Sega chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi told Bloomberg that the company is shelving plans to develop its own blockchain-based games.<br
“We’re exploring whether this technology will really be in demand in the gaming industry.. Actions in Play-to-Earn games, in which you have to earn, are boring. What’s the point if they’re not fun?” – Utsumi said.
The statement from Sega executives came as a surprise, since the company has previously supported blockchain-based games. Last fall, the company partnered with Double Jump Tokyo and Japanese blockchain-based project Oasys to tokenize assets in the arcade game series Sangokushi Taisen;
Sega has previously called non-interchangeable tokens (NFTs) and cloud technology the future of the gaming industry, but warned that it will abandon them if the latest technology is perceived as a means to generate easy profits.
Despite Sega’s departure from the Web3 sector, the company will still offer small franchises for several blockchain-based games to be announced later this year. According to Utsumi, blockchain technology can be useful for moving characters and items between different games. The company is eager to explore new opportunities in the gaming industry, and in the long term, Sega could make greater use of blockchain, Utsumi said.
Earlier, another game company, Ubisoft, said gamers don’t yet realize the benefits of adopting NFT. Meanwhile, Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu is confident that, over time, games using NFTs will be more modernized and economically useful.