Square Enix Faces 10 Billion Yen Loss in Restructuring Efforts

[Pedro The Hutt]

And as always, Square-Enix refuses to admit to being wrong in anything, or to have any failed games of their own so they just blame their Western subsidiaries and call Tomb Raider a failure despite selling 3.5 million copies in three weeks (not counting digital sales, I might add).

F U Square-Enix. Just admit that a huge amount of that loss is that you're pumping money into FFXIII Versus for EIGHT years now and that it hasn't made you a single yen yet because hey, it's still is in development and will be for the foreseeable future.

 

[Irridium]

They expected Tomb Raider to sell 5.6 million units? And they's their conservative estimate?! Are they fucking high?! There's no way in hell these games would have hit those numbers. Let me tell you the expectations I had for these games, Square. Sleeping Dogs: 600,000. Hitman Absolution: 1.4 million. Tomb Raider: 2 million. And that's me being generous.

Sleeping Dogs is a new IP, and from what I could tell it had a decent marketing push. But by playing it... I just couldn't see it selling more than 800,000. The fact it sold 1.7 million is pretty goddamn amazing.

Hitman has never been a huge seller, and isn't a "mainstream" franchise. But this new game seemed like it had a good marketing push and was talked about quite a bit. Didn't see it selling more than 1.7 million. It selling 3.6 millions is incredible.

Tomb Raider hasn't been doing so great. The past few games weren't that good quality-wise or sales-wise. But this new reboot was drawing a lot of attention, looked great, and had a good marketing push. I can see it selling 2 million, but not more than 2.5 million. It selling 3.4 million is fantastic.

Expecting Sleeping Dogs, Hitman Absolution, and Tomb Raider to sell 2 million, 4.5 million, and 5 million, respectively, are in no way realistic expectations. They're the expectations of madmen.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Wow; Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider and Hitman 2, all great selling games in their own right, are selling Poorly by Square Enix's standards?!

Call of Duty, what have you done?! You made everyone aim for your crazy sales, and if they don't sell like that, then they officially screw game manufacturers! This kind of "Oh, at least 5 Million in the first month" mentality is gonna be the doom of so many games and game companies!

And Square Enix should have known none of those games would sell what they were expecting, but they assumed they could get CoD numbers.

 

[Roxas1359]

Really one of the main things at this point that can save Square Enix is when Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMix is finished being localized in the NA region and the Pal region, and when FF X HD is released. I would have thought that KH HD 1.5 ReMix would have boosted their sales when it was released in Japan, heck it was released early on March 12th instead of on the 15th. I've already imported my copy, but one of the main problems that Square is having is the same problem that most developers set unrealistic expectations for their game sales. They mainly look at games like BF3 and CoD and think that their game has failed if it doesn't sell a ridiculous amount of units in a single month. Honestly I don't know why games like CoD and BF3 make the money that they do, but if developers keep the mindset that they have to sell 5 million copies in a short amount of time then it's gonna lead to their own downfall, which is a shame because it really shouldn't have come to this.

Then their is the whole thing with FF Versus XIII which was supposed to be a PS3 launch title and in 8 years it's still not been released. That project is taking up so many resources at Square that if it tanks it'll destroy them. Heck the reason why Kingdom Hearts 3 is taking so long is because most of the Kingdom Hearts team is working on Versus XIII apparently. Plus according to other sources Versus XIII won't even be released until FF XIII-3 is released.

Another issue is the whole thing with Final Fantasy XIV. Square believes that switching games to MMOs would be a great idea to make money when they look at FF XI, which was the most profitable FF game ever released actually. So they decided to apply that concept to the Dragon Quest franchise and look at what happened, no one bought it due to the fact that a once single player oriented game now focused more on being multiplayer, and mind you the multiplayer for it was less than spectacular to be sure.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

As a general rule sequels sell better. Absolution may as well be a reboot considering how long it's been since the last Hitman game. Sleeping Dogs is a promising new free roaming IP and Tomb Raider is a fantastic reboot of the beloved franchise. Sequels will do better. Please for the love of whatever you might hold sacred, don't cancel them!

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I'm calling it - CoD tainted sales expectations and game mechanics. It did so well on sales that game companies expected that by trying to integrate CoD-like elements into their games, these new gamers would explore other genres, meaning that these companies would get major cash. But do you really want to invite a group known to not care about the work that goes into a game, and verbally abuses other players as a result of their own mistakes? Do you really open yourself up that kind of player expectation by tapping into the CoD crowd?

...And yet it's been a few years since that major flux, and I believe that sales for the latest CoD (and CoD competitors) have dropped; could it be that these so-called "gamers" were never gamers at all, just people following a trend until it dried up? It should tell us that there is more to the sales scene then just a game selling really well.

