Over the past two years, a slew of game publishers have announced plans to intergrate the blockchain and NFTs into future projects. Sega were among them, registering a trademark last year for Sega NFTs.
Now Sega co-chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi says they’ll keep their biggest series away from the blockchain, and called play-to-earn games “boring.”
“The action in play-to-earn games is boring,” Utsumi told Bloomberg. “What’s the point if games are no fun?”
Utsumi also said that Sega were shelving plans to develop their own blockchain games, but that they will continue to invest in the technology and offer their lesser franchises to blockchain games developed by third-parties. Characters from Three Kingdoms and the Virtua Fighter series will also be used for NFTs by external partners. Sega’s trademark filings last year included one for a “Sega Classics NFT Collection.”
In a management meeting in December 2021, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi had said the company wanted to try “various experiments” related to NFTs, but that “nothing is decided at this point regarding [play-to-earn].” Satomi did acknowledge even at the time the need to “mitigate the negative elements” of blockchain technology, and noted that “if it is perceived as simple money-making,” he “would like to make a decision not to proceed.”
Since then, the cryptocurrency bubble has burst, with most NFT projects dropping to a fraction of their previous valuations. That decline in value is because NFTs are poorly-secured, energy-inefficient and fundamentally-pointless certificates that demonstrate ownership of universally ugly JPGs.
Bloomberg report that Utsumi was non-committal as to whether blockchain technology would be incorporated into its “super game” project.
