Square Enix’s President, Takashi Kiryu, shares a New Year’s Letter, which shows a rather disappointing direction for the company.
Square Enix is one of the most recognized video game publishers. It has become known for many iconic franchises in gaming, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts. Sadly, as much as gamers have tried to enjoy and appreciate all that the studio releases, the company seemingly keeps focusing on questionable areas, most recently in the use of generative AI.
Despite how recognizable the company and its IPs are, the publisher has been experiencing a rocky few years recently, ranging from multimillion-dollar failures such as Marvel’s Avengers, Babylon’s Fall, and, of course, Forspoken. In 2022, the company announced that it would sell several studios to the Swedish megacorporation The Embracer Group for $300 million.
These included studios such as Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, as well as several IPs. The company also said that they would be shifting focus on implementing blockchain technology and NFTs into the games, which, as you would expect, wasn’t too well received by fans, but fools are bound to repeat past mistakes.
Recently, Square Enix’s president, Takashi Kiryu, released the company’s annual New Year’s Letter. In the letter, he mentions things looking better post-pandemic and the numerous global issues; however, this is one thing that stands out.
In the letter, Kiryu mentions that, along with adding metaverse technologies to their business applications, the company is looking to include the use of generative AI in their production pipeline. This went as well as you would expect, with many artists and fans of the company’s games being upset at this decision. Many called the use of AI “highly insensitive”, considering the multiple lawsuits against the companies that create these AI models, most notably for copyright infringement.
Only time will tell how well the implementations of such technologies will fare, but if Square Enix’s other ventures are anything to go by, things aren’t looking too good for the company. Longtime fans shared their thoughts on the New Year’s Letter, with many of them feeling negative toward the use of AI and some going as far as declaring a boycott.
