gamers.
Too bad, it probably means SE is going to fall behind on all the big publishers that are taking the NFT route. I'm sure SE will get back on the NFT train eventually.
Good news. NFT and blockchains are bogus. Make good games and other stuff like manga and anime.
One thing i know in this industry, words mean nothing.
@TheCollector316 My thoughts exactly...though regardless of who's buying them or if it even happens at all, I'm glad they chose to reverse course.
Looks like they are preparing to be acquired. By whom we can't say for sure. We haven't heard from Tencent in a while. I'm sure they are waiting for an opportunity. I believe they are the second biggest behind Microsoft with Sony a distant third; in portfolio size.
@Abeedo exactly. This has nothing to do with Sony, this is the crypto crash showing potential investors how much money they can lose overnight by investing on that nonsense.
Should they be getting rid of the suits that made the initial decision to go all in on NFTs in the first place?
They obviously know nothing about gaming or business
I don't care about square enix. I don't see them as a good company anymore. I just want final fantasy 7 remake part 2 and the rest, if there's going to be more parts. Not a fan of their other recently released or upcoming games. Would be more interested if they did a ff8 or ff9 remake.
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