Square Enix Reduces Earnings Forecasts by 91% Will they be forced to file for bankruptcy protection?

It seems last week's Final Fantasy XIV kerfuffle had even more fallout than we thought. In an announcement on the company's official corporate site today, Square Enix drastically reduced its earnings forecasts for the remainder of the fiscal year from 12 billion yen (approx. $142.4 million USD) to just 1 billion yen ($11.9 million) - a decrease of 91.7%

[disturbing_flame]

Square Enix fails because it has not securized the japan market with great exclusivities on PS3, when you see how much FFXIII has been sold in Japan, it shows how much the market can be solid for other exclusivities.

[Iamback]

Now it would nice time for Sony to acquire them and save all those great IPs.

[Marcello]

Square Enix Fails because...

Wada is STILL !! in charge FFS !

They dont listen to fans/customers

They have never made a good game.

This could indeed be a blessing, if the IP`s were aquired by a decent game developer then maybe we could get a great FF one day again.

[ComboBreaker]

Let Square Enix also sell the Xenogears rights back to the original creator of Xenogears so he can finally create Xenogears II: Episode VI.

It's all Wada's fault.

Wada and the Japanese: "Let's Westernize by ignoring the Japanese market."

After some several months...

Wada and the Japanese: "OMG, the Japanese market is dying. We must Westernize more or we will surely not die. It is common sense."

Wada and the Japanese: "Oh Wiseman, why is the Japanese market dying?"

Wiseman: "You ARE the Japanese market. When you ignore the Japanese market, the Japanese market dies."

Wada: "I understand. Alrite guys, let's not make use the assets from FF7: Advent Children to make a FF7 Remake that will guarentee millions of sales. Instead, let's make a generic WWII FPS shooter from scratch for the PC that will probably not sell that well."

Konami: "We understand. Let's not Westernize our games. Also, let's not Westernize our technologies too. Let's make Konami ID and MGO ID, instead of using the PSN ID."

Capcom: "We understand. Let's take a great Eastern game like Devil May Cry and Westernize it into a game with a whiny emo kid."

Namco: "We understand. Let's take a great Eastern story like Journey to the West and Westernize it into something call Enslaved: Odyssey To The West. It must not be a great reintepretation of it. No. It should only be a generic Western action game with a ending twist that makes no sense."

[Anarki]

Square need to get their asses in to gear. They take forever to make any game these days :/

[sinncross]

Here here

[maniacmayhem]

I think you people are looking at things through cloudy goggles.

The reason a lot of these japanese companies are trying to "westernize" their games is because of a few reasons.

One main reason is development cost is so high for current gen games that succeding in one market is not enough to make back an earning. Japan has had it good for a long time being a country that turned out quality titles in its day. But now the world has caught up and caught on and are delivering excellent, high quality innovative titles.

Japan power houses now have to play catch up to most of these other great developers.

[DORMIN]

@maniacmayhem:

Thats not necessarily true. Its all about limits and who you are trying to appeal too.

Look at basically small budget games like Demon's Souls or Valkyria Chronicles. They are very japanese at heart but have turned into cult classics around the world.

Same with Pokemon here in the Western world, the game is basically the same thing with minor changes for the past 10 years but continues to sell a ton.

Why? They are slightly unique to appeal to Western gamers that still ENJOY 'eastern' style games and they feel like they are AAA quality.

In this case, it is SQUENIX & Wada's fault. You make a generic game that is half western/eastern then your fans in both markets won't want it.

[coolasj]

If a Sony were ever to acquire them.... wow. They would own rights to everything before hand right ? You do realize that's alot right ?

[darthawesome90]

Finally an end to Wada's reign of terror.(hopefully)

Maybe without Wada Square will return to it's glory days.

[FamilyGuy]

$14 (subscription fee) x 5 (months given away free instead of being charged like square expected), 1 million (expected owners) = 70,000,000

Lets say they make $40 per game sale and expected 1 million (but only got 500k), that's another 40 mill.

these are just estimated #s but in this scenario they've lost 90million in potential revenue based on just FF14.

[FOXDIE]

how much does sony already own in Square? 11% or something like that?

[Neckbear]

What's funny is the following; you seem to think than making exclusives would ACTUALLY make these games suck less and people would buy them.

Flash news: Nope. They'd still be the same shitty games.

