Japanese gaming giants Sega, Square Enix, and Konami are joining forces with Coincheck, a crypto exchange listed on the New York Stock Exchange, to form a new alliance focused on blockchain gaming.
The name of the game
The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association shared that this new alliance also includes gaming firms COLOPL and Drecom.
Joining them are play-to-earn company BrilliantCrypto and two major Tokyo-based law firms, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, both part of Japan’s “big four” international law firms.
The alliance will operate under the JCBA and will officially be recognized as a subcommittee. The JCBA already has similar subcommittees dedicated to NFTs, DeFi, and stablecoins.
Tomoyuki Isaka, the president of Coincheck, will chair this new subcommittee, while Square Enix’s Keisuke Hata will serve as vice chair, but executives from Konami, COLOPL, Sega, and Drecom will also hold key positions within the group.
Join us!
This new subcommittee plans to tackle various legal, accounting, and tax-related issues that come with integrating blockchain technology into gaming, and they’ll also be making cross-industry recommendations and exploring how games can incorporate cryptocurrency elements.
Plus, they’ll take care legal matters surrounding NFTs and conduct case studies to push their agenda forward.
Japan is known for its pretty strict regulations in both the crypto and gaming sectors, and critics have pointed out numerous times that a lack of clarity around these regulations has held back Japanese companies from fully developing blockchain-based games.
Activist investors are buying more Japanese stocks than ever before, giving them stronger influence in shaping the country's biggest companies https://t.co/VzkVQPMehL
— Bloomberg (@business) December 17, 2024
A new strategy
The JCBA was established in 2016 and has grown to include 155 firms. In the past years, it has taken on self-regulatory responsibilities and frequently advocates for policy changes with the government.
Earlier this year, Konami announced its partnership with Avalanche to create a new NFT trading platform.
Sega has also expressed interest in blockchain gaming and NFTs over the past year, while Square Enix has been pursuing blockchain gaming initiatives despite some pushback from gaming communities.
