Sega COO backs away from blockchain

Sega's co-COO Shuji Utsumi has said the Japanese gaming giant still hasn't figured out what blockchain is good for, and may not make it part of a flagship "supergame" slated for a 2026 release. Speaking to Bloomberg at a games conference, Utsumi said Sega is not "denying the potential" of blockchain but, he added, "We are …

[Headley_Grange]

Entertainment

""We are trying to figure out what is the best way to entertain the audience."

I know that there a pockets of particular nerdiness in the gaming community, but I'd be very wary of someone who could be entertained by blockchain.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Entertainment

Oh, I don't know. Molly White's web site provides me with hours of amusement.

[katrinab]

Re: Entertainment

Is it the blockchain that is entertaining, or the idiotic Tech Bros?

I'm not sure.

[J. Cook]

Re: Entertainment

the latter mis-using the former, really.

[Howard Sway]

Re: ""We are trying to figure out what is the best way to entertain the audience"

Keep wasting large amounts of money on blockchain and metaverses.

This audience finds watching you do that very entertaining.

[Neil Barnes]

It's very strange...

Instead of looking at a technology and asking whether its use might bring value to your product, everyone seems to be saying 'ooh, shiny, we must include it even if it provides no function, because, ooh, shiny'.

Not just blockchain but so many other technologies.

[JimmyPage]

Re: It's very strange...

Is it ?

Just read up on how electricity became the fad for everything in the 18th and 19th centuries. You name it, there was an "electrickal" machine or solution for it.

[Korev]

Re: It's very strange...

Just read up on how electricity became the fad for everything in the 18th and 19th centuries.

How about a more current example?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's very strange...

> How about a more current example?

current .. haaar !

[Korev]

Re: It's very strange...

You sound wired...

[Michael Strorm]

Re: It's very strange...

Whatever became of that "electricity" thing? Did it ever make a comeback after the fad had passed?

[Dan 55]

Re: It's very strange...

All Sega have done is look at Square Enix who followed the NFT hype and got burnt by it, now Sega are trying to find a way of changing their mind and saving face.

[Michael Strorm]

Re: It's very strange...

Pretty much what I thought when I saw the bit where he says that Sega "still hasn't figured out what blockchain is good for".

Like, why were they considering shoving it into *games* before they'd even figured out what- if any- benefit or relevance it might have had there in the first place?!

It's pretty much the epitome of cart-before-the-horse bandwagon jumping.

> and may not make it part of a flagship "supergame" slated for a 2026 release

That's a surprise. Now that blockchain has been supplanted by generative AI as the tech fad du jour, the only reason they ever had for contrivedly forcing the former into their game- whether or not it made sense- is gone.

[Someone Else]

Re: It's very strange...

That's a surprise. Now that blockchain has been supplanted by generative AI as the tech fad du jour, the only reason they ever had for contrivedly forcing the former into their game- whether or not it made sense- is gone.

Sure. So they will install "generative AI" into the game, which will hallucinate and modify the games such that no one can win...thereby making it so that there will be no need for these NFT that everyone is banging on about.

[Pascal Monett]

"the Japanese gaming giant still hasn't figured out what blockchain is good for"

Oh come now, we know what it's good for : for separating a fool and his money.

[katrinab]

Re: "the Japanese gaming giant still hasn't figured out what blockchain is good for"

Generative "AI" is the new way to do that though

[User McUser]

Dear Sega

Why not just try making a game that's fun and good without needing a pointless "tech du jour" shoehorned in there for no reason?

Sincerely,

Everyone.