Square Enix, the Japanese gaming powerhouse, has reinforced its commitment to integrating blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the metaverse to revolutionize consumer experiences.

In a New Year’s address by Takashi Kiryu, the Representative Director and President of Square Enix, the company highlighted a transformative shift in digital entertainment throughout 2023, the core arena of their business.

Kiryu emphasized a significant evolution, noting, “We witnessed the emergence of groundbreaking products and services across various domains where the adoption of emerging technologies appeared more distant in the past.”

The company zeroed in on three principal investment areas for novel business domains in 2023: blockchain, AI, and the metaverse. This year’s agenda refines their mission and objectives within these realms.

Continued Emphasis on Blockchain Gaming

Last year’s address placed a considerable spotlight on blockchain technology compared to this year’s discourse. Yosuke Matsuda, the former President, underlined the company’s intensive focus on blockchain entertainment and its aggressive investment and developmental endeavors in this field.

Matsuda noted the substantial recognition garnered by blockchain in 2022, evidenced by the establishment of ‘Web3’ as a pervasive term in business circles. He also acknowledged the Japanese government’s support for fostering the blockchain and Web3 ecosystem.

The current address briefly outlines the company’s ongoing structural modifications and resource optimization aimed at supporting the initiatives outlined in 2023.

Robust Application of AI

The 2024 address delves deeper into AI and the metaverse. Kiryu highlighted the transformative impact of ChatGPT, suggesting that it catalyzed the widespread adoption of generative AIs, transcending textual limitations. This catalyzed a rapid succession of launches in various digital entertainment sectors, including images, video, and music.

Kiryu asserted that generative AI holds the potential to reshape the content creation process fundamentally, including programming methods. Recognizing technological innovation as a gateway to business opportunities, Square Enix plans to harness AI and other emerging technologies to birth pioneering content in the long run.

Converging Real and Virtual Worlds in the Metaverse

Kiryu emphasized the expanding realm of extended reality (XR), transcending the metaverse’s business applications to merge virtual spaces with reality.

“In the realm of digital entertainment, where the focus has been on pioneering the development of new content, the experiential value of digital content itself increased dramatically as devices capable of delivering immersive experiences using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) entered the market.”

Looking ahead, the goal is to leverage these technologies to craft novel content that seamlessly integrates the real and virtual worlds.