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After its latest games didn't meet sales targets, Square Enix is going multiplatform but the company's track record isn't convincing.
Square Enix been multiplatform for decades, a few exclusively-deals doesn't make them any less multiplatform.
Nor is selling their games on a console with only 25 million install base going to bring their sales to where they hope they will be... Unless they somehow manage to dumb down FF7 trilogy to work on switch, they aren't going to have much luck. They already released it on PC, after all.
It kind of does, giving preference to a certain platform by timed exclusivity. Console ports generally feel superior. Legend of mana PC port extremely broken
Sega
It doesn’t when square themselves didn’t want to fund the development of remake. It’s only after the success of the 1st they realized their mistake but now contract is signed. If it wasn’t for Sony there would be no FF7 remakes. Same goes for silent hill 2 with Konami. They don’t want to fund AAA budget. Companies like PlayStation and Nintendo get blamed when in reality they are saving some of these franchises
Remember sega didn’t want to fund bayonetta and epic games didn’t want to fund another gears of war. It’s easy to blame console makers but they are the ones taking the risk and paying huge upfront costs without seeing the final product. FF7 remake trilogy won’t be coming to Xbox now or in the future. PlayStation and PC is what square signed up for. Sony paid them more than they would make from Xbox sales.
I just wonder when everyone is going to demand that the Square Enix exclusives with Nintendo come to PS and Xbox. Or it's just the PS exclusives that matter lol
I'd love for the nintendo exclusives to come to pc or ps5. They'd actually be playable then.
Raven
Exactly and that’s where square enix does more exclusive than any other platform. Gaming is square has always been very unrealistic with their sales expectations. Remember when tomb raider reboot sold 7.5 million and square said it wasn’t enough. They need to spend less on development and have more realistic expectations from sales.
And those thinking games being not on Xbox makes a difference don’t understand we have a decade plus of data showing square enix games having less than 20% of their multiplatform sales on Xbox (final fantasy series) and Nintendo consoles aren’t strong enough to run any current games. Nintendo switch should be as strong as Xbox one x atleast but we all know that’s most likely won’t happen
@raven
thing is, as neutral said in their comm, the switch isn't strong enough to run flagship SE games
i think what SE does is, it makes unique games for switch only so that it has something for that console too. Thats where all the "underlined sans" rpgs go to mostly
maybe things will change when Swtich 2 drops cuz that's gonna be as strong as ps4 afaik from the rumors flying around
@Scissorman
Your point is valid enough but when the icon of this company is limited to one console in timed-exclusivity, it means the company has crossed the line. By some degree at least
All things aside, Square itself stated "aggressive multiplatform strategies" so we all know what it's talking about
Then the headline should read "Square To Drop Exclusively Deals in Pursuit of A Sweeping Multiplatform Strategy". I don't recall this argument when Square Enix released Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, and Triangle Strategy on one platform. And even if FF is the icon, not all of its titles have gone to one platform. We're talking about three games, one of which is already on PC. Did Square suddenly go 'multiplatform' after it released subsequent Tomb Raider sequels on more than just the Xbox? It's just a silly way of putting it.
SE needs to go all in optimization. Broken PC ports won't help its case, especially with big releases like mainline Final Fantasy
It's actually simple. What doesn't inspire confidence is Square allocating their budgets on the wrong projects such as Forspoken, Avengers, Babylons Fall and Foamstars.
Square has always been multiplatform since PS3/360 days which 80 % of their games are. People kick up a fuss over PS exclusivity but not Nintendo which has more exclusive projects console exclusive from Square.
FF16 has done ok but not enough to fix the blunders that the past mistakes Square has made with some of their projects. FF7 Rebirth is unclear we'll see a PC release for sure so it's hard to say so far not as good as they would of liked.
Then again unrealistic expectations. If it weren't for Sony these games would at least had another 2 years development time. So some people need to be realistic in that regard.
It's the blunders that set those expectations so high. If you remove those from the equation, I bet the sales numbers would be more than stellar. Square believes it's okay to release a pile of risky, middling, garbage because the big boys will ultimately subsidize the cost. Don't worry if Forspoken sells poorly, FF16 will surely sell 10 million copies to balance that right out. Oh wait, it only sold like 4 million. Well that's a disaster. Meanwhile games that sell 2 million units with comparable budgets are deemed successful.
I would also add that FFXVI, which I loved has a hint to one of their biggest problems: the number 16.
It's a great franchise, but that's all they've become known for. Dragon Quest is my favorite all time series but it's like they don't know what to do outside of those two IPs.
Valve never makes trilogies. The idea is that they don't want to become stagnant. Gabe Newell hates the number 3.
I can't imagine their talent wouldn't want to try a new RPG.
Square Enix just really need to revise its expectations. Maybe consider a change in strategy on dev end as well. Multiplat will help for sure but only good games that are marketed well will sell
its definitely not the exclusives deals they made, that put them in this situation.
this was an issue even before ff16 and 7remake.