[Akagi]

Oh look, Neckbear is clearly from another dimension wherein all Square-Enix games are exclusive to the PS3! He knows what they are like!

[AmazingBrian]

It's sad to see them in this position. They have done well in that past but it seems this decade, they have dropped very low. They have made great games in the past so I don't want them to go. I want someone to buy them and keep them alive. There are so many fans of final fantasy if they just make a good FF(wiff TOWNZZ) or a new Chrono game with HD graphics, they could make good money. They just need to spend a little less time on the graphics and more time on the gameplay and story.

[Marceles]

Westernizing games, acquiring Eidos (why??), only catering to the handheld market, slow console gaming development with lackluster results....the only thing Square hasn't lost is how great their CG and art looks, but the games have sunk to a new low.

[UCMEandICU]

Do they now have the Hitman franchise? I hope they don't mess that one up. It's been over 5 yrs since we got a hitman game and the very first one on current gen consoles now.

There is no excuse, Hitman should blow the roof off with current gen raw power in every element from sound, to story to gameplay everything.

If they just put out some Hitman blood moneyish thingy with just Kane and Lynch type graphics and presentation I will forever hold a deep grudge against SE.

Do whatever you like SE just don't mess up FFvs and Hitman

[gamesmaster]

surely a ps2 hitman hd release similar to that of the god of war 1,2 titles would make them some money.

i remember reading an article which refered to a sony executive explaining how beneifical these hd remix's can be to a developer and its particular franchise.

in any case i hope someone does buy SE and renames the company..er.. oh yes.. SQUARESOFT!!!

[Tuxedo_Mask]

@UCMEandICU

That's something I didn't get.

1.They have the Hitman Franchise.

2.They release Kane and Lynch.

3.After lackluster sales of Kane and Lynch they decide to...

4.Release a sequel to Kane and Lynch rather than a new Hitman game.

It's not just Square's old properties that they aren't taking advantage of, so it isn't any wonder that they're having problems.

[FinalSpartan]

wow what happen to this gaintss...:'(

good old square soft. stellar titles on PS1,SNES days. RPG powerhouse they were. No one ever match the quality of RPG they made.

But fast forward modern day :( FF13 huge fail . FF14 huge fail.

[princejb134]

it wont matter to me if they go bankrupt
they havent impressed me at all this gen
they know what the fans want
kingdom hearts 3 and final fantasy 7 remake
just in bring these to games and watch the money flow

instead their throwing out bull shit games like lost planet 2, even after the first one failed

if anything bring out a xenogears remake i would buy that

[cemelc]

Dude lost planet is capcom not square.

[Spitfire_Riggz]

Hasnt Sony saved Square from bankruptcy once before already?? I just really want Kingdom Hearts 3 in the future so Sony should bust them out again. Maybe they will be thankful this time

[FamilyGuy]

This has %100 to do with not being able to charge a subscription fee for FF14 Online and lower than previously forecast sales for that same title. They may also previously forecast a 2011 release date for FFvs13 that now seems like like it might be later.

Square Enix is still a huge company, they could release their own console if they wanted, so chances of them being bought buy Sony or anyone are extremely unlikely.

Yeah, FF14 is doing terrible, $14+, per owner, per month, for a full year makes up an enormous amount of revenue.

Small math: say 1 million users paid the monthly fee for a year that'd be $168million alone, but since it's not a year of potential subscription sales lost, more like 4 months (the ones they've been giving away free because the game still needs patching), the is lower and probably based on higher than 1 million sales with the revenue of the cost of the game itself also factored in.

This is FF14 related, and in my opinion not really worth worrying about since subscription sales are like %99 revenue on top of what it actually cost them to maintain an online game.

[Abriael]

Looks like the one that wrote the headline isn't too smart.

What's been reduced by 91% is the "net income", which means the PROFIT, with expenses taxes and such already subtracted.

The fact that the company still predicts to make a profit (with so many companies out there that end years actually losing money), means that bankruptcy isn't even on the horizon.

The actual income from sales (without expenses) has been reduced just by 19%, which puts them just above the margin they need to turn a *profit*.

It's funny, because economically speaking the percentage reduction of the net income is the *least* telling. Of course, it 90% makes bigger sounding headlines than the actual relevant figure, which again, is little below 19%. Bad? sure, but hardly catastrophic.

