Epitome via Square Enix

Square Enix's stock cost on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose past roughly 8% on Tuesday, according to MarketWatch. This surge followed a controversial letter published on Jan i by Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda, in which the studio head praised non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain applied science, and the metaverse.

In the letter, Matsuda spoke highly of blockchain integration in video games, and went as far equally expressing a desire to implement token economies in future Foursquare Enix titles in the hopes of achieving a "decentralized gaming" ecosystem.

While the company is surely benefiting from the stock price's surge, it has too experienced heavy scrutiny from fans since the letter's publication. Many have taken result with the CEO's apparent dismissal of anti-NFT voices, whom Matsuda identifies in the alphabetic character as comprising the majority of video game players.

Foursquare Enix isn't the only company to jump on the NFT bandwagon. Ubisoft started giving abroad NFTs in late 2022, and Epic Games has also endorsed blockchain engineering science. The developers behind Due south.T.A.L.G.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl initially announced plans to include NFTs in their upcoming game, only backtracked following overwhelmingly negative reactions past fans.

NFTs are a controversial topic present, largely due to debates over their perceived value and their environmental effects. An NFT is effectively metadata that proves you lot are the original owner of a digital good, such equally an image file. NFT critics unremarkably merits that NFT marketplaces are hotbeds for scams and art theft, thank you to how hands an NFT can exist minted. Critics have likewise raised concerns regarding the environmental impact of minting, buying, and selling an NFT, all of which emit loftier levels of carbon emissions.