Asking game publishers about NFTs is starting to eclipse asking famous directors if they like comic book films, and is often met with the same level of hostility depending on the answers. SEGA Sammy’s head honchos were recently quizzed on just that during a management meeting to close out 2021, and while there’s some caution and hesitancy towards implementing P2E (Play to Earn) elements, it doesn’t sound like they’re dismissing it entirely.
The meeting brought up the usual things you might expect. Sales expectations for the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, how they might further expand the Sonic IP and grow others, and basically how much money they hope to make, but the company’s senior figures were also asked for their views on P2E elements, to which they responded.
“In terms of NFT, we would like to try out various experiments and we have already started many different studies and considerations but nothing is decided at this point regarding P2E. There have been many announcements about this already including overseas but there are users who show negative reactions at this point. We need to carefully assess many things such as how we can mitigate the negative elements, how much we can introduce this within the Japanese regulation, what will be accepted and what will not be by the users. Then, we will consider this further if this leads to our mission ‘Constantly Creating, Forever Captivating’, but if it is perceived as simple money-making, I would like to make a decision not to proceed’’
Later in the same meeting, they were asked about how they define a ‘Metaverse’ and how they might approach this. The feeling seems to be that it could well be a significant part of the near future of gaming, albeit in a different form to what it is perceived as today.
“As for the definition of Metaverse, I perceive it as a place where the people gather and communities are generated. For example, I think the reason why “Fortnite” and “Animal Crossing” are called Metaverse, is that many people gather there, and the community is generated there. Therefore, I think it is important that the IP itself is well established and welcomed by many users. For example, I don’t think a Metaverse can be established in a game with only 10,000 players. Conversely, the presence of Metaverse-like elements does not always gather people to a game.
We are often said that “PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2” has already embodied the Metaverse as it held the event like music live, etc. in the game and I think it is the strength of SEGA that we have been developing the sandbox type scalable game. If we don’t incorporate such new elements in the future, I think the games of today will be outdated in three to five years’ time, so we are very conscious of creating games towards the world of five years or so from now. However, I believe that the goal is not to create a Metaverse, but the most important thing is to create a high-quality game. ‘’</b>
Going further, there was even talk of what plans SEGA itself might have.
'’We want to make Super Game as a game that supports global and multi-platform with having a network and a community. If such game has a competitive element called PvP, it could turn into an e-sport. Furthermore, it could become a Metaverse if it has tens of millions of downloads worldwide and a certain number of active users.
We are holding live performances within the game in Project Sekai, and they have been very well received. Although it is not a virtual world, we are challenging on the things to generate Metaverse. Although we don’t call it a Metaverse as we think it is quite possible that the definition of the Metaverse will be changed from the current concept in five years, we think that a game with similar concept will be our Super Game. ‘’</b>
The bright side here is that SEGA does at least appear to be approaching all this in a sensible manner, and notes the vocal outcry from its potential customers.