In a town hall that took place on Monday, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu reportedly confirmed imminent layoffs in the U.S. and Europe.
@Outside_ofthe_Box,
So that Microsoft can close down the studio after doing nothing with them? Right...
Sad but true. It's the consequence of a shift in player habits, massive overhead, and out of control budgets across the industry.
What did NA and EU did anyways? Just translate or something? I would say it might help them get back to there roots but DK.
Actually, you are correct they play a hand in localization especially in Europe with the many languages. That and marketing.
They should of never of made those exclusive deals with Sony. If SE made FFXVI/FFVIIRemake/Rebirth available on PS/PC/Xbox/Switch Day 1 they would of sold 20/30 million copies of each game and would mostly likely would not of lead to layoffs.
Exclusive games to any platform is not only anti gamer but they are toxic to the gaming industry. All games made by Sony and other companies should be made multi platform.
20-30 million. Right. SE must be sleeping on Japanese CoD right here.
Battle
lol are you serious? Let’s see
First game is on PC and so will the rest
Switch can’t run FF remakes
Xbox again I ask are you serious? Xbox game sales accounts for such little piece of the pie in overall gaming that there are publishers doubting if they could recover their development and porting costs for Xbox versions
The real issue here is square enix just can’t stop releasing 1-2 really bad AAA games on year basis
Babylon's Fall
Left alive
Marvel avengers
For spoken
Lol I love how the "Publishers can sell tons of copies of JRPGs on Xbox" myth won't die. The failure of exclusive JRPGs on 360 (by far the most popular Xbox) couldn't kill it. The low Xbox sales of FF games that launched on Xbox and PlayStation at the same time couldn't kill it. The fact that Gamepass has the few players on Xbox who actually play JRPGs conditioned to expect them for free can't kill it.
Publishers aren't selling millions of anything on Xbox the fanbase has adopted the I'll wait for gamepass mentality so publishers are actually starting to skip the platform unless it's a garunteed hit like GTA
Are you insane? Final Fantasy has historically not really sold close to those numbers, those are God of War and Spider-Man numbers dude. Final Fantasy 15 sold 5 million at launch, on both PS4 and Xbox One and had the benefit of releasing three years into the console lifecycle with no cross gen releases slowing the adoption rates. It sold a lifetime of ten million copies. Yet, 80% of sales were on PS4 and only 20% on Xbox One.
Are you going to seriously sit there and tell us the Game Pass crowd are going to double the sales of these games?
Put your mind onto the real problems. It isn't exclusivity. It's out of control budgets, over estimated and unrealistic sales expectations, bloated game development and poor management.
The budgets for Final Fantasy 16 and Remake and Rebirth far exceed Final Fantasy 15, exponentially so, yet did the audience grow exponentially? No.
Don't make this about something it's not, and don't fall for the crap from publishers that triple A games are unsustainable. The next stop on the station is games need to be more expensive and we need more monetisation methods like adverts in games. The problem is with publishers, not us.
It's like everyone just wants to hate on it. Fact of the matter is the install base for ps5 just isn't that big compared to ps4. Right now. I've read double packs weren't counted(remake, rebirth pack) I'm not sure if it's true, and then some are just waiting for the whole trilogy to be done. I know someone doing that.
"If SE made FFXVI/FFVIIRemake/Rebirth available on PS/PC/Xbox/Switch Day 1 they would of sold 20/30 million copies of each game"
Lmao.
I like how a lot of people are blaming the Sony exclusive deals. Yet in the last 4 years they have released about 50 games. 70% of them being multiplatform, 20% being Nintendo Exclusives and about 10% PlayStation Exclusives yet lets all blame the Sony deals lol.
Exactly. Where my dragon quest spinoff that only Nintendo do keeps getting. Stop crying about Sony. Hey Xbox players. Remember last remnant, squares exclusive Xbox 360 game Ms paid for, you guys were sht at supporting that. Same with lost odyssey, blue dragon, and infinite undiscovery. That's why Japanese devs don't wanna develop for it.
You mean pc
Wouldn't have sold sht on Xbox, and the switch couldn't hang
Xbox accounted for 9 percent of ff15 sales. Lol. Xbox ain't doing sht
To put it into perspective, take a studio like Black Box who went through a spell of churning out half decent Need for Speed games annually.
Need for Speed: Underground - 15 million+
Need for Speed: Underground 2 - 11 million+
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 17.8 million
Need for Speed: Carbon - 15.6 million
Need for Speed: ProStreet - 10.9 million
Need for Speed: Undercover - 8.9 million
This was the norm for the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era.
A Need for Speed game now requires more employees, considerably more time than one year to develop and absolutely a whole load more capital to fund development, let alone the extra costs of developing Frostbite and adapting it to a racing game (if that's still a thing). And at the end of it, it will likely never sell anywhere near even the worst game in that list above.
