NFTs will not be a part of Final Fantasy 14. The topic of non-fungible tokens in the gaming industry has been controversial since the beginning, and though the discourse concerning NFTs has only gotten louder and increasingly cynical – as more people have gotten acquainted with the concept over the past few months – it has done little to deter video game companies from trying to capitalize on the cryptocurrency trend.
In a published letter at the start of this year, the president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, stated that the company would be investing in NFTs and "play to earn" mechanics, not unlike Ubisoft's own attempt to introduce non-fungible tokens to their players with the Ubisoft Quartz initiative. Fans of Final Fantasy 14 in particular were worried what this could mean for their MMO, given that many see the emergence of non-fungible tokens as a catalyst for letting destructive trends make their way into the gaming world.
Even though Naoki Yoshida does not speak for all of Square Enix, he and his team have confirmed at the most recent Letter from the Producer livestream that Final Fantasy 14 will not have non-fungible tokens implemented as part of its gameplay in any shape or form. While the game has its own artificial scarcity issues to contend with in Final Fantasy 14's housing system, fans can rest easy that NFTs will likely never be a part of that equation.
During the livestream, Naoki Yoshida said that though Matsuda expressed a desire of implementing the concept of NFTs for Square Enix games, he understood that there was a lot of sensitivity around the topic, and he felt the need to clarify where Final Fantasy 14 stood. Yoshida went on to say that the core design of Final Fantasy 14 prevented the incorporation of NFTs into its gameplay.
The direction of the game ultimately lies elsewhere, as the game's ambition in the coming years will focus on giving Final Fantasy 14 a complete graphical overhaul, starting with the next expansion. Furthermore, with the resources allocated into the game's Trust system, Endwalker's patches will help make FF14 more accessible for Final Fantasy fans who are hesitant to give it a try due to the "online" label, which Yoshida feels has become increasingly meaningless in an always-online world.
While there may well be nothing to prevent the normalization of NFTs in the future of gaming – thanks to the interest of big companies such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft or Square Enix – Eorzea's markets will remain restricted to gil and gil alone for many years to come.
Final Fantasy 14 is out now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