[TheDivine]

No they just put all their money on graphics and spread out over 10 games. Tone down the graphics(its jrpgs we dont care) and make better games. They have made last remnant and infinite undiscovery which i loved. Nier, Star Ocean 4, Psp games and ff13 all were good. The thing is, only ff13/Last Remnant and psp games were from square, the rest they just published. They promised so much and announce too soon. FF14 was just retarted, should have added onto ff11 like wow expansions so vs13 would be out. FF13 was good but the hate from the 360 version killed it in my eyes. It needed npcs and towns(all other jrps this gen had that even single dvd 360 ones so it was by choice) but they chose graphics, blew the budget and had to port to recoup investments, which will happen with vs13.

[animboo]

to think back, they used to be my favorite game studio, now they just make crap after crap. where are the new and innovative rpg that is not a remake and has a linear gameplay. wheres the quality synonymous with their name.
Wada is to blame for trying to westernize something that has always been popular as an eastern rpg.

[NewMonday]

Let MS bail out, maybe this will push Wada out.

[blind-reaper]

Wada is the one supporting Microsoft!! how will they push him out?

[gamesmaster]

by clenching thier buttcheeks together...

[Megaton]

ROFL @ gamesmaster

[M4ndat0ry_1nstall]

"Square Enix drastically reduced its earnings forecasts for the remainder of the fiscal year from 12 billion yen (approx. $142.4 million USD) to just 1 billion yen ($11.9 million)"

Wow! I doubt Square Enix will file for bankruptcy just yet. But as Square Enix seem to be having financial problems as of late, can they really afford to limit their earnings by creating a AAA budget exclusive game for one system at this point (FFvs13)?

[PirateThom]

Creating "AAA" budget games for one system and alienating their core userbase is why they're in this mess.

[maniacmayhem]

@ Thom,

Correction, creating "crappy" AAA budget games is why they're in this mess.

[Eamon]

Of course. It's because you release a game on multiplatform, it makes you go bankrupt.

The logic of deranged fanboys probably cannot be understood by even Freud himself.

The reason is most likely due to humongous budgets and very long development periods.

4 years to make FF13. That's 4 years of paying salaries of designers, programmers, engineers. Then there's the huge marketing budget and the earnings of the S-E executives. And probably a lot more expenses involved too.

[Neckbear]

Bankruptcy won't happen.

They're still making a profit. They still paid for all the expenses they had. They aren't LOSING money.

[Abriael]

at last someone that got this. Bubbles for you.

[Ruggadagod]

just needs to make exclusive jrpgs for the ps3 and they'll be fine. they keep forgetting who supported them last generation....the PlayStation fans.

[gon-freaks]

^

lol disagree of fanboys of ff13...

[Elven6]

So going by your logic, Square should still be Nintendo exclusive since if it weren't for Final Fantasy 1 selling really well they would have closed up shop decades ago. Companies don't pledge allegiance and folks who own a PS3, Xbox 360, etc and like Square's games will buy them regardless.

And how did this story even get approved? The titles are DRASTICALLY different.

N4G is going down hill.

[Eamon]

"N4G is going down hill."

oh, you just noticed.

[Elven6]

It gets worse each passing day. =/

[Blaster_Master]

lol I guess the MS checks aren't lasting them as long as they expectded? I think the downfall of Squenix doesn't have anything to do with FF14, considering the game hasn't even had a beta on the ps3 yet. The problem with squenix is the fact that they concentrate too much on the money, and stray away from the vision the companies (Enix/Squaresoft) had at the begining of their exsistance. Quality games = Money. Pissing off fanbase, making crappy games, and showing favoritism to an unproven market(X360) is what will break you. Dumb ass Squeenix.

[PirateThom]

FFXIV is out on PC and it's pretty broken from all reports, to the point they've had to suspend taking any subscription payments.

[Blaster_Master]

nothing against you Pirate, but you help make my point. FF is a series that started out on console. Most of its fanbase are on console. Companies are taking games away from their fan bases and putting them on pc. Look at KOTOR, it started on Xbox. PC users generally dont like playing games on consoles. They fail to get into games that started on consoles. Thats why games like Starcraft do good on pc, its cause it started out and gained a fanbase on pc. FF is a console franchise, it doesn't belong on pc. Publishers are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to bringing these franchises to pc. Like Phantasy star. They bring it to the 360, but people who owned dreamcast are into nintendo and playstation.

