Final Fantasy VII: Since the NFT boom last year. Many projects have designed their tokens to join Metaverse and become compatible with video games.
This time around, things changed as more video game brands entered the NFT scene, most recently Square Enix.
Square Enix’s NFT plans
Japanese publisher Square Enix recently teamed up with a blockchain game company to develop NFT. That to around the first’s most popular game series, Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy NFTs will take development further and go beyond digital tokens.
NFTs will be linked to physical action figures and figurines.
Given the impact of the games, Square Enix decided to use its most popular series Final Fantasy VII. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original PlayStation game.
The project will start in 2023.
The cards
Square Enix will launch the first wave of Final Fantasy NFT in the spring of 2023. With physical trading cards setting the stage for everything else.
The cards come with a code to redeem a single NFT trading card. Which Enjin will then mint on the Efinity platform, which is powered by the Polkadot blockchain.
Final Fantasy Trading Cards sell for $3 per pack of six cards.
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Action figures
Square Enix will follow in November 2023 with a limited edition Cloud Strife action figure from Final Fantasy VII.
The action figure is available in the standard figure and the Digital Plus Edition. Both of which come with a code to redeem an NFT certificate of authenticity.
The Digital Plus Edition will be the only one with an additional NFT, a digital replica of the physical toy.
The standard figure retails for $130, while the Digital Plus edition costs $160.
Efinity
The Efinity blockchain is part of the entire Polkadot ecosystem and works on Polkadot as a parachain or a particular type of subnet.
Polkadot uses a proof-of-stake consensus model that does not require energy-intensive mining compared to the flagship NFT platform, Ethereum.
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Past collaborations
The next NFT project isn’t the first time Enjin and Square Enix have teamed up. As the two had already teamed up several years ago.
Their first collaboration was hosting websites for online guilds playing Final Fantasy XIV.
The latest partnership was born when Square Enix became interested in blockchain technology and NFTs.
The company believed that Final Fantasy was the best choice, having sold 168 million games worldwide since 1987.
“They looked at all types of blockchains and tested them,” explains Witek Radomski En’jins CTO.
Radomski added that Square Enix was looking for a platform that could appeal to gamers and their needs. While considering low transaction costs and power efficiency.
Square Enix
Square Enix has ramped up its blockchain and NFT efforts in recent years.
In 2020, the company invested in the Ethereum-based metaverse game, The Sandbox.
Last year, Square Enix released NFT collectibles in Japan based on the Million Arthur series of games.
For the 2021 project, the company used the LINE blockchain platform. In addition, Square Enix has announced plans to bring the Dungeon Siege franchise back to the world of NFT gaming this year.
The Square Enix president also wrote positively about the potential benefits of NFTs and token savings earlier this year, saying there is interest in “play-to-contribute” experiences that could financially engage gamers from the growing success of gaming and benefit from it.
Recently, Square Enix sold a number of major franchises like Tomb Raider and three game studios for $300 million to fund its growth efforts in the crypto industry.
A few days ago, Square Enix was announced as an investor in Bitcoin gaming startup Zebedee, raising a $35 million Series B round.
Witek Radomski revealed that Square Enix had been “very measured” in its approach to the NFT initiative with Enjin as the company worked to streamline the process for players’ first encounters with NFTs.
“That lets us adapt our products even more,” he explains. “It’s been amazing.”
Reference:
Final Fantasy NFTs coming to Polkadot in Square Enix, Enjin Alliance
