he Japanese gaming company behind the popular Final Fantasy franchise has been approved as a node validator for blockchain gaming project Oasys. The two are also working together to develop blockchain games.
The move has been greeted with opposition from some crypto and NFT-hating participants of the gaming community, who are irritated by the firm's continued emphasis on blockchain technology.
Oasys announced on September 12 that Square Enix had agreed to be the project's 21st node validator, filling the final spot of initial validators.
In the future, the two will collaborate to create new games for Oasys' EVM-compatible Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, which aims to become a hub for Triple-A great games with Play-to-Earn (P2E) integrations.
Square Enix joins a slew of gaming heavyweights in partnering with Oasys, including Sega, Double Jump, Bandai Namco, and Ubisoft — the latter of which has a troubled history with game players who have resisted the firm's NFT gaming initiative Quartz.
The pitchforks have been brought out
While the prospect of reputable gaming titans supporting a blockchain project is encouraging in the blockchain world, its move has not been well received by the traditional gaming community.
The Gamer broke the story, writing, "Square Enix Sets Its Dreadful NFT Plans In Motion By Collaborating With Crypto Company."
"Unlike most video game developers who chose to announce their endeavors into the jpeg-filled world of NFTs, Square Enix has merely been doubling down on it," the article observes while questioning the platform’s president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda's past statements about incorporating P2E elements into games.
"He probably overlooked the fact that a lot of NFT games are not only scams but also appear to have been created by a bored ape."
The partnership was described as "truly disgusting" by gamer @ShyVortex on Twitter. "I'll never buy another Square Enix game," said @eramaster12, while another asked, "what does it take to f#ckin force them to stop?"
@Pilnok added, "this has become tiring and embarrassing," and @ManuelRomer2 suggested, "what about just don't entirely?"
Despite criticism, Square Enix has been progressively ramping its blockchain-related plans for 2022.
Matsuda stated in his January New Year's Letter that he was notably interested in the concept of incorporating blockchain-enabled "token economies" into games to reward both players and users who generate content for the games.
"As token economies advance, users will be offered with explicit incentives, resulting not only in the level of consistency in their motivation but also in the creation of a tangible upside to their creative efforts," he wrote.
While blockchain has yet to make an appearance in Square Enix's games, the company got things started in July by publishing tokenized character figures for $129.99, showcasing Final Fantasy characters such as Cloud Strife.
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