In that same era, Rockstar Games (albeit, various Rockstar studios) released GTA3, GTA VC, GTA SA, State of Emergency, Manhunt, The Warriors, Red Dead Revolver, three Midnight Club games and Bully. We're lucky if we even see a single game from them this generation.
In summary, committing to making a big AAA game now is barely worth it. Unless you are lucky enough to be sat on a mega IP like CoD or GTA, it's a huge gamble. Games simply take too long, require too many employees and cost too much. Unless AI or Unreal Engine can fix this and QUICK, the industry is going to be reduced to mobile-like experiences.
That era is one of my favourites but let's face it games were different back then at the time underground felt like a revolution so did the GTA trilogy and even shooters like halo changed the way we play.
I honestly believe that generation laid the template for how most of our modern games worked but development times were like 12 months for a decent project the budgets were far lower and publishers could freely experiment.
Since that generation we are playing mostly the same ips and most have anywhere between 5 to 10 sequaks since that point so many of these IPS are classics but are getting stale who even cared the nfs heat came out. Halo 2 was a mega event and a global phenomenon but haloe infinite got a decent amount of buzz but was gone off the radar in a month.
The gaming industry needs to learn just like Hollywood. You cannot sustain "more, more, more" indefinitely if your sales are not increasing in line with your costs. But no, every sequel needs to be three times the size of its predecessor, have twice as many staff, have monetisation systems and 100 hours of padded content and six year development cycles. But are these sequels ever twice as good?
Godzilla Minus One, on a poultry budget of $15 million, blew anything Disney has done out of the water since 2021 in terms of visual effects and created the best monster movie I've seen in my life.
Asobo made A Plague Tale Requiem for $25 million and its visuals, writing and quality rival games with ten times its budget.
Am I against big production values? No, God of War, The Last of Us, and so on justify their budgets and sell ridiculously well. But I am against unrealistic excess. If a game sells two million copies, tripling its budget isn't going to get you six million copies.
Square Enix is facing the reality that Final Fantasy sales are in decline and have been since FF15, yet they seem to be ramping up their development costs exponentially. It's hard to find facts but word seems to be FF15 had a budget of $50 to $100 million and FF16 had a budget of like $250 million plus. Same goes for FF7 remakes.
Yet other factors affected their market potential, like years of cross-gen releases slowing the PS5 adoption rate.
These lay offs will keep happening until publishers make their costs sustainable and stop trying to make it seem like triple A development is impossible or that we need more monetisation and higher priced games to account for their hubris.
Talk about a sound explanation instead of it didn't sell well because it releases at the same time as X game or it's because it's only digital.
I've been saying this for a long time, game budgets have ballooned out of control. We don't need better graphics, we need FUN GAMES that feel complete and satisfying to play. But publishers have a one-track mind, they've all been convinced that better graphics and bigger and more detailed worlds are required or people will pass on their games. This logic obviously doesn't apply to Nintendo which sells games in excess of 15 million copies, with out-dated visuals.
Publishers need to lower the budgets, and stop killing themselves off, its pure insanity.
I actually don't think it's because they're pushing graphics, I mean, these massive budget titles are not actually that much greater visually or technically than smaller games these days. The talent of the graphics artists matters an enormous amount. Take the movie scene with Disney, their budgets are twenty times that of smaller films like Godzilla Minus One or Monkey Man, and more than double larger productions like 1917, yet they're outclassed by these lesser movies.
The reasons for the development costs ballooning in my opinion, is far too many staff working on projects leading to inefficient production (i.e like what we heard about Starfield), forced monetisation systems which eat up development time and resources and push for engagement in the hope of an uptake with in-game purchases, bloated game design and world building which increases time required to playtest and code all the filler content, prolonged development periods and repeated delays where the quality doesn't come close to the time spent (see Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), mismanagement, excessive spend on advertising beyond what the title is reasonably expected to sell, lack of focus in game development.
Dead Space remains the best example I can ever use. The original sold a million copies and was a breakout success. Dead Space sold two million copies but EA was disappointed in its performance. They then lost their minds and ramped up again for Dead Space 3, with an unrealistic sales target of like 5 million to breakeven. Of course, it crashed and burned, because they forgot their original audience was between one and two million. Exponentially increased their budget, unrealistically increased their sales expectations, kept adding more and more costs and unnecessary excess until it became completely unsustainable.
No way FFXV had a budget to 80 to 100 million...that was probably it's marketing budget. FFXV has 3 versions. Versus 13, Nomura directed XV and after taking nomura off the project the rushed and downdraded final version of XV.
Those numbers come from a random message board.
https://www.ffxivpro.com/fo...
Here's a message board speculating it had a budget of 600 million based on financial statements if this is the kind of accuracy were going for.
https://www.ffxivpro.com/fo...
