Over the past few weeks, nobody has been more interesting to follow than Atsushi Inaba, the President, and CEO of PlatinumGames. Only recently adopting the mantle, filling the role left by Kenichi Satao in January, Inaba has made the most of his time discussing everything from renewing interest in developing the Microsoft exclusive Scalebound, the possibility of being PlatinumGames being acquired, as well as changes to the companies development philosophy moving forward.
Now, In an interview with VGC, Inaba along with Scalebound and Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya has addressed NFTs which are becoming more prevalent in the industry. In particular, they have called out companies for adopting ‘money-hungry schemes’ to sell NFTs, singling out Konami in particular for doing so.
While the two are aware that NFTs have become a major talking point over the last year, as it stands they view them as nothing more than a profit-driving source for within a company that offers little to no positive impact when creators or games are concerned.
In his interview he stated:
The people who are trying to promote NFTs and partner with gaming companies, their conversations seem extremely one-sided. ‘Hey, you’re going to make money!’ But how does it benefit the user or the creator? If I want to spend my time on something, I want it to benefit making good games.
He did offer some defense for NFTs, suggesting that as content becomes increasingly digitized we could see them start to become more important. However, he maintained that early adopters of NFTs are simply doing so to drive profits, and therefore PlatinumGames has no interest in joining this marketplace.
Kamiya also concurred with this sentiment, viewing himself more of a gamer at heart than a businessman, stating that:
It doesn’t have any benefit for users at the moment. In the future, if it’s expanded in a way that has a positive side for users, then maybe I’ll start to be interested in what they do with it. But I’m not seeing that at the moment.
Several Japanese developers look poised to make the leap into NFTs moving forward, including the likes of Square Enix, Sega, and Konami. In particular, when asked if Konami’s interest was surprising, he gave a brutal response by saying “Not really. If it smells like money, Konami’s going to be there in a heartbeat!”
While many companies look to invest in NFTs, fan backlash has played a significant role in preventing companies from fully embracing it. SEGA for instance has stated they will abandon their plans if they are viewed as simply a moneymaking scheme, with other companies like Team17 having abandoned announced plans to create NFTs due to backlash from both fans and the development studios they work with.
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