In a New Year celebration letter, Yosuke Matsuda, the President of game developer Square Enix, mostly known for the Final Fantasy game, said the company believes in the potential of in-game tokens and in play-to-earn economies. In the coming year, Mr. Matsuda predicts increasing ways to reward players, such as through creative contributions to the game as opposed to just playing. He also acknowledged the bubble in non-fungible token prices.
Despite the increase in popularity in play to earn games, the enthusiasm has come mainly from blockchain enthusiasts and emerging players that were a niche of consumers before the earning feature. There has been a backlash from mainstream gamers over the play-to-earn concept. They see the goal of gaming as fun rather than money-making. To date, players of one of the biggest blockchain games, Axie Infinity, earn money by farming in-game objects. And that farming process is through gameplay such as fighting monsters or other players and completing quests.
Matsuda predicts that if gamers have the opportunity to earn by creating in-game content, it will invite mainstream players with a stronger passion for the game itself rather than the earning component. This is because among the players who are resistant to playing to earn, there are those who “play to have fun” and those who “play to contribute”, meaning that they want to help make the game more exciting. If the opportunity to create is combined with the ability to earn, some of the resisting players might give these games a chance.
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