I'm kinda surprised FF7 Remake didn't do better either ... there were people who seriously thought FF7 Remake would destroy Animal Crossing in sales, lol.
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Sales Data "Results were in the range of their expectations" for Final Fantasy 16 sales, expensed all costs in FY24 Q1 so future sales will all be profits
- Thread starter Hero of Hyrule
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I'm kinda surprised FF7 Remake didn't do better either ... there were people who seriously thought FF7 Remake would destroy Animal Crossing in sales, lol.
Can you update your thread title if “hoped for more” was never said.
Overreaction perhaps? They are booking their FF16 development expenses right off the bat, are they not?
Should help boost subsequent quarters if so.
Triangle Strategy, a JRPG tactics and new IP that hit 1 million sales, is an unmitigated success
Octopath 2, while down from the original, is also a million-seller and has now established a pattern and baseline for the series
Live a Live, a remake of a super-obscure JRPG, trundled to 500k sales pretty readily, which the development team trumpeted on their live stream and considered a success.
The Asano-produced games have proven to be a formula for success and, while they may scale back the pace of these releases, its one S-E gambit that has paid off handsomely.
Hopefully other non-2DHD styles of "restoration projects" like Tactics Ogre proved to be solid successes as well
Overreaction perhaps? They are booking their FF16 development expenses right off the bat, are they not?
Should help boost subsequent quarters if so.
Triangle Strategy, a JRPG tactics and new IP that hit 1 million sales, is an unmitigated success
Octopath 2, while down from the original, is also a million-seller and has now established a pattern and baseline for the series
Live a Live, a remake of a super-obscure JRPG, trundled to 500k sales pretty readily, which the development team trumpeted on their live stream and considered a success.
The Asano-produced games have proven to be a formula for success and, while they may scale back the pace of these releases, its one S-E gambit that has paid off handsomely.
Also, I will not allow them to stop these efforts until they remake Ogre Battle
Hopefully other non-2DHD styles of "restoration projects" like Tactics Ogre proved to be solid successes as well
"Booking their FF16 development expenses right off the bat" sounds like them trying to spin their poor profit numbers. I mean once a game is complete the costs are what they are and have to be paid, if the point is that they could have instead stretched out paying dev costs, that probably isn't very smart as borrowing money almost always incurs interest costs.
Galgavias
Koopa
SE are in a weird place because the building blocks of a solid strategy are there, in which they focus on a small number of high profile, big budget releases that sell big numbers, funded with smaller, lower budget titles which act as a financial cushion. The issue is they've kinda been flailing about with their big budget games recently, while producing so many smaller budget titles that they're cannibalising their own sales. I mean I bought Triangle Strategy, Harvestella and Ocotopath 2 within the space of a year from them and enjoyed them all, but let's be honest, I'm the exception here. And what's more, that's money I might have spent on FFXVI instead.
Rimgal
I’m So Embarrassed. I Wish Everybody Else Was Dead
Time to change the title
Don’t really have much to say personally since I think the game did alright but I don’t know the variables.
Tho if im being honest. It doesn’t feel like the game had a lot of staying power. Probably because how it’s structure but the talk around it died down way quicker then I expected. But there’s been a lot of good stuff out lately so probably not a big issue.
Tho if im being honest. It doesn’t feel like the game had a lot of staying power. Probably because how it’s structure but the talk around it died down way quicker then I expected. But there’s been a lot of good stuff out lately so probably not a big issue.
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Definitely the biggest loss here since Asano's probably fine
Just resumed my playthrough of it and damn the game is just so much fun. Extremely rough around the edges, sure, but it just works really well for me. Would've been awesome to see a sequel with more budget and polish but I imagine that's just not going to happen
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If Square cancel Triangle Strategy 2 they are dead to me.
ethanswift
Switch Online N64 Player
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Man, I just miss the good old days of SQUARE SOFT.
After FF XVI, I just went straight back to FF VII, FF IX & Chrono Cross for comfort.
Back then, Square is so talented. One example is that when I heard wind chime sound in Kiki's house in Chrono Cross, only then did I notice a wind chime shaking on the still background. Such experience is way better than 3D audio, adaptive trigger, etc in FF XVI.
And the writing, the writing in FF VII, FFIX, Chrono Cross is another level comparing to FF XVI, Octopath Traveler 2.
I just hope Square find their talent back or just do faithful remake of the old games.
Not adding twist like the FF VII remake. No need to do that, please.
After FF XVI, I just went straight back to FF VII, FF IX & Chrono Cross for comfort.
Back then, Square is so talented. One example is that when I heard wind chime sound in Kiki's house in Chrono Cross, only then did I notice a wind chime shaking on the still background. Such experience is way better than 3D audio, adaptive trigger, etc in FF XVI.