It's the implosion I keep talking about. Expectations and reality in the industry are no longer aligned. This will continue until some sort of market equilibrium is reached.
Agreed, this cannot continue and something has got to give. I miss the old days where development costs and time were managable and SquareSoft released hit after hit. Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7 to 9 released ONE year apart and all of them were critically acclaimed.
The facts are the time and money needed to make games has gone through the roof and we as gamers just aren't buying enough. These games are costing 100 of millions to make and even games rated highly are doing good to get 3 or 4 million in sales. Something has to give.
Raising prices has failed. Seeing games go from $89 CAD to $94 in some cases. I’m just not buying those games.
We all can see the days of square enix being 3rd party are coming to an end which is really sad because they have so many valuable IP’s only if they manage them properly.
Like I said before, it's not just Microsoft laying people off. It's happening throughout the industry.
Ms has come under fire because they have recently dropped so much money on studios and publishers. That's people's issue. That and the highest rated game they've released in years seeing its studio closed. That's why there's a difference.
Are we sure, and I mean super sure, fanboyism aside and the like that maybe Final Fantasy XVI and especially VII Rebirths sales weren’t at least a tad disappointing for them?
We keep fighting about it but if freaking VII, Square Enix’s Golden boy and it’s hype of us begging for a remake for almost 15-20 years didn’t set the world on fire like Square Enix wanted then what else can they give us product wise at this point high expectations and all.
I’m not saying it would have stopped this and everything would have fixed its self if they launched on more platforms since the industry seems like it’s imploding within itself at the minute but it could have given them a little leg room.
Maybe it’s time to admit, regarding your feelings on the games, and this has NO impact on the quality of the games, that XVI could have felt more FF like being more that a simplistic hack and slash game and VII’s remake should have just been a single, less ambitious game just telling the original story over reimagining it?
Even Kingdom Hearts III felt shallow, look at how convoluted it’s become and they are still doing that with all the Missing Link / Union X shit before Kingdom Hearts IV even comes out.
What’s new? The whole industry is in an upheaval and this isn’t the end of it. I really think the pandemic poisoned the industry as a whole. Big profits, everyone playing games during the pandemic. Now it’s back to normal and they’re trying to regain those pandemic numbers numbers. Our hobby hijacked by a bunch suits.
Fking word. It's fk up how they just raised the middle finger to ps4 players. I'm still peeved about this
This is not limited to any one company, the industry is in a major change, for better or worse. Game budget and time for development have skyrocketed, and the industry is trying to find it's balance again, it will level out, it's just a matter of when.
Restructuring come with layoff 90% of the time.
OK it's time we get parasite eve 1 & 2 remake , Vagrant story remake OR Sequel for them
Square Enix is shifting its strategy to aggressively pursue multiplatform releases and focus on quality over quantity.
Yup, it's official. FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth didn't sell as much as they expected.
- 1% increase in net sales compared to a year with Forspoken and Octopath Traveller II, which didn't sell more than 3 millions combined (and I'm being generous).
- A 38.3% decrease in operating income despite the release of 'High-Definition' titles namely FFXVI, FF Pixels Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters, and FFVII Rebirth.
- Aggressive multiplatform strategy one year after saying that exclusivity with PlayStation was mutually desired.
Sure, it's all in my head.
Probably for PC and the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. Square Enix games doesn't sell to well on Xbox
Square named Drops Xbox as part of their multiplatform approach in their quarterly reports.
Like it matters MS will probably find away to close them down to.
I can see them going for PS5/Switch/PC for the most part, it'll mostly likely be the Switch 2 by the time their next game enters development, which is probably a good thing since the Switch is struggling with 3rd party games. If they're hurting for money/sales, I don't see them bothering with Xbox, that's just wasted time/money for them.
I mean, maybe? They'll want as much as possible and I figure they could have been hoping for greater impact on PlayStation, but that's good reason to reflect and realize the resources and development cycle of these games aren't very sustainable. The solution is to make more affordable games with shorter dev cycles, then once in a while bring out the big guns.
I think Final Fantasy VII Re make and Rebirth would do really well if it was multiplatform. Specifically, if Nintendo gets their hardware up to snuff, and the rumors are promising. I don't really have much faith in its performance on Xbox, but Nintendo gamers really commit to buying their games. At one point, Breath of the Wild for Switch outsold the Switch itself.
Granted, Zelda always solos everything except GTA, but Nintendo folk are avid Final Fantasy fans. I think it would do exceptionally. Nintendo just needs to make porting easy and inexpensive and they'll get more games.
I don't think the exclusivity hurts them as badly as they think, I think it's a range of factors, like the quality of the games, high sales expectations, ESG/DEI, censorship, development costs/time... I also suspect that Square-Enix is extremely inefficient with their resources, they struggled/avoided towns in the FF13 trilogy, and FF14 was mostly wilderness with little to do apart from derp about in the wild (they also avoid towns and making a lot of characters there too). But FF14 also went through development hell, I think Square-Enix just needs to overall how they do everything, because the way they manage that studio just isn't working.
