According to Square Enix, it will continue to create and publish Web3 video games until the 2023–2024 fiscal year and beyond.
Yosuke Matsuda, President of Square Enix, made this claim in the Q&A part of the publisher’s most recent Q1-Q3 2022-2023 financial report. Square Enix acknowledged that Forspoken sales were “lackluster” in the same report.
Square Enix will continue to concentrate on blockchain gaming
Investors questioned Matsuda on how Square Enix anticipates meeting year-to-year projections and achieving sustainable growth over the next two years. He replied by displaying the list of upcoming blockchain games from the publisher:
“Major title launches will not be concentrated solely in FY 2024/3. We have organized our pipeline so that we will have a good spread of new releases in FY 2025/3 and beyond as well. We also hope that you will look forward to the blockchain games we plan to launch in FY 2024/3 and thereafter”
This is consistent with Matsuda’s 2023 New Year’s Letter, in which he reiterated his commitment to the blockchain, NFTs, and Web 3.0 technology in spite of receiving harsh criticism from fans for being out of date.
This is probably one of the factors behind the Square Enix Board of Directors’ proposal that Takashi Kiryu succeeds Matsuda as President later this year. This shift aims to “reshape the management team in order to incorporate constantly developing technical advancements.”