Square Enix plans to investigate blockchain and cloud-based technology look set to continue despite the change in leadership that came in mid-2023. Alongside this, it appears that new generative AI will also be something the company plans to aggressively pursue for the development of future games from the company.
These plans emerged in Square Enix’s annual New Year letter, which was penned by the company’s new CEO Takashi Kiryu, who took over for Yosuke Matsuda after he stepped down in 2023 at a time that seemed to coincide with the studio losing investments related to blockchain technology.
Kiryu noted in his letter that, despite debates persisting for years about the applications of AI, the rise of ChatGPT during the last year “made it apparent that the applicability of generative AI was by no means limited to text.” He added:
I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming,
We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions.
As he put it, the current goal with these applications is for the short-term effort to “enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts.” With the long-term hope to “leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers.” While this showcases that Square Enix seems to be traveling a similar course to their previous leadership, it should be noted that the previous two New Year letters penned by Matsuda put far more emphasis on Blockchain technology and NFTs.
Still, there are many uncertainties stemming from this strategy, especially given how the industry has shifted over 2023. Last year saw a record number of lay-offs across the gaming industry, along with strikes from several organizations with most being directly in response to AI use in the industry to replace actors, writers, and artists from the development process. While we can’t know Square Enix’s plans for AI just yet there could be more impact from there to a company that has already undergone shake-ups and restructuring over the past few years.
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1 Comment
Unknowns and uncertains abound! At least this is unprecedented territory, and I for one appreciate watching either a revolution or a disaster unfold