The two most profitable games for them didn't sell as much as expected. Yes. Make it make sense.
Square finally realized what Sony figured out recently, their installed base is not enough. We are going to see a lot less exclusives from everyone moving forward.
PS5 is nearly at 60 million only half-way through its life-cycle, but sure, the install base is not enough.
Good exclusives always sell despite install base. Look at Nintendo's recent Zelda.
Its just 16 was awful.
@major
It is not enough if it was Sony's operating income wouldn't be down 26% and the company would not have lost $10 billion of value after they missed their sales target .
Looks to me more like they need multiplatform because they've been failing completely everywhere else. Honestly, Square needs to rethink it's non-FF games. They've been failing hard over there in that regard.
Hopefully the next Nintendo system isn't a potato and it can contribute to FF sales in future as well, in addition to PC releases. If this ensures the long term health for SE and franchises than like FF and KH then I'm all for it.
Adding Nintendo and PC customers is the best way to increase sales and long term success. Not going to get that from Xbox.
Hof,
You must not have heard they are launching new hardware and have already committed to a Next-Gen Xbox.
But, for some reason, I think you already knew that and wanted to spin a silly narrative; besides, why wouldn't they release games on the SX/SS? You do know these consoles will still be here, right?
Optics. They have a STATED plan to do so. Thats not commitment. The shareholders and board are calling the shots now. Lets see if they have the appetite for hardware because they are owed 80 Billion Dollars already. Investment in hardware, R and D and marketing is how much again? That cost with the history of their hardware performance....at most maybe a handheld. What I am certain of XBOX is finished, the writing has been on the wall before the studio closures. Its MS Games and they are not hardware. They are software because MS is a software company. Expect them to be folded in the Surface team.
*hardware
I believe they committed to hardware.
I hate to nitpick, but that's kind of the company they are. You have to.
@hofstaderman the board and shareholders have always called the shots or had a huge impact on decisions.
Xbox finished lmao, the writing has been on the wall? mate they just spend 70 BILLION dollars, and you see the writing is on the wall that they're done. 0 idea what you're talking about. They grafiti'd on the wall and you still can't see it.
"They have a STATED plan to do so. That's not commitment."
Huh? What are you talking about? They announced they would be unveiling new Hardware this holiday season; how else are they supposed to commit to it?
" Lets see if they have the appetite for hardware because they are owed 80 Billion Dollars already"
What a silly statement, you think this deal was approved so they could make 80 billion in less than a year? This is a long-term commitment, a future-proofing of profit.
"What I am certain of XBOX is finished,"
No, you are not certain of this lol; as you stated, if they make even a Handheld in the form of a Steam-Deck that can dock to a TV/monitor, wouldn't that be just changing the form factor but still XBOX?
Closing these studios has really got you guys delusional; that is what happens in companies, in a changing market: you acquire, and you trim; like it or not, that is the way things are done. Lets look.
Where is the new Psygnosis with a new wipeout?
What happened to Japan Studio? Pixl Opus? London Studio?
Where is Zipper Interactive?
I can list more, but you see, closing devs doesn't mean your company is finished, especially when you have like 30+ dev teams.
They won't be unveiling the hardware this holiday season it will be like the series x and s they got a tease at the game awards 2018. But no details until year of their release in 2020 lol
Please tell me the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is still coming. I feel like I've been waiting forever for that game.
i think the juggernauts kingdom hearts (disney provides the money for that one) final fantasy and dragon quest are fine, the rest not as much
I'm kinda worried about the future of DQ though, Toriyama and the composer both passed away. Huge blow to the franchise.
@Michiel1989,
Akira Toriyama had an understudy though, he emulates his style, so maybe he'll do the art for Dragon Quest games, I would love to see Nobue Uematsu do music for the series though, that could be fun if they could convince him.
I'll be so p*ssed if that doesn't go ahead, also, where's DQ12 at? They've been silent on that for so long, and it was announced years ago.
@gold_Drake,
I'm pretty sure they can siphon some profit from A Realm Reborn to keep FF and Dragon Quest going too. I think the company would have gone bankrupt if it wasn't for that cash cow.
Another sign that dedicated consoles market is in trouble, while PC seems more and more attractive to big publishers.
Having a good gaming PC and a PS5 myself, given current trend form both Sony and MS I am less and less playing on PS5, waiting for exclusives to release on PC, so I understand the logic behind the new strategy.
Ants,
I get that we don't know exactly without numbers, but come on, man, we can clearly see what's happening.
The console market has not grown much, the highest-selling console in history is still the PS2. You can play the " prove it" game all you want, but Sony's more aggressive PC push, SE completely rebooting their company/business, after being mainly exclusive to one console and showing a sizeable profit loss is telling.
