Square Enix's recent trademark filing, which was suspected to be a Parasite Eve remake, was recently revealed to be an NFT art project. The announcement was made via a Twitter account dedicated to the project, which was received by many disappointed Parasite Eve fans.Since coming out in 1998, Parasite Eve garnered praise from survival horror fans, and has since been part of lists of games that should get a remake. Especially after Square Enix released a series of remastered games, including including Final Fantasy 7. There have been rumors in the past of a Parasite Eve remake, but the projects never came into fruition.In October, the video game publisher filed a trademark for "Symbiogenesis," which was believed to be a potential Parasite Eve remake because it's the basis of Hideaki Sena's novel. However, SYMBIOGENESIS is the name of Square Enix's global NFT collectible art project, which is set to launch in spring 2023. The announcement was made during the Web3 Conclave conference in India on November 3rd. The video teaser was also posted on the NFT project's official Twitter account.
The 30-second teaser didn't show any information about the project, other than the colorful logo art and the tagline, "Untangle the Story." This isn't Square Enix's first time to release an NFT. Earlier this year, it released a Final Fantasy 7 NFT of Cloud Strife's original character design from the PS1 version of the game.
Meanwhile, fans who were either expecting a Parasite Eve remake made their disappointment known under the announcement tweet. Many said they don't need an NFT project, while others said Square Enix "broke a lot of hearts." Some also criticized the video game publisher for dabbling in NFTs, which could negatively impact the environment because of the energy used to create them. But because of the popularity of NFTs, it seems that many companies, not just the video game industry, want to capitalize on them. With recent news that NFT sales are plummeting, it could also be seen as a volatile business move.
It's also worth noting that Square Enix is not the only big gaming company that has NFTs. Recently, it was reported that Konami might be building an NFT marketplace, which displeased fans as well. Whatever Square Enix's SYMBIOGENESIS NFT art project will be, it's still too early to say if it will be a success or not, especially considering the negative reception it got right off the bat.
Parasite Eve is available for the original PlayStation.