Square Enix Letter from the President on 2022

The president of Square Enix wrote a letter recently. It has a lot of words like ‘blockchain’ in it, and that has some folks a bit twitchy. If you want to read the full letter, you can see it here. If not, I’m going to summarize it and give some thoughts.

I have a lot of opinions on blockchain and games. My primary one is, “You motherfuckers need to stop freaking out each time a large company, gaming or otherwise, puts out a press release with the words ‘blockchain’ or ‘NFT’ in it”.

This isn’t because I think they’re secretly great, but because letters are cheap to write, and long term strategic business decisions are hard to make. I said as much in my writeup on the letter from last year.

As such, I maintain my position that when a company makes a statement like “We are investigating forward facing technologies for future monetization including non-fungible tokens” what they mean is “Someone in the c-suite got pitched on crypto over Christmas/Thanksgiving/April 20th and now we have to spend a bunch of money to explain to them why it’s a bad idea.”

And while this years letter has a lot more statements about web 3.0/blockchain stuff, I maintain a high level of confidence that this won’t impact Square Enix’s current customers. I’ll get to why in a moment, but let’s review this letter.

The first 8 paragraphs say nothing related to blockchain. Paragraphs 1 & 2 are a recap of current world economic conditions (pretty bad) and current world conditions (even worse). Paragraph 3-6 lay out some specific business plans and moves that Enix is making, and restructuring efforts, including sales of various business units.

Paragraph 7-8 are the most interesting ones that aren’t related to distributed Excel sheets. These paragraphs note a restructuring of Square Enix’s publishing setup in which the eastern and western groups functioned as separate silos. In the statement, the company intends to make them function as “One Square Enix.”

As a cynical man, I have to wonder how smoothly that will go.

Continuing to speak as a cynical man, we get to the remainder of the letter. Paragraphs 9-15 are all about “Blockchain.” Paragraph 9 lays out that Square Enix has “focused on Blockchain Entertainment” and “devoted aggressive investment and business development efforts.”

Paragraph 10 notes that many governments have moved to regulate Crypto (possibly in reference to China) but states that Japan has launched some initiative called “Priority Policy Program for Realizing a Digital Society,” which frankly, I have no god damn clue about. I don’t know if this is pro-crypto, anti-crypto, or just window dressing.

Paragraphs 11-13 are pretty meandering, but can be summarized as “It’s hard to predict the long term impacts of Blockchain technology. Currently, the space is extremely volatile, and we are investigating what that looks like.”

Also, this gem:

“If we consider traditional gaming to have been centralized, then blockchain gaming must operate based on a self-sustaining decentralized model. It is that concept, that philosophy that I see to be key.”

Author Note: I hate this quote. It makes no sense from a technological standpoint. More on that in a future writeup perhaps?

Paragraphs 14 and 15 are the most important, at least in regards to crypto stuff. Paragraph 14 notes that while there is a lot of “interest” in crypto-gaming, that interest is primarily from speculators, not players.

And so we get to paragraph 15, the important one. I’m going to go through the full thing sentence by sentence, as it’s short but important.

“Our Group has multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development, some of which we announced last year, and we are undertaking preparations that will enable us to unveil even more titles this year.”

Did you catch that? Original IPs! Which means that Square Enix isn’t going the Ubisoft route of experimenting by grafting NFTs onto existing projects. If you’re a FFXIV person, or just a Square Enix fan of various brands in general, you’re likely safe!

“We are also engaged in global sourcing from an investment perspective and will continue to take stakes in promising businesses whether we find them in Japan or abroad.”

I honestly don’t know how to parse this sentence 100%. My guess is it means that they will continue to actively look for valuable locations to invest in related to our gaming enterprise and web 3.0 technology regardless of where it’s located in the world.

“Blockchain has been an object of exhilaration and a source of turmoil, but with that in the rearview mirror, we hope that blockchain games will transition to a new stage of growth in 2023.”

This is wishy/washy bullshit. It promises nothing, hopes for a rich future, but makes no predictions about actually achieving this future. You can probably ignore this sentence.

Oh, and I guess it does end with paragraph 16, but that’s mostly a “Woo, we’ve been around 20 years!” and not much else.

So yeah, in conclusion, yes Square Enix spent money on blockchain, but it’s still “early days” (where have I heard that before?) and there appears to be no intention to apply web 3 practices/technology to existing products.

Oh, also despite that whole “Multiple Games” thing, I can’t actually find any released games or announced games that actually do use Web 3.0/blockchain tech from Square Enix. I’ve reached out to them to clarify, and I’ll update this writeup accordingly I hear back.