PC is a high seller, and your doubtful PS5 dominant stance does not change the clear writing on the wall, straight from Sony's mouth, that they need to be, and will be more aggressive in the very lucrative PC market.
So, in other words, PC market is indeed looking more and more attractive to Pubs.
@730
Numbers?
I'm willing to bet the farm that ¨PC gamers are not the dominate number compared to console, but I don't know because I don't have numbers. However, the price point of entry can allow us to infer what I had just stated.
What an ironic thing to say on a link-agreggate site like N4G. Explains your comment history perfectly.
asks for numbers. receives numbers and then continues to say I don't wanna click a website (because it might shatter my illusion)
@All the people with that good 'ol folk wisdom
It's ironic how I clearly asked for the site and people still can't even answer this simple question.
Tell me how many people click on random links on forums?
Tell me the site and I will look. I don't mind being wrong and I'm barely intelligent enough to change my mind with something substantial.
All the numbers I have seen is that PC doesn't even come close console gaming in revenue, and nothing touches mobile gaming. More people touching something doesn't mean anything. It just means more people own PC for work and touch Steam every now and again, those numbers mean even less.
Anast I wasn’t expecting more from you and I haven’t be disappointed.
Don’t believe any number if you want, but things cannot be more evident that most of games companies are pushing to get the most they can from PC market.
Hell, we have both MS and Sony that are releasing their biggest franchise on PC with no or less and less delay vs console release, that is never seen before in the industry.
What is surprising me is that PC is not cheap in term of hardware cost, a rig close to PS5/XBX perfs may be close to double the price I guess, and close to 4x for a good gaming PC.
Plus, PC gaming does not have physical release anymore.
So a lot of supposed advantages from console market are not there but PC market is successful anyway, it would be very interesting to understand it.
Maybe one big argument is that we are more likely to need a PC at home, were we can work with, browse, and game, than a dedicated gaming machine. That why handled console market have been crushed by smartphones, we could see a repeating pattern here.
From what I can ascertain PC is a smaller market than PS. There are occasionally times when PC looks to be stronger but overall it's still behind.
PC also has a lot more competition, especially when people can easily buy and play older games from 20 or so years ago on it.
PC has the potential to be a bigger player, but the market is smaller in terms of revenue nonetheless. People conflate sign up numbers with money spent on a product.
You probably need to worry about yourself and your own expectations.
You still haven't even complete the simplest task in telling me the name of the website. Let that sink in. I asked for the name of the website so I can look at it and you couldn't even complete that task.
I understand it as pc is getting more popular since consoles are stagnating. Like consoles to need to compete with pc you know so everyone wins.
“ In addition, Square Enix will also pursue a shift from “quantity to quality” as its medium- to long-term philosophy.”
I got downvotes for saying this was the reason. Apologize to the masta.
They released 18 Final Fantasy games or expansions in a four-year period, with at least six of them being related to Final Fantasy VII (this includes mobile and remakes).
That is entirely too many games and dilutes the brand.
They already tried a shotgun approach with quantity over quality, it clearly didn't work for them (remember all those games like Harvestella, Valkyrie Elysium, Diofield Chronicle, etc...). They should have focused on quality a long time ago, I feel like they haven't worried about quality for a long time, and it's hurt them in the long run.
Excellent and also it's obvious that Square Enix is regretting taking Sony's money with the commercial failures of FFXVI/FF7Rebirth and are more willing to partner up with other companies that offer more money/sales.
I fully expect SE to break the contract with Sony and release Part 3 of the FF7 remake trilogy on Day 1 on PS/Xbox/PC/Switch 2 with the Switch 2 being the main platform for it to be developed on and than ported down/over to PS/PC/Xbox.
I also expect MS to start buying up the marketing rights on the FF franchise now with possible Day 1 game pass deals.
This news is great as exclusives are wrong and all games should be released on as many platforms as possible. Hopefully Sony will follow MS lead and release all their games Day 1 on PS/Xbox/PC/Switch.
They said on their financials that 16 had a strong performance. So I think you are just interpreting things here without any proof.
“… with possible Day 1 game pass deals.”
They wanna sell more copies, not go outta business.
Part 3 won't even anywhere near Xbox. Even part 1 isn't. And I can't see it being on switch. The rumours are it's barely more powerful than the PS4. How is it running it
No, go in order and do 8 first. 9 fans like to rewrite history and think 9 is more popular than it was. Just because you have the loudest fans doesn't mean you're the majority. 9 sold terribly in comparison to 7, 8, and X.
Because 9 released at the wrong time. 9 is still the better game by a long shot. So 9 first
9 is always underrated, it never got the love it deserved, I do like 8, but I think 9 is overall a better game, even if I do remember the plot of 8 better.
Well done on assuming. I loved both 8 and 9, I just prefer 9 and would love to see it sooner than later.
