Square Enix's Unfair Expectations Do Not Bode Well For Its IPs

Both FF 16 and Rebirth had limiting circumstances like being a radically different title, the second part in a 3-stage remake, and PS5 exclusivity. Square Enix is asking for the impossible.

[shadowT]

Rebirth = GoTY!

[gold_drake]

i hope it wins.

[DOMination-]

I've had it since just after launch. Got to Junon and can't bring myself to keep going. Its like they took all of the great story and pacing out of the original and replaced it with tedious, boring Chadley-bloat that literally adds nothing other than to be annoying And I feel like every new area is going to be filled with more of the same, just there getting in the way.

I'm sure it does get better and for sure, it's a technical marvel. But for me, it feels like the dev team just played Horizon Zero Dawn and thought they could just copy that. HZD is an amazing game but it's not what I want from a FF game, especially not FF7 so giving this GotY sends the wrong message.. imo of course.

[P_Bomb]

@Dom
Don’t feel bad. I’m at the final dungeon, but once I found out it was gonna be a 5hr grind with more forced roster swaps, I took a 2 week break. Will return once I’m refreshed.

Not into the side stuff. The towers. The moogles. It did get repetitive. Just gotta power through.

[Cacabunga]

They are right to shoot so high with FF7.
FF16 on the other hand i would never have bought if i knew it was that boring and shallow.. so i think they should be more than satisfied with FF16 sales they got. I hated it. Zero RPG element, just an inferior dmc clone.

[gold_drake]

yea its abit ridiculous.

[Obscure_Observer]

Unfortunately, It took SE five games for them to realize they need to release their games on multiple platforms.

Glad they´d finally woke up

[Redemption-64]

Majority of their games are multi-platform. One can only guess why you didn't know that. Outriders, Hitman, Deus ex, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, Life is strange, dragon quest, and more
You just focus on those that are exclusive to Playstation while ignoring all their multi-platform games. It used to be fun watching how pathetic and ignorant you are, now it's just sad

[Obscure_Observer]

"It used to be fun watching how pathetic and ignorant you are, now it's just sad"

What´s really sad and pathetic is how you reacted like a teenager in shambles over actual information that you´couldn´t even read/comprehend properly in the first place. Smdh.

The five exclusives I´d mentioned are current gen games, son. PS5 games released in less than four years!

Pay attention before you approach people with a cocky attitude calling ignorant just to get yourself schooled right after.

[Redemption-64]

@Obscure_Observer

Again, doesn't change the fact that they have more multi-platform games that brain dead people like you don't care about. Also, some those those exclusive games on Playstation actually performed far better than a lot of, if not all their multi-platform games.

One can't help but feel sorry for such a pathetic bot.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Again, doesn't change the fact that they have more multi-platform games that brain dead people like you don't care about."

You´re the one who´s hurt losing sleep because SE don´t want their games to be Playstation exclusives no more.

To me, the more the merrier. As I said, i´m glad they´d finally woke up.

[MrBaskerville]

He is an xbox gamer and most most of their good stuff is usually tied to switch, ps5 and pc.

[S2Killinit]

@Obscure
They release on PlayStation precisely because releasing on xbox does not translate to enough sales to justify the extra cost of development.

They even released their financials which showed that their profits increased after going PlayStation exclusive.

If Square is not happy with sales, it means that despite the higher profits they are unsatisfied with their sales. It doesnt mean that releasing on xbox would have helped. According to their financials, releasing on xbox would have hurt profits.

Not sure where you come up with the conclusion that youre glad “they woke up” from. If anything, their financials made them realize they had made the correct decision going PlayStation exclusive.

[RaiderNation]

It's cute that you think putting games on Xbox is going to move the needle for them. Christ, you are delusional!

[RaiderNation]

@Oxy2L

They also think they should be selling a gazillion copies of games. Theyre already operating from a place of delusion. Selling a few extra units on Xbox isn't going to make any difference.

[Michiel1989]

not releasing the game a year or years later on pc and finally putting some effort into their pc version will move the needle for me

[P_Bomb]

I just noticed today that the FF1-6 pixel remasters are now on Xbox. Curious how they’ll chart.

[ravens52]

It'll help about as much as putting Metaphor Refantazio on Xbox. 🤦🏽 You guys are too much.

[Giga_Gaia]

They mighr be going multiplatform, just not with Xbox. It's not like it would even matter anyway, Xbox is so irrelevant that sales wouldn't move the needle at all.

