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Square Enix’s track record for producing some of the most timeless (and controversial) video games throughout gaming history is somewhat matched by its own willingness to incorporate modern industry trends into its software. In-app purchases, gacha mechanics, NFTs – name one, and chances are that SE has tried its hand at it before.
With that being said, the rising trend of AI-powered software is also something that the company is looking into. In a recent letter from SE President Takashi Kiryu, the company will be “aggressive” in applying AI technologies into its content development and publishing functions.
We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions. In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities.
Aside from AI, Blockchain was also mentioned in the letter, and was described as one of three “focus investment fields”:
In terms of new business domains, we previously identified three focus investment fields, namely blockchain entertainment/Web 3.0, AI, and the cloud. Last year we redefined our overarching mission and goals for these three fields. We are currently working to modify our organizational structure and optimize our resource allocations to support these efforts.
The impact that these new developments on upcoming SE titles remains to be seen, although some fans are understandably a bit wary of such announcements, given how much flak recent SE games such as Chocobo GP (for example) got due to the absurd amount of in-game micro-transactions.
Square Enix’s next big launch is FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, and is scheduled to be released later in February.
Source: Square Enix
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