Renowned game developer and publisher Square Enix welcomes the New Year with sweeping changes to its infrastructure. The company revealed it will be pursuing the “aggressive” application of artificial intelligence (AI), Web3, blockchain, and cloud technologies in its endeavors this 2024.
The Official Announcement of Square Enix
President Takashi Kiryu recently outlined the direction Square Enix is heading at in a blog post titled, “A New Year’s Letter from the President.”
“In terms of business domains, we previously identified three focus investment fields, namely blockchain entertainment/Web 3.0, AI, and the cloud,” Kiryu stated. “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 Square Enix president added.
A significant portion of the “letter” delved into the discussion of how AI can be employed by video game developers in their processes and content. Kiryu said generative AI has already shown great potential beyond text-based dialogue and its use is now being expanded to image, video, and music creation. With that, the company is eyeing the wider application of the technology in its digital entertainment business, especially in the realm of programming.
New and Upcoming Games from the Brand
Square Enix’s New Year announcement didn’t mention any of its games slated for 2024 release. However, among the much-awaited titles coming in video game consoles is Final Fantasy VII (FF7) Rebirth initially for the PS5 in February.
The upcoming FF7 remake game continues where the first part and the DLCs left off. It comes after the cliffhanger ending where the protagonist Cloud Strife embarks on a journey outside the fictional cyberpunk city of Midgar. The second part is expected to mirror the plot of the original 1997 game while integrating some of the twists introduced in the remake version.
Some big names coming up from the publisher this year are more games from the other Final Fantasy series, Dying Light 2, Dragon Quest remakes, and Kingdom Hearts IV.
Last December 21, Square Enix launched the Symbiogenesis non-fungible token (NFT) game. It’s playable on PCs and mobile devices with Google Chrome browsers, but it also requires users to have MetaMask NFT wallets and Discord accounts with two-factor authentication.
Symbiogenesis came in as a mixed bag for traditional gamers because of its departure from the conventional model of Square Enix video games. Most of the uproar stemmed from the game’s content paywall, pay-to-win scheme, and heavy reliance on AI.