Square Enix have announced new Bring Arts action figures for Tifa and Aerith from their seminal RPG, Final Fantasy VII.
While this news is normally nice and mostly bland when it comes to announcement of merch of any game – these figures come with something special too.
Those who purchase these figurines also get an exchange ticket for an NFT through the Enjin Wallet. Yes, the figures do come with NFTs, which is not a surprise considering Square Enix sold off major IPs earlier this year to raise money to invest in the concept.
The standard editions for the figures are $129.99, while there is also a digital plus edition which costs $159.99. Both versions include an NFT, but the latter comes with a code to get the digital version of the figure, which is viewable on an Augmented Reality app.
There is also a figure of Cloud Strife, the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, which also comes with the NFT like the girls.
While this is only tied to gaming as a product of merchandise, NFTs in video games has been a controversial subject. Some companies reject the premise wholly like the developers of Minecraft. While others add them into their games such as the recent Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds.
Then there are storefronts taking different stances on the matter. Where Steam has banned NFTs, but Epic Games Store took a neutral stance believing that storefronts “shouldn’t interfere” on if developers want to implement NFTs or not.
With NFTs being promoted in line with Square Enix’s massively popular title in Final Fantasy VII and therefore the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole. It seems their work on implementing blockchain technology for their products will continue to move on and grow.