Sega acquires new Sega trademark and logo for 'Sega NFT' in Japan

Sega just acquired trademarks for a 'Sega NFT' logo and another for 'Sega Classics NFT Collection' from the Japanese Patent Office.

The Japanese game company first revealed its ambitions for NFTs in April, when it signed a partnership with Double Jump Tokyo to sell visual art, music and in-game images as NFTs.

By November, Sega made an official announcement that it was exploring NFTs. However, after facing backlash from fans, it backed off, announcing it would re-evaluate its decisions.

Recently, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi disclosed that while Sega understands fans' reactions to NFTs, the company is still very much interested in exploring the technology and would conduct investigations before making a decision.

'We need to carefully assess many things such as how we can mitigate the negative elements, how much we can introduce this within the Japanese regulation, what will be accepted and what will not be by the users,' Satomi explained. "Then, we will consider this further if this leads to our mission 'Constantly Creating, Forever Captivating', but if it is perceived as simple money-making, I would like to make a decision not to proceed.'

Amidst the controversy, Sega seems to be preparing to integrate NFTs with its operations, as shown by the trademark it acquired today. It is unclear what is to follow this development. Still, the 'Sega Classics NFT Collection' likely implies Sega would auction its NFT collection, similar to the Konami Memorial NFT Collection.

Sega is just one of a growing roster of video game companies with NFT projects or that are interested in the technology. Konami recently released its Konami Memorial NFT Collection, and Square Enix's CEO hinted at adopting NFTs in an open letter earlier this month.

Ubisoft also launched an NFT platform called Quartz and dropped NFTs for one of its AAA titles – Ghost Recon.

It is perhaps important to note that most of these announcements were received poorly by fans of the respective companies. So far, the primary reason for fans' resistance has been the fact that NFTs are not environment-friendly. Some also believe it is a way for companies to exploit their customers.

No one is sure of what to expect from Sega's trademark acquisition. However, it is unlikely we will see them implemented into games soon, especially since Steam banned games with NFT or cryptocurrency from its platform.

Photo: Sega