About a week ago, Atsushi Inaba, the current CEO of PlatinumGames, shared a whole host of plans regarding what kinds of games the studio will develop moving forward. One of the plans involved developing games that last “a longer period of time,” which many saw as a sign that the company would continue to make live-service games after Babylon’s Fall. Although he reassured fans that the company would continue to put out the linear action games that made it famous, that did not stop some from feeling wary about the idea of more live-service titles. Some may worry that PlatinumGames will move in a more “corporate” direction despite Inaba’s stated focus on more original content, but at the very least, it looks like the company will not pursue the recent trend of NFTs anytime soon.
Both Inaba and PlatinumGames Vice President Hideki Kamiya expressed their thoughts on NFTs in a recent interview with VGC. In Inaba’s view, conversations surrounding NFTs have almost entirely focused on the financial benefits for the company rather than their potential impacts on the user experience, which he sees as “frustrating.”
What does Kamiya think?
Kamiya outright stated that he has no interest in the idea, and he even specifically called out Konami for chasing trends like this in the pursuit of money. He saw Inaba’s comments regarding the user experience as particularly resonant, since Kamiya sees himself as “a user at heart, more than a businessman.” Although both Inaba and Kamiya stated that NFTs could evolve into something more palatable in the future, they currently see little reason to pursue them.
Fans of PlatinumGames heavily value the kinds of pure gaming experiences that it normally produces. So it comes as extremely fortunate news that the company will not adopt NFTs in its future titles. As of right now, the downsides of NFTs vastly outweigh the benefits, and it’s respectable that both Inaba and Kamiya acknowledge this.
