In a recent interview with Yahoo Japan, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda reiterated the importance of blockchain technology when it comes to incentivizing user generated content (UGC) creation in games.

　　In the future, I would like to take on the challenge of providing "autonomous game content". To date, in many of the games we have provided content as finished products, and players have played that content. However, there are a certain number of players in the world who want to contribute to making the game more interesting and creating new settings and ways of playing. In the future, I would like to utilize the power of such people to create games that will develop. By utilizing technologies such as blockchain instead of relying on good intentions, if incentives are given to those who have contributed to the development, there is a possibility that content with innovative fun will be born from the user's ideas. The possibilities of entertainment should expand further in the future. We will continue to create works that enrich the world.

　　It's not the first time this year Matsuda expressed the idea. In early 2022, the Square Enix president said the premise of a token economy could enable self-sustaining game growth and more game-changing UGC.

　　UGC has been brought into being solely because of individuals’ desire for self-expression and not because any explicit incentive existed to reward them for their creative efforts. I see this as one reason that there haven’t been as many major game-changing content that were user generated as one would expect.

　　However, with advances in token economies, users will be provided with explicit incentives, thereby resulting not only in greater consistency in their motivation, but also creating a tangible upside to their creative efforts. I believe that this will lead to more people devoting themselves to such efforts and to greater possibilities of games growing in exciting ways. From having fun to earning to contributing, a wide variety of motivations will inspire people to engage with games and connect with one another. It is blockchain-based tokens that will enable this. By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable self-sustaining game growth.

　　It seems like the Square Enix president wasn't at all fazed by the massive backlash received by other blockchain related gaming projects such as Ubisoft's Quartz and GSC Game World's STALKER Metaverse. In other NFT gaming news, Activision Blizzard recently sent out a survey gauging consumer interest in the technology, though Blizzard president Mike Ybarra denied any NFT implementation coming up.