Square Enix has a new Final Fantasy VII Bring Arts figure of Cloud up for pre-order, but the Digital Plus edition comes bundled with an NFT the guy would hate. I’m not sure how many times we’ve mentioned this, but the Square Enix bad decision guys should play FF7R.

After publishing a New Year’s Letter committed to our NFT hell, Square Enix saddled Cloud Strife with an action figure and NFT bundle. Of course, our preference is they don’t go down this path at all, but out of all the people Square could have picked, it’s the guy willing to do a little eco-terrorism to stop the world from dying. I get he’s kind of just there and vibing for some cash early on, but we know he comes around later.

The FF7R Cloud NFT figure from Square Enix looks about as ridiculous as it sounds.

There are two versions of the classic Cloud Bring Arts — one that’s just the actual, physical figure for $129 and another for $30 more bundled as the “Digital Plus Edition.” According to Square Enix, the NFT bundle nets you a digital version of the figure and a digital certificate of authenticity using blockchain technology. Square Enix and Enjin also have plans for trading cards, but those aren’t up for pre-order just yet.

Cloud also seems to be the only figure on Square’s store that has a “Caution before Purchasing” tab in the product information. For its NFT, Square Enix partnered with Enjin, so there’s a whole explainer on how you’ll need to create an Enjin wallet to redeem your Cloud NFTs tied to Efinity. Square Enix has a list of notices where it warns it’s not responsible for things that may happen with your weirdly complicated Cloud image, but the best one is the last:

“Warning: In case the Enjin services becomes unavailable in the future, you may lose access to the NFT digital certificate of authenticity and digital version of the figure.”

If you recall in that New Year’s letter from Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda, he tried to frame NFTs as a neat thing that’ll drive player incentive and compensation in games. This doesn’t seem to accomplish any of that. In fact, while I realize every terms of use section is full of language eschewing all responsibility, it’s a little comical to see Square’s responsibility for what happens to your Cloud picture shirked into the void in its product description. It’s like the reverse of everything touted here.

The Cloud figure won’t launch until 2023, and the new platform from Enjin is planning for a 2022 reveal — seems like Square Enix has a lot of faith in a thing with waning interest. Maybe it’s all the fraud.

As for the bigger picture here, the era of miserably glorified receipts has become so divisive companies now make statements to promise they won’t get involved. Mojang went as far as banning NFTs and blockchain in Minecraft, while Ubisoft goes racing in the other direction towards its next bad decision.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

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