Square Enix: Disc Based Sales Are Killing Us

[shrekfan246]

Or, Square, you could, you know, not sink so much money into these titles that four million sales doesn't make back as much as you wanted.

Or, better yet, you could actually give a toss about what your fanbase wants from your in-house sector and do things like localize games people might want in other sections of the world.

As long as Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III are available on physical formats, Square Enix can do whatever the hell they want. After those are out, I think I'll have a hard time caring about anything Square does anymore without the involvement of Tetsuya Nomura or Eidos. Especially if they're going to start turning main Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts titles into Free-to-Play games.

 

[fwiffo]

"Matsuda has some thoughts on how to solve the problem. Free to Play has deeply impressed him."

I initially read this as "Free to Play has deeply depressed him."

Then I read the rest of the article, and became deeply depressed.

 

[Snazzymathematics]

So instead of blaming themselves for spending too much money on their games they blame discs?
If they continue doing this and not learn from their mistakes they'll eventually go bankrupt.

 

[Something Amyss]

It may be scapegoating, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

They've basically put all their failures on three titles. Two of which cleared the four million mark, one which the Western head of the company has called a success due to a long-term strategy.

It quite likely is wrong, because the odds that these three games are the entire downfall for a corporation that had problems well before their release is about nil.

 

[Haakmed]

Come on Square, just be blunt and blame Gamestop like everyone else does. I know you want to.

 

[IshimaruHayato]

Well good news square enix all you need to do is finish final fantasy XV and what ever happens, happens.

 

[Baresark]

This is just my opinion (as that is his opinion), but the money invested into those games is what hurt it, not the disc based model. No one is going deny that digital releases are cheaper, but you still need to spend the same amount on advertising. Those games all had bloated budgets, regardless of the format. Sleeping Dogs was by far the best out of those games. I played them all, but I really only enjoyed that particular game. Tomb Raider was interesting, but about halfway through I started feeling like it was wearing out it's welcome, and Hitman was simply an OK game. The fact that the millions of units moved total was insufficient for them speaks volumes about their terrible budgeting and inability to even remotely anticipate market needs. With the exception of sleeping dogs, they were basically sequels or relaunches of games that were in many ways very different from the most current iterations. They can't sink millions into reformatting a game and then be put off by the fact they all needed to move 6 Million+ units while simultaneously alienating the original fanbase.

I've said my piece. That is my opinion, not any sort of fact. I just think they, like many Triple-A publishers want to blame a single thing that is not their fault when the culpability still lies with them for the most part.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Square Enix launched Sleeping Dogs in August 2012 and has sold approximately 1.75 million copies of United Front Games' open-world crime thriller. Since Hitman: Absolution's release in November 2012, Square Enix has sold about 3.6 million units. And Tomb Raider, which launched three weeks ago, has already racked up approximately 3.4 million units in sales. (The numbers only take retail sales into account, not digital purchases.)

Source [http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/26/4148780/square-enix-missed-sales-targets-sleeping-dogs-hitman-absolution-tomb-raider]

If you are selling that much in retail alone then maybe it isn't disk based sales that is the issue. How high are their sales expectations anyway?

 

[LordMonty]

As nintendo said at E3 'make better games' but i guess that is cruel, Tomb Raider was pretty darn good.

Um hard to comment on this as there is no clear answer, economic times are tough at the moment jobs are thin on the ground (at least in the UK) and world wide I get the same impression that its much the same. So yea monies not just there to spend. The matter of disks is a little odd to me, I like physical things it why we still use paper money, but saying that i frequently use steam, but it'll make me sad if I got myself a ps4 and had to download all the games as i hold some distrust of total digital distribution(ubisoft is the key example pain in the ass in this).

Anyhow give me a sequel to Tomb Raider please!!! I'll get it on steam anyhow if that pleases you

 

[Danial]

Then stop charging £50 for Digital games and we wont bother with disc's....

 

[sirjeffofshort]

As someone who likes to collect, play and hang on to disc based content (because I'm an old dude, I'll admit it), I would actually like to see a compromise in this arena. Digital sales at a cheaper base for those looking to consume the game and move on, and nicely packaged premium disc based content sold directly from Square.

I've honestly stopped going in to retail to buy my games (especially from companies I like) and try to buy them directly from the publisher themselves (or through Square's Amazon in this instance.) In that manor I've already pre-ordered FF13, FF10 and 10 2 HD, and Kingdom Hearts Remix (which arrives today! Psyched!).

That said, Square probably also has to reign in their budgets and expectations a bit. It really doesn't seem like the source of their money distribution problems are as simple as "disc based content is ruining us!"

 

[Frostbyte666]

I have nothing to add except what everyone else has said, lower your overheads, if you want digital only charge less, I like my disc collection and am willing to pay current prices for them (does it give away how old I am if I say I miss the really thick manuals). I also pretty much buy my games through amazon which is more justified now since HMV left the island. But yeah the problem isn't the discs it's Squares budgeting.