[DethWish]

KOTOR started on PC as much as xbox?

Also bioware started on pc :P

[Zir0]

Pretty much confirms FFvsXIII will be multiplatform (likely reason for the announcement delay), I can also see the FF franchise getting a lot more main entires more frequently too.

SE will obviously be desperate to make money by any means possible.

[DigitalRaptor]

Keep dreaming... Not that I would wish against you playing the game - that would be cruel!

But Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 sold a third of its PS3 counterpart. Square knows that PS3 fans care for the franchise the most by a large margin.

I'm sure they have weighed the pros and cons many times over, and bringing a game that has been developed and optimized for the PS3 to the 360, particularly at this stage, seems to be more effort than it's worth in all honesty.

From what we have heard and seen, Versus XIII is looking to be a powerhouse in PS3 development (using cell SPUs and Blu-ray), and a step up from the multiplatform XIII.

Not only that, but Nomura has stated that if it comes to Xbox 360, he will leave the company (since he has laid out his vision for Versus as a PS3 project), and being the lead visionary and a huge asset to Square Enix, this won't happen. So like I said, keep dreaming!

What is most important right now, is that Wada lets Nomura maintain full control of his vision on the project and once the PS3 version is done, they would be free to port the 360 version.

[DrillaKid]

I doubt one game (that unfortunately shares it's title with XIII) going multi is going to solve many problems for SE.

If there was ever a good chance for Sony to acquire them (wasnt this rumored back in 04/05?) now would be it.

[DOMination]

"Not only that, but Nomura has stated that if it comes to Xbox 360, he will leave the company"

Please provide a link where Nomura said that

[DOMination]

Who cares if it only sold a third on the 360. That's still over a million in sales right? That's a million more sales than if it was PS3 only

[DigitalRaptor]

@ DOMination

You are right there, I think that part was just a rumour. My bad.

And you've really gotta think about it. If it was a PS3 exclusive, it would have recouped that extra million in sales just on excessive hype alone.

[No FanS Land]

sony had somthing like a 14% stake on squaresoft, wada from enix ensured to complete the square enix merger deal to reduce sony's share.

[-X-]

"But Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 sold a third of its PS3 counterpart. Square knows that PS3 fans care for the franchise the most by a large margin."

The fact that the 360 version sold a third of the PS3 sales means its selling and they will keep making games multi-platform.

Also that talk about Nomura might leave SE if FFvXIII becomes multi-platform is definitely a false rumor.

I definitely think that FFvXIII will be ported on the 360 because of Nomuras' tweet.

“Multi-platform is when you start development on a game with the assumption of optimizing for multiple platforms. Porting is something that’s done after you’ve developed a game specifically for a particular platform. The debate over porting is decided by the management based off the current market and the costs. What I can say as a developer right now is that VERSUS is being developed and maxed out for the PS3.”

I don't know why SE is supported the 360 so much. Didn't SE make like 3 or 4 exclusive games for the 360, and haven't made 1 for the PS3 yet.

[Cloudberry]

.
But I never doubt it would eventually happen, sooner / later, though...

[jc48573]

just don't release FF14 on the ps3.

[trainsinrdr]

dont worry square enix you've got your 2 hardmen kayne and lynch and they dont take shit from no one

[Bellcross]

Square and Enix should split, ever since they became a joint company they've been going down hill.

bring back Squaresoft.

And Wada need to GTFO he's useless.

[COINTELPRO]

HA HA HA! Good. I hope they do go bankrupt, they had it coming. SE has been taking unreasonable design decisions for a long time, the long overdue consequences are catching up.

Five years of work for FFXIV? Are you kidding me? They deserve to go out of business. That's the last straw. I know what you're gonna say. "Oh but so many people are going to lose their jobs, that's not good"

The talent they do have are better off finding work in another studio not run by retards. Remember, SE told us a FF7 remake would take 30 years to make. Only good things may come out of this if they do go bankrupt.

[despair]

you're wishing for a company that employs numerous people to go bankrupt because they did not make a game you liked or did not live up to your expectations? WTF is wrong with people...

[Stealth20k]

They still make huge profits..............

But they are learning like namco that we dont want there western games just there japanese rpgs

THATS IT

with dragon quest X coming next year, and alot of other titles.

