Final Fantasy 14 producer Naoki Yoshida has said that he doesn’t see the metaverse itself as “entertainment”, but rather as a vessel for “entertainment content”.
Yoshida made the comments in an interview with Weekly Bunshun that was published yesterday (May 9), which was then picked up by Siliconera. Yoshida’s comments have been displayed below via Google Translate, with some quotes edited for clarity.
When asked about how he sees the metaverse, Yoshida replied: “Frankly speaking, I don’t really think about it,” with him adding that it’s mainly a system that aims to replace reality with a digital counterpart.
“Therefore, I don’t think that entertainment has much to do with the metaverse,” Yoshida continued, saying that the concept isn’t really close to Final Fantasy 14. “In my idea of [the] metaverse, I use avatars in digital reality to walk and shop in Shinjuku just like in the real world.”
Yoshida’s comments come as many developers and publishers are still trying to figure out what the metaverse means for games, with his words pointing to the idea that the metaverse seems more functional (letting people go shopping in virtual stores for example) than entertaining right now.
“It’s fun, but not entertaining,” Yoshida added. “I think it’s not about creating the metaverse itself, but about playing in the digital reality and creating interesting entertainment content.”
Recommended
Elsewhere in Final Fantasy 14 news, Yoshida has confirmed that Square Enix is working on a fix for the ongoing housing lottery bug, which is preventing players from getting plots of land in the game.
In other news, the Nintendo Switch has sold over 107million units and now has 39 “million-seller” titles since it launched.