Personal opinion > 'popularity levels'
This will simply kill AA games while focusing on high budget AAA games, which are not performing well, I don't know what this place's obsession with imagining that FFVII rebirth and XVI performed well, but they simply didn't, and then you have the likes of forspoken etc, Square is not understanding that their decline started with enix and them switching their formulas, what they are trying to do here is pull a Capcom, but Capcom returned to repair the damage they did with their series while Square is just digging deeper
So you want more games like Valkyrie alysium, Diofield, harvestella, left alive that bomb sales wise?
It's like saying you want Capcom to make more AA exoprimal type games and make less Resident Evil game...
How about games like the ones you mentioned but actually good, how about that?
No not at all, it's like saying Capcom makes good Resident Evil games and good Ace Attorney/Okami games!
That's what they say they are going to do. Less spreading out funding to too many games, outsourcing development to outside developers and not make FF tactics games like diofield and just make a FF tactics game. You can't just make a game good by waiving a wand like you seem to believe...
It's not going to kill AA games but there will be less due only going with in house development.
And the last ace attorney was in 2017 and there have just been compilation remasters done recently. Same with okami as okamiden was released on the DS. Are you saying you want Square to concentrate on remasters and AA remakes?
No that's not what they are saying they recently said they will reallocate resources from HD remasters, and you just made up that they are making FF tactics, Square have said multiple times about their focus on AAA games and that's the trajectory of all big compajies, look at Sony and Microsoft, Square is clearly following that same trend!
2017 is not that far away for a series that was never in English unlike most Square games and Kunitsu Gami is a evolution from Okami, I am not saying Capcom is a saint, I despise things they do as much as the next guy, yet these two companies are now in the same approach, Capcom is trying but Square isn't
It'll be on pc but Xbox wouldn't have moved the needle. It's more the ps5 install base isn't as large as ps4s
Financially by having to make 2 new versions for 5-10% of sales? Probably not. PC would help massively though
Another Xbox fanboy that want the games on his platform, but doesn't realize that putting said games on Xbox wouldn't help move the needle.
If FF16 and FF7R are considered failures, putting them on Xbox wouldn't have helped at all, since Xbox just doesn't matter anymore.
I mean, SE was heavy in multiplat back in the PS360 era. So it’s not such a big deal.
The report does not say anything about being more multiplatform especially not in the way the article is implying which is to say that it's about Final Fantasy 16 and 7R.
It's ridiculous that this site is making up something which we all know is just an attempt to bump xbox.
The fact of the matter is that 95% of Square Enix games are already multiplatform, and games that are timed exclusive are multiplatform in essence.
The reality is that when PlayStation and Switch, PC are selling 95+% of the copies of SquareEnix games xbox is not even relevant. The fact is more games are skipping xbox that ever before not more moving to the platform.
Where are all the articles blaming SquareEnixs losses on the unsuccessful port of Final Fantasy 14?
P. 9 of the report
https://tdnet-pdf.kabutan.j...
"Shift to a multiplatform strategy
For HD titles, the Group will aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo
platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs. Especially, in regards to major franchises and AAA titles including catalog titles, it will build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles"
Read again: Especially, in regards to major franchises and AAA titles
I guess Square has not received the memo about YOUR reality.
Pardon me, I didn't see this, I thought it was referring to the previous statement.
But still I reiterate my other points.
In the HD (High-Definition) sub-segment, consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024
---->increased<--- compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including
---->“FINAL FANTASYXVI,”<------ “FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER,” “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince,” and ----->“FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.”<------
In the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Game sub-segment, net sales and ---->profits declined<---- compared with the previous year.
I'd also like to point out that according to the wiki SquareEnix has release 54 games since 2020 only 5 games were either exclusive or timed exclusive to PlayStation.
refer to this yeah: "It's ridiculous that this site is making up something which we all know is just an attempt to bump xbox. "
Shows how deep in the hole you are, that anything that doesn't fit your narrative, you play off as xbox bumps.
Yes, the HD department consolidated more net sales but you forgot to finish your sentence which explains the original claims so let me finish it for you.
"However, operating losses grew due to higher development cost
amortization and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal
year."
As for MMO what are you trying to tell us? That a few months of FF14 on Xbox should have compensated for PC and PS gamers canceling their subs to a 10-year-old game?
As for your 54 games
How many of the 5 games exclusive to PlayStation are AAA?
Why must Square point out multiplatform strategy, especially in major franchise and AAA titles?
It seems that Square executives lacked your data before writing their reports and solutions.
@Michiel1989
I think you were responding to Einhander, not me :)
"Yes, the HD department consolidated more net sales but you forgot to finish your sentence which explains the original claims so let me finish it for you."
So you're saying that the sales of the games which you're trying to say sold bad actually had higher net sales, interesting...
"As for MMO what are you trying to tell us? That a few months of FF14 on Xbox should have compensated for PC and PS gamers canceling their subs to a 10-year-old game?"
