Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s co-CEO, comments in a new statement that there is no point in implementing blockchain technology if it doesn’t make games ‘fun’. Sega…
What do you mean doing monotonous tasks for a week so you can get 2 bucks isn’t engaging?!
All the NFT stuff has gone above and beyond to be as dumb as possible. There was one possible use case, the proof of uniqueness, showing that you genuinely own the one and only, and all others are copies.
So people used this technology to mass produce copies of the least unique things, because of course the actual use case is a pyramid scheme to scam people for money, and all the value of a blockchain item is the promise that it will make the buyer more money.
I have no problem with a blockchain used in non-monetary context. Consider, for example, a competitive RTS/TBS which recorded RNG events or keystrokes to the blockchain, which helps show if there was lag, and helps to verify that the RNG is fair, and that both players aren’t cheating. Or a game with a “Speedrun” mode, recording input as blocks, and making sure it’s all publicly verifiable. Think of a Doom demo file, but encompassing all attempts from all connected players; new routes can be discovered quicker and cheaters can be outed near-instantly.
Blockchain as a concept is of great value to anything where public auditing is wanted. We’ve associated it to scams and money, and that bugs me. Including more aggressive monetization, speculation, and a profit motive makes a game less fun. Including a publicly auditable log of past events in a game built for multiplayer feels like it would be a value-add.
That doesn’t need to be a distributed ledger, that can just be a database. The only use cases for DLT/Blockchains is where it is undesirable to have a central authority.
Games will always have a central authority - the devs - so there’s just no point. Nothing is gained by decentralizing trust, and quite a lot - especially speed and simplicity - must be sacrificed.
Come on SEGA. Stop the sass and show all these lame ass video game and console makers how it’s done.
Return to the console industry with a goddammit Dreamcast 2!
I’d buy a Dreamcast 2 in a second. I still have two original Dreamcasts and a pile of games.
I didn’t really think about it until just now, but I would totally get a new Sega console. They at least have the internal developers to make meaningful first party exclusives to justify getting one.