And the writing, the writing in FF VII, FFIX, Chrono Cross is another level comparing to FF XVI, Octopath Traveler 2.
I just hope Square find their talent back or just do faithful remake of the old games.
Not adding twist like the FF VII remake. No need to do that, please.
I believe if the competition wasn’t that hard, the game would have sold much better.
Street fighter, diablo, octopath 2, Resident Evil 4, Theatrhythm, star wars, pikmin, harry potter, zelda, Baldurs Gate 3… so many great games that even a solid game is not enough in 2023.
And we still have more to come, so the legs of an action game will be crippled.
Maybe that 4 million was achievable, mainly because PS5 is breaking records in monthly hardware sales, but there are so many great games in so many different genres that it makes sense jumping FF16 and wait for the Black Friday deals.
But meh…. PR will always try to stunt and say the results are better than they are. It almost feels like that chapter from Curb your enthusiasm where Larry is in the spectrum.
I follow companies for more 10 years and I know when they are using words to hide the true feelings of the result.
Street fighter, diablo, octopath 2, Resident Evil 4, Theatrhythm, star wars, pikmin, harry potter, zelda, Baldurs Gate 3… so many great games that even a solid game is not enough in 2023.
And we still have more to come, so the legs of an action game will be crippled.
Maybe that 4 million was achievable, mainly because PS5 is breaking records in monthly hardware sales, but there are so many great games in so many different genres that it makes sense jumping FF16 and wait for the Black Friday deals.
But meh…. PR will always try to stunt and say the results are better than they are. It almost feels like that chapter from Curb your enthusiasm where Larry is in the spectrum.
I follow companies for more 10 years and I know when they are using words to hide the true feelings of the result.
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NieR was absolutely planned to be a big franchise for them moving forward and has been given its own internal team - given the anime is getting a second season and doing well i doubt its going to be a cancelled mid range project
JazzPotatoes
Koopa
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Bloomberg have actually released a couple of articles with quotes from both the investor call, as well as from other analysts:
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
Square Enix Drops 15% After ‘Final Fantasy’ and Mobile Setback - BNN Bloomberg
Square Enix Holdings Co. shares suffered their worst intraday drop in almost three years, erasing a little over a year’s worth of gains, after the company reported a 79% decline in operating profit.
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
Well, at least we can stop discussing this, then. It met their baseline expectations, but failed to meet their more optimistic estimations. Not a commercial flop, but not the break-out hit they were hoping for either. (Or, just as the thread title says, falling right within the range of what they were expecting.)
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can I say something without anyone getting mad
Old Sorta Fan
Contra superfan
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Look past the spin of “expectations” and look at the financial accounting.
Expensing everything to a narrow time frame so it only makes one quarter look bad is called “taking a bath.”
Companies take baths when they want to put a flop in the rear view mirror and don’t want its poor financial performance dragging down their books for years. They normally amortize costs over whatever they view as the life cycle of a product to try to smooth out their profits so they can be predictable for investors.
Square Enix has had one complete bomb and a second merely disappointing product for expensive AAA releases this year. And they are doubling and tripling down on more expensive AAA games. I think that is because management gets a thrill making them. They should instead try something different like cheaper, gameplay focused games, maybe with cheaper cartoon graphics. Just brainstorming.
That kind of behavior is what got Kojima dismissed from Konami.
The Square Enix Board of Directors needs to shake up the management team before the company enters bankruptcy.
Expensing everything to a narrow time frame so it only makes one quarter look bad is called “taking a bath.”
Companies take baths when they want to put a flop in the rear view mirror and don’t want its poor financial performance dragging down their books for years. They normally amortize costs over whatever they view as the life cycle of a product to try to smooth out their profits so they can be predictable for investors.
Square Enix has had one complete bomb and a second merely disappointing product for expensive AAA releases this year. And they are doubling and tripling down on more expensive AAA games. I think that is because management gets a thrill making them. They should instead try something different like cheaper, gameplay focused games, maybe with cheaper cartoon graphics. Just brainstorming.
That kind of behavior is what got Kojima dismissed from Konami.
The Square Enix Board of Directors needs to shake up the management team before the company enters bankruptcy.
JazzPotatoes
Koopa
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I think if you look at the game's reception through the lense of "Did it sell enough to make back it's costs" it did ok. Not great, not amazing, but ok. Maybe sales will pick up as the year goes on, who knows.
If you look at the sales in the context of SE wanting to reinvigorate the franchise and grow the series again, then it didn't do so well. Sales are down against previous games, and the legs don't seem to be great.