[Harkins1721]

FF has a history selling well on PS. Just look at the numbers FFXV did. They were probably counting on closer numbers.

[Elantregaless]

FFXV : 6 million in a year
FF16 : 3 million in a year

Yeah, no. Their recent games were subpar. FFXV set the bar pretty high.

[nommers]

There hasn’t been any update in FFXVI’s sales after the first week

[Elantregaless]

Because the sales are poor. FFXV had a sales update 6 months after release.

[MDTunkown]

I remember them expecting tomb raider reboot to sell 3 millions first week. So square Enix been crazy about the sales expectations for a while and they also were disappointed with ff15 sales since they expected 10 millions

[Einhander1972]

FF16 3 million in first week on PS5.
FF16 250,000 on PC after a month.

[MrNinosan]

FFXVI if ever release on Xbox, plus 10-15 units.

[MrNinosan]

I'm certain FFXVI is way above the 3 million it sold first 3 days.

[Elantregaless]

'Way' above? what do you mean by 'way' above?
Its probably at 4 million, which is still unsatisfactory compared to FFXV.
If it truly was way above then Square would have declared the numbers. Of course the PC release added some numbers, but not by a huge margin.

[Giga_Gaia]

@Elantregaless FFXV is very likely the reason FFXVI didn't do well. FFXV sold very well, but people didn't like it in the end, so what do you think happens with the next one? It doesn't sell as well.

Same thing happened with FF9. Very good game, but after FF7, people bought FF8 and it sold very well, but it wasn't as popular as 7 in the end, so 9 afterward sold less.

[Elantregaless]

@Giga_Gaia
People liked FFXV.
It has higher user ratings than 16.

[Miraak82]

XV had 10 years of hype behind it , it wasn't the game we were promised . I couldn't play 13 or 15 more then 25 hours before giving them up ... they were so bad I actually stopped buying SE games till remake come out . 7Re:B and 16 I greatly enjoyed them from start to finish and well into NG+ . SE been putting out quality bangers for the past 5 years ( with the exception of Forspoken lol) . 16 sold 3 mil in it's first week not year , we don't really know the real sales numbers . As far as 7 is concerned alot of people are still holding out till the full trilogy is released before they dive in

[Elantregaless]

Why wasnt there any sales update of 16? Instead we get articles that 16 underperformed. It has been a year, should be enough time for the hype and word or mouth to catch up.
FFXV had sales updates regularly and went on to sell 10 million.
Will 16 sell 10 million? if its on Xbox with it sell 6+ million on Xbox?
16 had yoshi P's FFXIV and game of thrones hype behind it. Why did that not work?

Remake and Rebirth were good. But Square kind of disappointed the fans by breaking the game into 3 pieces.

16 is not even an RPG let alone a Final Fantasy game.

[Miraak82]

@Elantregaless dude games that sell 10 mil copies are actually really rare. Look at og ff7 , it didn't hit that number till 2010 13 years after its release . It took about 7 years after release till XV hit 10 mil . The other FFs that hit those high numbers played the long game , FF games just don't die in sales after they release as they will continue to sell decades after. Just because you read an article saying "didn't meet expectations" doesn't mean that it was in some way a failure . When 16 released ps5 had about 40 mil install base , 3 mil copies ( just the release #'s) is a good % of install base.

Also who cares if XVI isn't a rpg as it was never marketed as such , XV was basically Kindom Hearts with a FF coat on it . I'm glad FF7r is a 3 parter , it has the best combat in the whole series ... it would be a waste if we only got a 1 and done from it . Rebirth boosted Re:makes sales as will part 3 will boast 1+2 sales buy the time it released . You can't just look at things from a narrow lens

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I really don't think they know what they're doing, between their expectations and quality of output, the multitude of different strategies they've tried over the past decade and a half, lack of marketing, the NFT push... I really don't have faith in most of what Square-Enix does these days, Square-Enix needs to have a hard think about the quality of their games, streamline their production/output and have realistic expectations.

[MDTunkown]

Their games are fine tho. Vision of mana, octopath 2, star ocean 2 good remaster, ff7 rebirth, ff16 all were good game

[Knushwood Butt]

Didn't Visions of Mana bomb though?
That is multiplat.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

You only picked out their better games though, although Mana, Rebirth and 16 didn't sell as well as expected, you didn't take the multitude of other games they released into account. Although I would argue Rebirth didn't do as well because people were unhappy with the direction of the first FF7R game.