They will still make sufficent profit '

And how are there western games doing? Worse than tales sales. Same with square

[maniacmayhem]

Tales didn't do well over here, so i think it's only a small market that actually want their Jrpg's which is why they are trying to westernize their games.

@lavalamp
It still didn't do expected numbers and was still considered a flop by Namco.
And don't get me wrong I think Tales of Vesperia was an excellent game. But namco won't take that hit again and release tales here.

[Lavalamp]

In the North America region, Tales of Vesperia sold about 60,000 copies within the first week, while Enslaved only sold about 40,000. Bear in mind that Vesperia managed to do that on
1) one console
2) that console being the shooter-centric 360
3) little to no marketing campaign
4) the smaller number of consumers from 2 years ago.
Sure, Enslaved was an unproven IP, but it had a much larger marketing campaign and an actual attempted appeal towards western gamers. While both titles really haven't made Namco much money, Tales is the lesser of the two evils and should be the one they focus on refining.

@Maniacmayhem
You're right, Tales didn't live up to expectations. But, as I said, it's all about refining the business model; live and learn. They could easily turn a profit if they outscourced the localization to another company like Atlus. Or, if they simply translate the text while retaining the native voice work, they could save themselves the trouble (and money) of hiring English actors.

[AnonUser5555]

The problem ISN'T that we don't want Japanese RPGS. We do. We just don't want crappier linear ones. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd be a damn blu-ray. Let me control my own battle, thank you very much.

[DevilsJoker]

This is cripplingly bad for Square Enix, but they've made such bad descisions lately they've almost earnt this downfall. If this is only 'Earnings' and not 'profit' then they must have made a huge loss this fiscal year.
I hope they sell the IP's to some talented developers/publishers. Would be easy money for them and the gamers might actually get something decent out of it.

[StarScream4Ever]

Let them die. They failed with FFXIII. Made XIV a disaster. And never listen to what the fans ask from them.

[maniacmayhem]

Hahaha, i bet if those crappy RPG's square made were on PS3 they wouldnt be in this situation right? /s

Gawd I love the logic of some folks here on N4G.

[kreate]

ur missing the point.

those crappy RPGs could of sold a lot more if it was relesed on the PS3 for a huge profit.

instead. square made those crappy RPG games for the xbox360. and it utterly failed.

majority of square's fanbase is on the playstation brand.
so how do u expect to sell ur products to the rival, xbox360, and expect ur games to sell?

this alone is the biggest failure of the square failing enix of this generation of gaming.

another reason with the problems square is facing are the same reason namco bandai is facing.

the whole "lets make western games to the western gamers" business is a epic fail on most japanese developers.

western gamers want the japanese developers to make japanese games and localize it in the west. not make western games instead and try to compete against the big name western companies.

and square went wrong with final fantasy 13 and 14.
the biggest mistake is putting yoichi wada as their president.

square enix isnt the same squaresoft from the 90's.
and it seems square has lost interest in where their fans are.

[redDevil87]

Should have stuck with PS3 from the start

[Ame_No_Shiryuu]

enough said...

[AnonUser5555]

Maybe they should file for "Making crappy linear games" protection!

Zing?

____

Also,

Bankruptcy saver = FF7 Remake. Just saying.

[Baliw]

I hope theres no FF7 remake, EVER.
Yeah, it would be uber awesome but... i want NEW games!If you want to play ff7 just do it.

[AnonUser5555]

I'd prefer new games too, if they're actually fun/engaging/not completely linear aka NOT like ff13.

So hopefully they right the ship.

[Son_Lee]

The solution: Stop releasing crappy ass games that no one wants and put RPGs and new IPs on the PS3!! GIVE THE FANS WHAT THEY WANT AND YOU WOULDN'T BE IN THIS POSITION!

Wada needs to jump off a cliff.

[Prcko]

this happens when you make deals with other platforms like xbox and pc,square stick to ps3 and you gonna make big profit!!!
They are in the loss because costs for making games on multiple platforms are huuuge!
it's around 6,7 million more to make for example FFXIII for xbox and ps3!

[Karum]

They've done nothing but make bad games and worse decisions this gen so this really isn't surprising.

[guitar_nerd_23]

im a sad panda, squaresoft were my bread and butter of computer games

thank god sakaguchi saw it coming and started mistwalker

im so starved of good jrpgs all i can do is replay ones ive already beaten

id get a ds to fill the void but itll be redunant in a few months and i want a 3ds

[Troll-without-Bridge]

Sakaguchi was the one who almost brought squaresoft to bankruptcy after spirits within.

