The renowned video game giant Square Enix, known for iconic series such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, recently announced its investment in HyperPlay, a platform for launching crypto games. As part of this collaboration, Square Enix will transfer its NFT Ethereum-based game Symbiogenesis to the HyperPlay store. This move was described as a strategic step for the platform's development, though the exact amount of the investment was not disclosed. HyperPlay's founder, known by the pseudonym JacobC.eth, expressed the view that Square Enix is one of the most progressive game studios, always at the forefront of innovation.
Square Enix has been actively exploring blockchain technologies for several years, including investments in the metaverse game platform The Sandbox and experiments with NFT stickers in Japan, as well as NFTs linked to premium-class physical toys from the Final Fantasy VII series. These explorations led to the launch of Symbiogenesis last year. The game is a narrative role-playing adventure where characters and some game items are released as NFTs on Ethereum and the scaling network Polygon.
Symbiogenesis will join the HyperPlay catalog as a result of the partnership with Square Enix, announced this week. JacobC, who previously managed operations with the Ethereum wallet MetaMask, noted that many traditional gaming platforms and marketplaces currently do not support blockchain games due to policies that conflict with the use of Web3 smart contracts and innovations. He added that the collaboration with Square Enix was motivated by the desire to explore new distribution paths for games and move away from monopolistic platforms that do not consider the interests of players and developers.
Hideaki Uehara, the general manager of the investment and business development department at Square Enix, expressed excitement about investing and collaborating with HyperPlay, noting that the team has created an outstanding product to improve game distribution and create new business models beneficial for game developers. HyperPlay, which raised $12 million in a Series A round last year, already features over 70 blockchain games, as well as games from the Epic Games Store and GOG.com.
