There will be physical collectibles with an NFT component

What had once been a warning of dark times to come is now a reality. Square Enix has finally announced itsNFT (or non-fungible token)project afterthreatening uswith the company’s embrace of the controversial andlargely reviled-by-gamersblockchain technology.

To facilitate this extraordinary waste of fans’ good-will, Square Enix has partnered withEnjin, an NFT company that will store Square Enix’s tokens on its Efinity blockchain. Starting today, consumers will be able to pre-order a physical action figure that comes with a code redeemable for a digital NFT. There will also be physical trading cards that similarly have a digital NFT component available for pre-order later this year.

If you’re wondering which of its many franchises Square Enix is pulling these NFTs from, well, that’s the worst part. In what is perhaps the most astounding case of “Didn’t read the source material you created,” Square Enix is making its NFTs fromFinal Fantasy VII— that relatively obscure indie game about a bunch of freedom fighters taking down a corporation that’s killing the planet.

Yes, you read that right. Square Enix is choosing to make its NFTs — a technology known toconsume exorbitant amounts of energycontributing to wildly increased emissions and acceleratingalready out-of-control climate changeon a planet that is eitheron fire,drowned, ormelting— out of characters it created who were dedicated to stopping companies from doing exactly what an NFT facilitates.

The math is not mathing.

Currently, there are no images available of what the action figure or the collectible cards will look like or how much they’ll cost. In an environment wheregaming-related NFTsare frequently met withswift and furious backlash, on top of theprecipitous fall in price of all things cryptocurrency, it is also not known if theseFFVIINFTs will have any value other than sentimental.

In the face of an inevitable backlash, Square has chosen to focus on its use of theEfinity Parachain, a layer 1 proof-of-stake solution that touts itself as “eco-friendly” and run by a company committed to being carbon neutral by 2030. It promises to be more power efficient than older Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain technology, and with bridges that connect different blockchains without relying on them and their energy-hungry ways to operate.

But the planet’s dyin’, Cloud, we ain’t got that kinda time.