Pour One Out 2022 – Dead Games Recap

Another year gone, another set of live service games consigned to dust. Last time we had one of these posts was 2020. Probably should have done one for 2021, but eh.

There’s no hard and fast rule to be included/not included on this list, but generally speaking, being a “Dead gaem” with low player base is not enough. There has to have been some form of termination of service, be it eternal life support, or just yanking the plug.

Anyway, in memorium.

Dragalia Lost

Published by Nintendo and developed by CyGames, Dragalia Lost was a mobile game for iOS and Android. It was released in 2018, and now, just four years later, it’s been shut down/being shut down. Look, I expect this post to go up at the end of the year, but I’m writing this specific summary in March. So chronology is a bit difficult. Regardless, I played for a bit a while back, and I’d say it was a pretty good game all things considered. It’s certainly better then a lot of mobile trash.

Tera

Tera was an MMO, developed by Bluehole Studios. It’s got a bit of a better track record, lasting just about 10 years since release, but it’s still going/gone as of the 30th of June, 2022. I never played it, but I saw folks play it and praise it for it’s combat systems. Don’t know too much else about it though.

Spellbreak

I never played Spellbreak, or saw anyone play it. It was a battle royale in an already crowded genre, that apparently never really took off. However, the Spellbreak team has moved onto working for Actiblizz, so… I guess they have that?

Sort of.

Look, being employed > being unemployed, but ActiBlizz is a shithole company that can burn for all I care.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD

I’d like to congratulate Ubisoft on somehow finding a way to sunset a singleplayer, offline, game.

Babylon’s Fall

What do you get when you have a developer primarily known for making games based around stylish combat and weird stories develop a multiplayer looter grinder? A game that doesn’t even last a full year. It released in February, and Square Enix announced they’re pulling the plug. It might actually be the shortest lived game on this list.

Killer Queen Black

FUCKKKKKKKK WHY.

I’m going to be honest. Like many of my rants, I write lists like this to dunk on trends and design patterns I don’t like in games. Haha, lets make fun of the short lifespan of mobile gacha! Lets mock live service games that are dead on arrival! Lets point out how pointless it is to trend chase when you’re already late to market.

I like Killer Queen Black though. I bought Killer Queen Black. But no amount of those two things will stop Amazon GameSparks from being sunset, and taking Killer Queen Black with it.

So… yeah. I guess the lesson here is “If you build on any level of proprietary technical infrastructure for your online components, it might just break, and you’ll be hosed.”

Doesn’t really fit on a bumper sticker does it?

Crowfall

Crowfall isn’t dead! They’re just taking the game off temporarily. And making everything free in the cash shop. And “evaluating the current state of Crowfall“. But don’t worry! Just like all those animals you saw on the side of the road as a child, Crowfall is “Just taking a little nap.”

I did a writeup on Crowfall. Honestly, I’m not suprised by this turn of events.

In conclusion

I was going to say that there’s no moral or lesson here, but that’s not actually true: the lesson is that if you make a game with heavy online multiplayer as a component, and the tools to host servers/multiplayer aren’t distributed/available to your player base, that game will die.

Here’s your moral then: Every live service game is in a race with the reaper, and the reaper always wins. It’s just a question of how long that race takes to finish.

Why I didn’t get the Halo: Infinite Helmet – A Brief Note to Discord and 343 Industries

Or an extended response to a survey question.

For a while recently, Discord was running a campaign where if you streamed 15 minutes of Halo Infinite to your friends, you got some sort of special helmet. I say “Was” because apparently the event ended, and they sent me a small survey, asking why I didn’t earn the reward. This is what I put in their survey as a response.

However, this seemed a little rude, so I thought instead of just Tweeting this out at them, I’d talk about it for a moment. So let’s talk about cross-promotional campaigns, and how they feel as a consumer.

First up, let’s think about them in the abstract. I’ve made a handy diagram here to aid the discussion.

Purely from the perspective of a consumer, blue is the sweet spot. If a game I already play is giving me free stuff for doing something I already do/use/purchase, that’s ideal. I make no behavior changes, and I get something extra. This is optimal.

Green is the “Mild Annoyance” location. Games that have fallen into this in the past would include things like Sea of Thieves, and Hunt: Showdown. I like these games. I don’t really like watching Twitch. So when those games offer Twitch promotions, where I can watch Twitch, and get cosmetics, my response is “Urgh.” Whether or not I’m actually going to go through with getting those rewards is dependent on how good the reward is.

Have I done it in the past? Yeah, absolutely. Would I do it again? Depends on how cool the reward is. The important point here that I want to note is this: doing a Twitch campaign for your game in this situation, where I’m in the green zone, is that Twitch is NOT promoting your game. Your game is promoting Twitch.

