Bloomberg has published a new article about Square Enix. The article states that the latest game in their breadwinner series Final Fantasy XVI did not achieve the expected sales. According to the news site, $2 billion of its value has now been lost due to Final Fantasy XVI, which received good reviews but generated sales below internal expectations. However, Bloomberg says that the problems for the Japanese company go beyond that. Square Enix shareholders and staff are believe that the company is suffering from poor quality control and project planning. Over the past year, the company released numerous games. While some were successful, others like Forspoken, consumed significant resources but failed to generate strong sales. Additionally, Square Enix’s mobile games were abruptly shut down when they did not meet the company’s expectations. These games include titles such as Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights and Echoes of Mana. You can read the full article on Square Enix here and here are some key excerpts from the article.
“One of the most recognized names among console and mobile gamers, Square Enix is on a streak of misfires in attempts to build another hit series to buttress sales, and it’s fallen behind rivals like Capcom Co. and Activision Blizzard Inc. in terms of market value. The company’s fall from grace offers hard lessons for the industry about the importance of quality control and product planning, said fans, analysts and developers who have done business at or with the studio.”
“Flooding the market with unfinished, bad or untested games is a bad move,” Tokyo-based developer and gamer Michael Prefontaine said, listing Marvel’s Avengers, Forspoken and The DioField Chronicle as examples of poorly-thought-out games. “The company has overstretched itself on too many titles without proper oversight.”
“Current and former Square Enix employees, asking not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly, pin the blame for that on the company’s approach of making every game project a single producer’s fiefdom.”
“We remain concerned with the company’s game development structure and game quality control, which could limit the longer term performance,” Macquarie Capital Securities Japan analyst Yijia Zhai wrote in a letter to clients, while maintaining an an outperform rating on the company.
“Square Enix has problems with their games output,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based industry consultant, who said too many of the company’s games are “kind of conventional” and don’t aspire to become blockbusters. “These titles get a 70% rating on Metacritic, are kind of OK and are just very forgettable.”
Well, the new titles aren’t selling as good, so they’re just gonna probably dig into more remakes when they complete VII Remake… in about 10 years..
Remakes, wokeness and prices that make you think twice to buy a game. Yeah I hope they suffer quite a lot.
Wokeness? Haha. Have you considered growing up?
…”wokeness”?
Their games are even kind of homophobic sometimes.
“The article states that the latest game in their breadwinner series Final Fantasy XVI did not achieve the expected sales.”
Don’t make it a PlayStation exclusive for no reason next time. You’re not a first party publisher.
I never thought square enix would make an FF worse than the XV… and yet… he had the XVI….
All we need for work is a reliable smart phone and an Internet connection, as well as a responsible individual. For all students, regardless of age, whether they (u) are in school, recently graduated, or unemployed.
For more details visit this article.>>bitecoincrencyb>
They put too much focus on making FF XVI to be more appealing to westerners to drive up says that they hurt the sales in Japan and made it less appealing to those who enjoyed the series for being what it is.
this isn’t even including the backlash due to nft and crypto stuff
You know thos probably wouldn’t have happened if SE’s leadership were fired years ago before that moron CEO sold off all of it’s western IPs and Crystal Dynamics as he, and his idiotic cohorts, pushed for and attempted to invest into fraudulent endeavors like crypto/block chain implementation into their games.
Maybe if those idiots just made good games, like for instance a PARASITE EVE REBOOT, similar to what capcom did for RE back when horror games made a huge comeback, maybe those earnings and share prices in SE would have been greater.
Hope SE go under and some other Japanese company buy their IPs because it’s clearly obvious SE, it’s shareholders and it’s management don’t know what the hell they’re doing and refuse to make games fans want or like.
Squeenix needs new management on the double. FFXV, KH3 should have been a hell of a lot better. FF7R wasn’t even the remake people wanted & is essentially just a sequel to the OG game. That said, it is nice to see Sephiroth’s final line in Advent Children not just being some throwaway line. Also, nice play on the word “remake.” (Still would like a true FF7 remake, though.) And don’t get me started on their shitty broken websites.