Square Enix, renowned for its iconic franchises like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, revealed a strategic partnership on Monday with leading metaverse investment firm and crypto game publisher Animoca Brands.
The collaboration aims to extend the reach of Animoca's Ethereum-based NFT game, Symbiogenesis, to a wider global audience. Specifically, the newly established subsidiary of Animoca Brands, Animoca Brands Japan, will collaborate with Square Enix on cohesive marketing strategies, including partnerships with select projects from Animoca's expansive portfolio.
Launched in December, Symbiogenesis is an immersive narrative adventure game centered around 10,000 Ethereum NFT characters, along with numerous in-game NFTs minted on the Ethereum scaling network, Polygon. Set in a future era on a "floating continent" amidst a polluted Earth, the game depicts humans battling for survival against fantastical dragons.
Symbiogenesis is slated to be featured on Animoca Brands Japan's upcoming NFT launchpad, set to debut this summer with support for both Ethereum and Polygon networks.
Expressing enthusiasm for the collaboration, Symbiogenesis producer Naoyuki Tamate stated, "We are very excited about this initiative and look forward to working with Animoca Brands Japan to bring the Web3 experience to a wider audience in an even more strategic way."
This partnership isn't Square Enix's first venture with an Animoca entity. In 2022, the publisher announced plans to introduce its Dungeon Siege franchise to The Sandbox, an Ethereum metaverse game under Animoca Brands' ownership. This collaboration traces back further, with Square Enix leading an investment round in the NFT game project in 2020.
Square Enix has been actively exploring opportunities in the NFT and blockchain space in recent years. Notably, it launched Final Fantasy VII NFTs linked to collectible action figures via the Efinity network on Polygon in 2022 and invested in Zebedee, a Bitcoin-centric gaming and payments platform catering to play-to-earn games.
More recently, Square Enix disclosed separate investments in two crypto-native PC gaming launcher apps, HyperPlay and Elixir Games, and has rolled out Symbiogenesis through HyperPlay.