Game Pass's supposed 30M players who got a free starter pack to play the game couldn't even offset other minor downturns from the other platforms.
As for your 54 games
How many of the 5 games exclusive to PlayStation are AAA?
Why must Square point out multiplatform strategy, especially in major franchise and AAA titles?
The point is that if only 5 of 54 games were on PlayStation the narrative that this is being caused by PlayStation when SE themselves has repeatedly said that FF is selling well is false, the vast majority of exclusives have actually been on Switch.
The point is people are trying to point the finger at PlayStation but that is not what this is about.
Anyways want to talk about Microsoft's multiplatform strategy? Or the fact that other major publishers are pulling their games off xbox because nothing sells on the platform? SE can say whatever they want the press can manipulate it however they want, but the numbers show that PlayStation is consistently selling 80+ percent of the copies of multiplatform games.
I can guarantee that xbox is not the solution to anyone's game sales problems.
"So you're saying that the sales of the games which you're trying to say sold bad actually had higher net sales, interesting..."
Care to find one time in all my comment history where I mentioned that Squares Enic games sold badly? gee the only thing I did was copy-paste the official report for your initial statement.
"Game Pass's supposed 30M players who got a free starter pack to play the game couldn't even offset other minor downturns from the other platforms"
You said it! gets a free starter pack on a game released in March now go back and read your quote "Net sales and ---->profits declined<---- compared with the previous year."
And please take the time to read the end of the fiscal year report.
As for the rest well give it a rest not everything revolves around Playstation versus Xbox
Last I check they mention Nintendo and PC.
The interesting thing here is noting that Final Fantasy sales were in decline with FF15 already, yet it was one of the best selling games in the series with five million at launch and ten million lifetime. Almost 80% of sales were on PS4, meaning Xbox was a small market for the game. The game also released in 2016, three years into the generation where PS3 had been left behind.
In present day, Final Fantasy 16 sold 3 million at launch and was exclusive to PS5 after three years of cross-gen releases, which further slowed console adoption. I'm betting cross-gen is the likely problem here as Final Fantasy has historically always sold well on PlayStation, but the series has also seen a bit of a fall which was admitted by Square Enix.
Rebirth, even weirder story with Remake being on both platforms and one game being split into three. Fact is both Final Fantasy 16 and Rebirth are super high quality games, but there's more at play here.
Multiplatform is not going to change much, since so little sales were on Xbox for this series.
AKA Playstation will lose exclusives from Squaresoft.
Common sense says didn't work well for them.
Well, I hope this strategy works for them. It’d be a sad world with them out of it.
Lmao again just like I said they should do months ago…. Naturally to disagrees. Been a great month to keep be proven right lol.
I don't get it... Doesn't the cash from Sony to help develop the game and keep it exclusive not cover the "sales" it would have got from being on Xbox?
Square Enix has been complaining about sales for generations now. Their projections are always head in the clouds. Always wanting more. .
Everyone except Nintendo (maybe they can afford it?) is realizing selling multiplat is the way to go when selling games. Sony with PC, XBOX with PC, PS5, and Switch. The days of exclusive to just one platform are pretty much over this gen with how expensive things cost to make these days.
Was always silly for any 3rd party developer to go exclusive on any platform with the rising costs of game development these days. The end result is better for all gamers we all get their games now.
Although I didn't like FFVII Remake, I probably would've bought Rebirth if it was released on PC, simply because I'm a sucker for hype. But since I don't have a PS5, I did not buy it, and when it finally will be released on PC, hype will be dead and I probably won't buy it at all. Especially since if they do it like Remake, which was exclusive to Epic for like a year, I will be even less interested in it when it finally gets released on other storefronts.
Also, they need to rethink their pricing on PC. I was interested in a few games from them, but the prices are outrageous for PC standards. It's clear they don't want their PC versions "competing" with their console versions, but the only thing it does, is make people see how expensive the games are, and just deciding not to buy them.
Eh. I suppose we'll see how they do? Many of their smaller games are very hit or miss . Octopath I just couldn't bring myself to play very far and the bravely default games put me to sleep. I am interested in triangle strategy, live a live and harvestella...but at really reduced prices on sale. The new mana game looks ok. I do hope they continue with Nier/Drakengard and dragon quest too ofc. Remaster hd2ds like star ocean 2's are still welcomed.
And please square...less mobile...please.
Game costs seems to be through the roof this gen, so put the games on as many platforms as possible cause if they are not recouping their costs on the PlayStation to the point they are even suggesting going multi-plat that is really saying something. Getting your games in the most hands to me seems to be a win for gamers, a win for devs, and could solve many issues.
Some nice rewards the US get all the nice stuff.
Do they give out free stuff in Europe? I got a EU members account since FFXIII release but got nothing.
I love the rewards they are giving this year!