Now, that’s not to say in the larger structure of this campaign that you, the game developer, are getting nothing out of it. But what you’re getting out of it is delicious metrics for the marketing team, and trying to push yourself up on Twitch’s most viewed metrics. You are rewarding me with in-game items for your game, and because I like your game, I will sometimes do something that is not playing your game, in order to get the items.

This brings me to the red zone. The red zone is when I am already engaged with the product or service being used for the promotion, and not engaged with the game being offered. It’s effectively just a paid advertisement for your game, like you’ve put it up on a billboard.

It’s also where I would like to make an important distinction between my Venn diagram, and this specific situation. If this product being advertised was something I hadn’t heard of, this would be further exposure to it. And maybe that would get me interested.

But as it is, I’ve played 80 hours of Halo:Infinite. I did a whole writeup on the game’s multiplayer. If I wanted to play more, I would. But I really don’t.

So here’s why I didn’t finish this quest: I don’t want play more Halo Infinite. You are trying to bribe me into doing so by rewarding me with an item in a game I have no desire to play.

If you really wanted me to play more Halo, you should have offered a month of Nitro or something. Give me something for the service I am already using.

Instead, you offered a free terrarium decoration with purchase of tarantula to an arachnophobe. I’m not sure why you think that’s an appealing offer.

My Favorite Games of 2022

2022 had a lot of good games. But these are the best ones. It’s not an opinion, it’s just fact.

Nothing says Christmas like phoning in work, and nothing says phoning in work like listicles.

So with that said, I’d like to introduce the first not-yet-annual Gametrodon awards, the Placeholders.

I cannot think of anything that better encapsulates the spirit of this blog than a single tiny image made in MS Paint at 11 PM at night, and likely to be used for at least the next two years!

Okay, all cynicism aside for a moment, I’m having a bit of a rough Christmas at the moment. Perhaps you can see that leaking into this writing. Regardless of that tone and my terrible award, I am sincere in all the praise I offer these games. So lets go over the award criteria:

  1. Must be a game I played this year, and wrote about on Gametrodon.

That’s it. That’s the entire criteria.

I’ll be giving each game an individual award, but that’s more to differentiate them then to pledge to any set of awards in the future. All of which is to say, giving out a “Best Mobile Game” award this year doesn’t mean I’ll give one out next year.

Best Soundtrack – Hazelnut Hex

I’ve said a lot of nice things about Hazelnut Hex before. How it’s a fantastic entry to the concept of shmups. How it’s brilliant crafted and concise. I don’t want to repeat all that here, so maybe just go read my review if you missed it.

In addition, Hazelnut Hex has a fantastic soundtrack that I cannot praise enough. I listen to these songs usually twice a week if not more while running. The soundtrack is wonderful chiptune music that absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it. And the soundtrack continues to just be great to listen to even after hearing each song 50+ times.

Hazelnut Hex is $8 for Switch, and at time of writing, $2.39 on itch.io.

Best Card Game – Inscryption

There were a lot of good card games this year! Which is very unfortunate for them, because Inscryption is better. In the spirit of the game, I did its writeup as a sort of multiple choice thing.

I recognize that some people may be a bit unhappy with some portions of the game. And I personally didn’t love the ending. But the core gameplay and mechanics were fantastic, making it an easy pick for this award.

Best $60 Game – Elden Ring

If I was a different site, I’d call this the best AAA game of the year. And while that’s technically true, most, if not all of the AAA games I even bought this year were for my Switch.

It feels a bit rich to call something the best AAA game of the year when I didn’t play too many other AAA games that didn’t involve monsters that could fit into pockets. So, Elden Ring. You can read my full writeup on it here. Congrats on the award, now please release some DLC. My friends are all starting to show Soulslike withdrawal symptoms.

Best Indie Game – Nobody Saves The World

I was considering calling this this “Best Game That Came Out At The Start of The Year So We All Forgot About It By The Time Award Season Rolled Around” award. But that would be a bit long. Then I thought about calling it “Best ARPG.” But I’m not even sure Nobody Saves The World is an ARPG.

So instead, Drinkbox Studio’s clever form-swapping, passive and active action adventure game can be the indie game of the year. It deserves it. It’s the only game that I played once this year, then immediately went back and played through again on NG+, and actually went into the trouble of getting every Steam Achievement for.

Honorable Mentions

Mad Rat Dead – A combo rhythm/platformer game with banger music.

Stacklands – Proved that I was wrong about Sokpop Collective not making games with… well, gameplay.

