Square Enix celebrates the 20th anniversary of its merger and anticipates new blockchain games in 2023

2 Jan. (Portaltic/EP) –

The president of Square EnixYosuke Matsuda, has once again reiterated the company’s plans with ‘blockchain’ technology, with new titles based on it that will be announced throughout this year, which will be marked by the twentieth anniversary of the merger of the two studios that give the group its name.

The one that just started is a “historic year”“for Square Enix, because it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the merger of Enix and Square, as Matsuda has recalled in New Year’s letterwho has pointed to the growth of the group fueled by “the myriad of opportunities that have arisen in the last two decades.”

Matsuda also recalled the sale of the Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal studios to the Embracer Group, in order to “to further concentrate resources” of the Group, given the increase in costs derived from “the growing sophistication and complexity of game development”.

Specifically, the manager has advanced internal changes that will seek to “strengthen development capabilities” while concentrating resources “on the development of titles that are competitive worldwide“.

The company will publish its titles under the “One Square Enix” vision, that is, a new launch structure that breaks with the traditional division of the Japanese and Western markets to unify them into a global one.

“By simultaneously strengthening our development and publishing organizations, we will further enhance our Group’s presence as a global publisher and achieve new growth for our existing core digital entertainment business,” the Square Enix president said in the letter.

BLOCKCHAIN ​​ENTERTAINMENT

Matsuda has reiterated the company’s commitment to ‘blockchain’ and non-fungible token (NFT) entertainment, not a new idea in the company, which has been reinforced after the popularity of the web3 and the boost that Japan has given to these new technologies through a ‘Priority Policies Program for the realization of a digital society’.

As he already did in the 2022 New Year letter, the manager has defended decentralization that ‘blockchain’ technology will bring to videogames, which also understands that it must be a “self-sustaining” model.

Square Enix unveiled Symbiogenesis, the company’s first collectible digital art project, in November, arriving this spring. It is one of the original ‘blockchain’ games that they have in development, with plans to introduce more titles this year.