[guitar_nerd_23]

oh... i didnt realise that film did badly i really liked it, got it on bluray

he and uematsu are still the soul of final fantasy as far as im concerned

[Troll-without-Bridge]

The article fails to realize the fall was in profits in comparison to previous years. They don't have any dept thus not requiring bankruptcy they are still on the green. They just need to following games to sell well to get more comfort.

[palaeomerus]

They also have a few big Eidos titles releasing next year such as Arkham City.

[polestar4]

They should have made ff7 and it would be going better for them.The money would be rolling in.

[Neo-Delta]

Wada is a fool anyway - He has destroyed the companies original vision, clouding it with PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT

[Bladestar]

at one point this was my favorite company ever. loved FFIII for the SNES, and FF7 for the PS1. The reason why they are failing is because they failed to evolved with the game industry as it happened with lots of Japanese game developers. Back when graphics and games story lines where not that important games could get away of lots of things not anymore. JRPG no longer interest the west. The style of game play was OK before games like Mass Effect, Ovblibion, Fallout and others provided western gamers the RPG elements they loved without having to deal with metrosexual characters and story lines that appeal to the interesting Japanese people. To make things words Japan is an aging country. 21% over the age of 65 (40% by 2055) and as they few kids grow and become workaholics as Japanese people are known to be the game industry there shrink. To add to the problem Nintendo done a good job turning the few new gamers into casual gamers with the wii and DS which does not translate well to Square Enix. You can blame it on their games and all.. the numbers do not lie and their target audience got cut dramatically.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

They have to now appease to the western gamers. What about the rest of the world? According to this gen western gamers like everything crap and hate everything good.

I mean ME1 1&2 both look and play like crap yet you guys eat it all up.

[Troll-without-Bridge]

thats true. Mass effect is a subpar game in all aspects, if it was made by square enix people would hate it.

[finnhima]

Ugh, you're back.........

[Killzoned]

This has happened because Square Enix worked too deeply in supporting the XBox 360 in japan and worldwide

[rob6021]

I think its very true that FFXIII got a bad rep in part because of a lot of Sony fans were bitter about it going multi platform - and thinking that they got a substandard product because of it (which may be true). The other games - if they would have released for playstation would have helped build an rpg friendly audience on PS3.

[Killzoned]

I wouldn't really just say it was just FF13, But the fact that Square Enix released a lot of Exclusives for XBox 360, Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Timed exclusive Star Ocean 4, Although these games were very medicore, they would of sold a couple of Hundred thousand copy in japan alone.

They should focus on what consumer want, What They usually do instead of focusing on what western audience wants, Because previous FF games were made without the intention of it aiming at western audience and thats what was good

[HereticDan]

Id wager it was FFXIV that did most of the damage, the amount of support staff and whatnot you have to set up to run an MMO must be staggering and then if it all goes to crap you're out a fortune. Not that im all that surprised, a second MMO was a bad idea to begin with.

[rob6021]

I think a lot of people are unaware of just how much money FFXI brought in for them, they were very Dependant on that fan base crossing over to the new game, and that's not happening. They should have made the game more like the old one and given it another year. A 2nd MMO wasn't a bad idea, considering how much FFXI made for them, they just handled it wrong.

[MetalFreakMike]

I'm not surprised because a lot of their games are average. I miss the PS1 and PS2 days where they released a crapload of great games. I really do not like them releasing all these handheld RPG games and ignoring the home console market. These Japanese developers have to change their ways and get with the times.

Namco is making new Tales games and only releasing them in Japan because they were crying about how they did not get good sales for their other games in outside of their country. Maybe because people love the tales games but don't like crap games that you pull out of your ass that you think will sell well in the west.

Square can not seem to release a good game anymore. Wada is a idiot and needs to be fired. They need to make REAL JRPG's and stop trying to ignore their fans. If they screw up VS 13 then just close up shop and find work somewhere else.

Capcom likes making DLC milking sounds every time they come out with a game. If you play a game from Capcom that does not have DLC then they must of been high or let it slip past the person that makes sure there is DLC for the game before it ships even if they have to take it from the game itself.

Konami seems to be doing good but things can change. I really hope they let Kojima work his magic and come out with another ZOE (Fingers crossed).