Satisfactory – Sure, it’s been in Early Access for 8 years. But at least it’s a fun game. I just wish the multiplayer was smoother.

CRIMESIGHT – An anime version of the board game Clue combined with manipulation and deduction. Possibly the most niche title on this list.

V Rising – ARPG Survival Crafting. A good time overall.

I’ll be doing a few more writeups/wrapups over the next few weeks. Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good year for games, even if a few games I had high hopes for were personally disappointing. But more on that in the final wrap-up of the year.

Wherever you’re at, whatever holiday you’re celebrating, we hope it’s a good one. We hope you’re healthy, and hope you’ll keep reading next year.

PAX Unplugged – Mythic Mischief and Klask

Mythic Mischief and Klask don’t really have anything in common with each other. It’s not even like they had booths next to each other or something. Mythic Mischief is an action economy and movement-based game with victory points that almost reminds me of Chess. Klask is a skill-based dexterity game that feels like miniature air hockey.

So why am I covering them together? Because I don’t have enough to say about them separately to fill writeup! Anyway, let’s get to it.

Mythic Mischief

Mythic Mischief is an asymmetric grid-based movement game, designed by Max Anderson, Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison, and published by IV Games.

The best summary I can offer is that you and your opponents both control 3 miniatures on a 5v5 grid. Alternating turns, you attempt to spend your actions and use your abilities to place your opponent’s units in the path or directly on an NPC unit called the Tome Keeper.

Editor’s Note: Tome Keeper not to be confused with Dome Keeper

At the end of a player’s turn, the Tome Keeper moves towards specific locations. If there are units in its way, the Tome Keeper knocks them out, and the player who didn’t control those units scores points. Units that get knocked out can be replaced at the start of the next player’s turn.

There’s a fair amount to the movement and action system, and how it plays with the game’s upgrade choices that I don’t think I can summarize effectively, so I won’t try. It’s a perfectly fine system, but I would not describe it as “Sparking Joy,” at least for me.

It is worth noting that each player will be playing a different faction, with unique abilities and so keeping track of what your opponent can do is necessary to succeed.

I only played one game of Mythic Mischief, and it was a combination of a demo and an ass beating. I wouldn’t say that I hugely enjoyed it. That might have been because I lost, and because I get salty easily. But I also struggled with two other factors.

First up, just because of how the game works with scoring, it felt very difficult to make any sort of comeback once I fell behind. Secondly, the game reminded me of Chess in that it felt like a game of trying to find the “Correct” moves, and like a puzzle of chaining things together. That’s just not something I find very fun.

So yeah, if you do like deterministic movement games, or things like Chess, maybe you’ll get more out of Mythic Mischief than I did.

Klask

Klask is a manual dexterity game by Mikkel Bertelsen.

Honestly, it feels weird to be reviewing Klask here. It’s as if for some reason I felt compelled to write a review of Skeeball, or Soccer. The closest games I can think of as a comparison to Klask would be Air Hockey or maybe Foosball.

Those chips look really good.

All of this to say that the “Manual Dexterity” part of the game is absolutely not optional. Klask is played in an elevated square wooden box with sides. Each player has a magnet with a stick in the end that they hold under the box, and a pawn they place on top. The top pawn is moved by dragging it with the magnet from under the box.

The pawn and stick aren’t the only magnetic pieces, though. Klask also has 3 small plastic beads with magnets in the center that are placed equidistant in the middle of the playfield at the start of a point. These beads will jump and stick to your pawn if you get too close, and if 2 of the 3 stick to a player’s pawn, their opponent gets a point.

Points can also be scored by a player hitting the ball into the goal indent on the board, or if a player messes up and gets their pawn stuck in the indent.

The interesting part of Klask for me is how the tiny white beads open up strategy. Without them, the game is pretty much just air hockey with a marble. But with the beads, you can do interesting stuff like hitting them towards your opponent in order to close off parts of the board.

Overall, I like Klask. I just don’t like it enough to really want to buy it. That said, if someone asked me if I’d play, my response would be a semi-enthusiastic “Sure!”

Conclusion

I don’t think there’s any meaningful conclusion you can take out of things like both Klask and Mythic Mischief being present at PAX Unplugged. Maybe there’s some sort of testament to the diversity of mechanics and games present. Maybe there’s something to be said for the sorts of games you’d play if someone else is footing the bill.

And maybe there’s nothing. Maybe there is no purpose. Maybe the real journey was the friends we made along the way.

If you want more nonsense and to be notified whenever I write new stuff, maybe consider following me on Twitter? The site still seems to be up and functioning, at least for now.