It's a competitive year, but in previous generations a new FF game would be able to compete with literally any other game in the industry releasing at the same time. The fact that other games like TotK, Diablo and Street Fighter are stealing the spotlight from XVI shows how much work SE needs to put into re-establishing it as a premier, must play series.
It's very much the Halo Infinite situation all over again: not a terrible reception, but not enough to turn the ship around and put the series back where it once was.
If you look at the sales in the context of SE wanting to reinvigorate the franchise and grow the series again, then it didn't do so well. Sales are down against previous games, and the legs don't seem to be great.
It's a competitive year, but in previous generations a new FF game would be able to compete with literally any other game in the industry releasing at the same time. The fact that other games like TotK, Diablo and Street Fighter are stealing the spotlight from XVI shows how much work SE needs to put into re-establishing it as a premier, must play series.
It's very much the Halo Infinite situation all over again: not a terrible reception, but not enough to turn the ship around and put the series back where it once was.
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Mer.Saloon
Chain Chomp
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I think that if Square wants to maximize the potential of the Asano games, they should really consider spacing out releases more. In this crowded market and without the exclusive help of Sony and Nintendo, its more than a little difficult to grab attention.
JorgenRaft
Chain Chomp
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I think we all understand that Asano and team are pretty much safe even in case SQEX almost completely moves away from AA games.
They're likely bringing in money while developing on a tight budget.
And hey, see it this way, in case SQEX goes insane and actually stops Asano from doing his trademark games and remakes, Nintendo could always swoop him up.
He would be a good fit there, he might even make it possible to revive some older IPs again!
I knew it. You are a group of people with a shared account!
;]
They're likely bringing in money while developing on a tight budget.
And hey, see it this way, in case SQEX goes insane and actually stops Asano from doing his trademark games and remakes, Nintendo could always swoop him up.
He would be a good fit there, he might even make it possible to revive some older IPs again!
I knew it. You are a group of people with a shared account!
;]
JorgenRaft
Chain Chomp
Apopheniac
Monolith Soft action game truther
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We'll have to see how FFVIIR2 performs, but I'm not confident that SE will see better results from another PS5 exclusive. DQXII will likely do well since it'll be on a Nintendo platform, at least, and I'd hope for their sake that the current gen install base is more amenable when KHIV rolls around. I'm not sure how well their domestic audience recovers given current trends, though.
What do you think Tomoya Asano does?
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Producing video games?
Apopheniac
Monolith Soft action game truther
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Do you think there are issues with Nintendo's current producers that Asano could rectify if he worked at NCL?
Cantaim
Shriekbat
I know Final Fantasy is what gets the clicks, but I'd really emphasize it's the mobile part of that title that's cratering Square right now. That division just stopped growing and started shrinking hard the past year.Bloomberg have actually released a couple of articles with quotes from both the investor call, as well as from other analysts:
Square Enix Drops 15% After ‘Final Fantasy’ and Mobile Setback - BNN Bloomberg
Square Enix Holdings Co. shares suffered their worst intraday drop in almost three years, erasing a little over a year’s worth of gains, after the company reported a 79% decline in operating profit.
MilkyChance
Cappy
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It's best and makes the most sense to make games for all platforms. Square Enix has a problem fracturing the fanbase of certain titles.
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I think it is even worse considering that Halo 5 didn’t rock the boat sales wise. However, FFXV did. FFXV sold 5 million copies in its first day, and has legged it out to 10 million copies. Then you also had FFXIV, which goes without saying it's a massive success.
Final Fantasy was already at that point of being back, it was doing really great stuff. Now I am not a fan of FfXV, it's one of the few FF I am not interested in beating, along with the echelon of FF2, and 8. I actually like FFXVI as a game, far more, and was actually able to beat it as opposed to XV.
But I really think they screwed up, considering people kind of voted with their wallet in terms of what they want to see from FF. And instead of iterating on it, making it way better, they tried changing the genre of the game completely.
Mer.Saloon
Chain Chomp
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It's a den of sharks in mobile. Burn free-to-play ideas by the truckload and see if one sticks in hopes for that pot of gold.
Cantaim
Shriekbat
It’s also a pretty expensive area now. Genshin Impact can bring in over a billion a year but a bad year would snowball fast on any companies finances. Lady’s of cheaper to make billion dollar hits are pretty much gone in that space.
ertaboy356b
Resident Troll
They just need to redo Ever Crisis and turn it into a proper FF7 game rather than a gacha game that closes after 6 months.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Manakete
Outside of FF14 and a couple other hits (Nier Automata, Octopath 1), Square's last several years of output has ranged from "mildly disappointing" to "historically bad" financially from both a AAA and AA perspective. We'll see how it goes, but they obviously have to change something.
