Who could forget Square Enix's cursed 2021 New Year letter with its "play to have fun" and "play to contribute” nonsense? When most developers were walking back their already announced blockchain and NFT plans, CEO Yosuke Matsuda touted it as the future of Square Enix, and proceeded to double down on it in future statements. Well it's been a year, and it seems nothing has changed, as almost half of Matsuda's 2023 New Year letter was about blockchain.
New Year letters aren't really supposed to mean much – they ideally recap major events, thank the relevant people, and create vague excitement about the company's plans for the year. Matsuda's letter did all those things, but seems to have gotten the proportions wrong, as it mentions the word 'blockchain' 14 times – that's 14 times more than anyone needs to say it.
He started the letter off by talking about inflation, Russia's attack on Ukraine, price rise, supply chain disruptions, mass layoffs, and the Covid hangover. The letter claimed that with all this in mind, Square Enix has implemented structural reforms to secure the future. On the development side, it meant selling the three western studios to the Embracer Group, in order to "concentrate our resources as the increasing sophistication and complexity of game development have made such endeavors more costly to pursue."
"In terms of new business domains, we named three focus investment fields under our medium-term business plan," said Matsude. "Among those, we are most focused on blockchain entertainment, to which we have devoted aggressive investment and business development efforts. Looking externally, I think it is fair to say that blockchain gained significant recognition as a field in 2022, as evidenced by “Web 3.0” becoming a firmly established buzzword among businesspeople."
But he did note the controversies surrounding NFTs and the FTX debacle. However, he went on to mention that Japan has been working to master Web 3.0.
"Our Group has multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development, some of which we announced last year, and we are undertaking preparations that will enable us to unveil even more titles this year," he concluded. "We are also engaged in global sourcing from an investment perspective and will continue to take stakes in promising businesses whether we find them in Japan or abroad. Blockchain has been an object of exhilaration and a source of turmoil, but with that in the rearview mirror, we hope that blockchain games will transition to a new stage of growth in 2023."