Japanese game publisher keen on blockchain

Japanese game publisher Square Enix has shown interest in blockchain technology. Its president, Yosuke Matsuda, discussed the company’s interest in emerging technologies like blockchain and game streaming in a New Year’s letter to investors. Matsuda is ‘very interested in potential applications for blockchain technology in the digital content space’.

“With the subsiding of the cryptocurrency bubble, the use of blockchain technology has spread to a variety of non-cryptocurrency domains as well,” the president of Square Enix wrote in his letter. He noted that games and gaming platforms have the potential of using blockchain technology and that there have been ‘interesting developments’.

Square Enix is best known as the publisher of the Final Fantasy series, but is also home to the Tomb Raider series, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest and Just Cause. The company also owns Taito, which means it has access to classic gaming brands like Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid.

Last year Ubisoft became a member of the Blockchain Game Alliance, which includes blockchain software firm Consensys, blockchain game companies like Enjin and EverdreamSoft, and indie publisher Fig. Ubisoft already made a blockchain powered game called Hashcraft, while Beyond the Void is a MOBA game on Steam build on blockchain technology.

There are more developments going on in the world of blockchain games. The Tron Foundation has a 130 million dollar fund to support game developers who want to make a game on the Tron network. Atari is releasing blockchain versions of existing mobile games by the end of this year,

However, currently blockchain games aren’t the most popular games out there. EOS Knights had 7281 unique users in December, making it the most popular blockchain game on the market according to Blockchaingamer.biz. Those are very small numbers, which suggest that branding, marketing and game quality need to improve to convince the mainstream audience to dive into blockchain games. At least investors see money in these new developments.

Originally published at NEDEROB.