 

[Ukomba]

No one is forcing Square Enix to make their games as expensive as they are. Been saying for a long time they've been putting too much into graphics.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Finally Square have realised what is wrong with the industry, really hit the nail on the head. If they get rid of disc-based games they can double their production budgets and still make millions of every title![/sarcasm]

I don't see how they can blame physical media for poor sales when they have sold pretty damn well at retail. Sure they get less profit because of so many people taking a slice of the money but that isn't exactly new. If they want more profit then they should reduce their costs and promote their digital sales more, like giving people a discount for buying digitally and not giving armfuls of exclusive stuff to people who buy the physical game. No free-to-play required.

 

[GAunderrated]

There was another Japanese company I used to love that just went batshit insane and made one horrible decision after another until every single IP is being dragged through the mud and the companies reputation along with it.

That company is called SEGA and mark my words SE will join SEGA's fate in 3-5 years at this rate.

Some might even argue that it has already happened but truth is we are just seeing a parasite desperately trying to find a new host to leech off of because its current host is dying fast due entirely to the parasite.

 

[Grabehn]

So... the problem is that they sell games on discs, and not that the expected sales for Tomb Raider was like over 4 million copies or some stupid ass number like that? Stop expecting to sell as many copies as Call of Duty and the company would probably do a lot better.

 

[Tiamat666]

But sometimes, I want the box.

I don't think the problem is the box.

The biggest issue is probably that, yes, competition is very high. There are so many triple A titles and so many Indy games as well now... Money is not the main issue. A lot of gamers like me have grown up and have jobs, maybe families. I buy a lot more games now than before, but I don't have the time to play them all. The list of games I would like to play only grows longer and longer, so when that new triple A title is released, I don't see why I should spend 50 bucks on it if I still have all these other games to play, so I can wait until the price has dropped or wait for a sale.

Only very few games enjoy that special standing that will make me buy them on release. In my case, it's everything Elder Scrolls. So maybe one solution is to build up a solid fanbase. Bethesda has it, Blizzard has it, thanks to their modding tools and overall gamer-friendlyness, and they don't seem to have problems with sales.

Either that or you have to push up the ante and not create merely good games, but games that are the best and everyone HAS to play, like BioWare with Mass Effect or Rock*'s GTA.

 

[BrotherRool]

This is sensible stuff, but I'm worried because Square Enix hold some of my favourite franchises. I loved the new Deus Ex and Tomb Raider, I'm still waiting on Kingdom Hearts, I really do enjoy Final Fantasy. I don't want them to withdraw from the market even if the money isn't there

 

[lacktheknack]

It may be scapegoating, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

They've basically put all their failures on three titles. Two of which cleared the four million mark, one which the Western head of the company has called a success due to a long-term strategy.

It quite likely is wrong, because the odds that these three games are the entire downfall for a corporation that had problems well before their release is about nil.

I was referring specifically about the "Disks Eat Money" statement.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Those are interesting points, worth debating further though I don't have it in me right now. I do want to make a point though that Hitman: Absolution was not acclaimed by critics. In fact, they along with fans for the most part weren't fond of it. Unnecessary and drastic changes to the tried and winning formula to "please the masses" or increase "mass market appeal" meant the game fundamentally sucked. I got as far as the Orphanage level before giving it up because it was boring, uninsteresting and nothing like a Hitman game should be.

I haven't played it yet, but having played the intro I'm already a little disappointed by the new VA for Sam Fisher. Likewise, the news that Garret's VA wouldn't be reprising his role for Thi4f (because the director wanted the VA more involved for mocap and cutscenes, in what should be a fu****g first person game! WTF?) is severely disappointing. Thi4f suffers the same thing as Hitman: Absolution, whereby every trailer, screenshot and "tantalising" news release makes me want to play the game less, not more.

I'm a massive fan of the Thief and Hitman series, as well as Deus Ex, all of whose titles I played at release from a decade ago. I should be the damned target audience, not fu****g CoD morons who want everything to be a set-piece shooter with QTEs and games that play their damned selves. Make a Thief game that appeals to ME, SQUEENIX, not the misoginist, CoD playing masses and you'll have a wildly successful, cheaper to produce niche title, instead of following EA's footsteps and making Dead Space 3 that sucked in every regard and pleased no one.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution I should add as an aside was a magnum opus. It had it's fair share of issues, but the game was so well made, so polished, so fun and with such incredible production values, forethought, storytelling, characterisation and mechanics that the flaws didn't take away from it. Thie4f's only saving grace is that it's being made by the same team, but I'm not holding out much hope. They turned Tomb Raider into a generic action-adventure with pathetic "puzzles" and QTEs. Hitman: Absolution had 47 in it and little else of the franchise's formula.

If SQUEENIX want to succeed, they need to make better games that cost less that create a community, a fan following and are rememebered over a decade later as being among the greatest video games ever made.