To sum it all up.......They need to focus on the Japanese market and then release it over here. It worked back in the day and I see no reason why it would not work now.

[Bellcross]

SquareEnix can go bankrupt for all I care, they are not making games their fans want and their arrogance will be their end.

Atlus has now taken the Jrpg crown, now give us Persona 5 and I'll be happy.

[MetalFreakMike]

Here, here.........

Give me Persona 5 or get the hell out!

(Directed at Atlus)

[Greek God]

If Versus is multi im done with squareenix
..no joke im serious!

[Deleting]

If they did it would be a shame

A small part of me was still hopeing for FF 7-9 remakes

How the mighty fall <sigh>

[BizDaWolf]

Square Enix last hope is FF13VS and KH3 I gotta feelin square enix is gonna be like be SEGA

[Vega75]

Well squareenix will need to make that money up somewhere. Can't wait for Versus to come to the 360, Hopefully they add extra content.

I'm sure if squarenix goes bankrupt, MS or nintendo will be right there to try an aquire them. I don't see either nintendo or MS just to sit by and watch Sony buy them out and not do something about it.

[The Rock Bottom]

"Can't wait for Versus to come to the 360, Hopefully they add extra content. "
Your post make no sense. How can it come to the 360 with extra content? Content had to be cut from FF13 just to cram the whole game on 3 discs for 360!

Also. I'm glad this is happening to $E. The only way a hard headed child will listen is through punishment. In life, if you make bad choices...bad things happen to you. Fact!

[palaeomerus]

The three 360 discs were NOT FULL! and That content was cut because Square already had a 50 hour game and the cut stuff would have made it too damned long. The rest would be discarded, used for a follow up, or sold as DLC.

[newhumanbreed]

They need to hurry up and make Kingdom Hearts 3 if they want to stay in business. I mean seriously, why haven't they made a sequel to one of the most successful franchises worldwide.

[Viddharto]

Has everyone forgotten about Kingdom Hearts? I think that should sell well...

[rulakir]

Stop supporting the 360 and stick to the PS3 and you will see that SE will be king once more..lol

[THILLREBORN]

I think a lot of you are confused Square Enix does not make bad games...I will try to be very clear hear they are a huge company with several different teams working on several different titles. The problem is that Wada has his key talent Nomura working on almost all of those titles...he is getting spread too thin. If you look at there portable titles then you would say they are doing really well but if you look at there console titles then they are suffering big time. My personal opinion and I think sales statistics would agree with me but SE needs to back off of the 360 and focus on the PS3...I know I will get tons of disagrees but hear me out. If they focus there resources on one console they will be able to deliver better titles because they won't have to split the resources, two there games hardly sell on a very western FPS dominated console. PS3 has always been about variety and that is why RPG's and none FPS titles sell better on it than on the 360. Since the PS3 is the dominate market in Japan and it's their key audiance around the world it just makes good financial sense for them to take a step back and focus there products on one console....I also think that if they stopped making games for the PSP and moved those projects over to the PS3 it would help them as well.

This all just my opinion so I hope most will understand that.

[ashcroft]

Stop putting out FF games would be a start. A Chrono installment needs to happen. Throw in some Xenogears and maybe a Bushido blade 3 and they're back in business.

[DFresh]

Square Enix brought this on themselves.
They don't listen to their fan base, games take too long to release, and making many games multiplatform have cost them dearly.
The majority of their fan base are on Playstation followed by Nintendo.
Since when do people on Xbox 360 buy anything else other then FPS games.
(JRPG fans are a niche market on Xbox 360 but on Playstation and Nintendo they are the majority.)
Best thing Square Enix can do right now is fire Wada and everything else comes second.

[Arknight]

I can't believe I'm saying this about the favorite development company of my childhood, but going bankrupt might not be the worst thing in the world. At least it would keep anymore cherished RPG franchises from being butchered to make them fit on an inferior system.

The best thing to happen would be for Sony to buy the company and organize them into a powerhouse PS3 RPG team. Maybe even get them working on a new Legend of Dragoon title as a collaboration. RPGs are really the only genre that Sony doesn't have a super Dev team for, right now.

[BIGBOSS08]

if you dont treat your customers right, you wont succeed.

[saimcheeda]

in their attempt to appeal to outside markets they forgot their original one!