Square Enix X Enjin
If you're a gamer or have played video games in any capacity, really... You probably have heard of the company Square Enix. They are one of the largest gaming companies that exists and have been around for quite some time. Square Enix is behind some of the most note-worthy titles in gaming history like Finaly Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, which are still being developed to this day. I have very fond memories of playing Final Fantasy 7 as a kid, along with the previous 6 games. I also put in an embarrassingly large amount of hours into Kingdom Hearts.
When I read that Square Enix and Enjin were partnering up, I couldn't help but be excited. It's companies like this that are going to be the ones that bridge the gap between traditional and web3 gaming. Traditional gamers seem to be very hateful toward blockchain and NFTs, mainly because of the way that companies have tried to mesh the 2. I mean, look at how much of a disaster Ghost Recon Breakpoint NFTs were.
This is not the first time a major gaming company has tried to milk the metaverse or NFTs. It absolutely won't be the last, either. It's all about the integration and presentation to the larger gaming community. We love our games as they are, without NFTs and blockchain. If you can show us how we benefit from them, we might just listen...
Selling skins as NFTs that can only be used in one game clearly is not the way to approach this.
Square Enix is a gaming company with an incredibly loyal user base. They are finally taking the dive into NFTs with the help of Enjin, which has been changing the way NFTs work for a long time. Initially built on the Ethereum blockchain, Enjin adopted the ERC-1155 token standard and there's tons of games/apps using it. Not too long ago, they started building their Efinity platform which is built on the Polkadot blockchain and the goal is to bring NFTs to the masses in a carbon-neutral fashion.
Square Enix has created a variety of physical collectible items that come with a redeemable code for the NFT version of that asset. The redeemable NFTs will be on the Efinity blockchain, and are expected to launch some time in 2023. The figurines are actually available for pre-order now on the Square Enix store, and I think I might have to grab a few of these honestly. I love collectible figurines and have always been a fan of physical collectibles that have NFTs attached to them.
They are also doing a collection of playing cards that will have the same NFT functionality when they are released. I'm all about collectibles, but I really think this is a stepping stone to bringing NFTs and blockchain into their games in the future. Gotta get their feet wet, you know.
So maybe this isn't the amazing NFT news you would have hoped for, but it's a signal that major gaming companies are dipping their toes in. Web3, blockchain, NFTs, and the like are not going to just be mashed into triple A games right away. It could take years for this kind of mass adoption to take place, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Once they see the fan reaction to the fact that their physical collectibles are immortalized on the blockchain, I think it could spark something bigger. These things are pretty far off, and I honestly barely ever hear about projects building on Polkadot... But that's not to say it isn't doing great things for the blockchain space.
I would have loved to see this sort of collaboration with the WAX blockchain for many reasons, but I think Efinity is a good choice. We'll see what happens. In the mean time, make sure to get your pre-orders in as soon as possible so you can be the first to get your hands on these super cool physical NFT collectibles.
What do you think?
Article written by: @l337m45732 AKA 0xNifty.nft
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I am not bullish about any mainstream company dipping their toes into NFTs right now because they don't really care about the gamers. I just think its another cash grab.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This is an interesting on for Enjin, it's actually time to capitalize on NFTs before the bull market arrives when it does.