At least be happy that you sold over a million. Any company should be happy about selling over a million copies, and should be worried about having to sell or expecting to sell over five to ten million, as it should be a red flag that your company is bloated and possibly pandering for players that really isn't suited for your game's genre. (Yes, companies are responsible for defining boundaries of genres - Blurring the lines causes problems between the desires of core players and those who are just outside the line, making it harder to wholly satisfy.)

captcha: three strikes
That last ball was a foul, but Square does have two strikes on them.

 

[TheProfessor234]

Question, did they still make make a profit even if they failed expectations? This is the one thing I find the most confusing.

I've seen this a few times now, "Hitman, Lara, Dogs didn't hit expectations, blah blah blah," but millions sold. Does this mean that these games were sold at a loss of profit or are the stuffed suits just mad they didn't get as much as they wanted?

 

[The_Scrivener]

The company is a bloated dead fish.

It isn't a coincidence that dozens of the most popular and iconic names under the Squaresoft umbrella left the company when Enix bought in. SE has released almost nothing but uninspired, overbudgeted crap since. The Shinra Electric Power Company is more reputable at this point.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

I wish Eidos could change publisher. Preferably to someone who isn't completely retarded.

 

[Something Amyss]

Sad trumpet sound: Wha-wha-whaaaaa.

Something is wrong if you can move that many units and still lose.

They were already losing. They were just (unrealistically) hoping these titles would dig them out of that hole. Which was toootally realistic.

 

[mattttherman3]

Never saw any ads on the websites I frequent for sleeping dogs, or a tv spot for that matter. And I read that Tomb Raider sold the most copies of any Tomb Raider game made to date? Not to mention they messed way too much with Hitman's mechanics and level design, made it more of a shooter. I bet those games still turned a profit anyway, just not as much as they wanted.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Unfortunately there seems to be a huge amount of nepotism at Squenix.

F U Square-Enix. Just admit that a huge amount of that loss is that you're pumping money into FFXIII Versus for EIGHT years now and that it hasn't made you a single yen yet because hey, it's still is in development and will be for the foreseeable future.

QFT. Square Enix are coming across as complete dicks. Everyone can see it, everyone keeps trying to point it out, and yet they refuse to admit that they're being completely unfair. And if their "social market" is doing well, it must be in Japan only because my first reaction was "What social market?"

 

[AuronFtw]

The company is a bloated dead fish.

It isn't a coincidence that dozens of the most popular and iconic names under the Squaresoft umbrella left the company when Enix bought in. SE has released almost nothing but uninspired, overbudgeted crap since. The Shinra Electric Power Company is more reputable at this point.

Pretty much this. The most notable thing they've done outside of ruining Final Fantasy is the cutscenes in Deus Ex HR, which were... pretty decent, actually. Good on the developer to not let squeenix anywhere near the story or gameplay or it would have been a lot worse.

 

[DragonWright]

...I just miss Square.

 

[JediMB]

It's been two weeks since those Tomb Raider numbers were released. Can't help wondering where the game is sales-wise today. I'd expect it to at least have passed 4 million units, plus digital.

 

[Tiamattt]

Future headline:

Final Fantasy 14 feel well short of expectations when sales didn't reach 100 million units, causing fans to wonder if the FF franchise is in jeopardy. SE quickly assured them that wouldn't be the case by announcing another HD remaster along with the next 3 FF games, FF13-4, 5 and 6

 

[HanFyren]

I wish Valve would start outing publishers who pretend the digital/PC market doesn't exist.

Those sales numbers always say excluding digital sales. Effectively meaning I vote with my wallet and give them money. But it has no effect on their decisions, because the people in power have convinced themselves I don't exist.

 

[Ishigami]

Interesting note:

DeusEx:HR sold about ~2,8 million copies.

Back then SE said in their fiscal report that that this was a success and it contributed to their overall positive outcome of the quarter.

What made SE think they could double the sales of similar games within 1,5 years?
And why is it now considered a failure when two games beat the Defuse:HR sales clearly?

Tbh I think SE is full of shit here and just looking for a off shore scapegoat to not blame their national devs.
FFXIV and FFvs.XIII anyone?

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm calling it - CoD tainted sales expectations and game mechanics

Expectations I can see, but...Game mechanics? Explain.

...And yet it's been a few years since that major flux, and I believe that sales for the latest CoD (and CoD competitors) have dropped; could it be that these so-called "gamers" were never gamers at all, just people following a trend until it dried up?

Look, I know everyone hates CoD around here and therefore wants it to fail, but Black Ops 2 broke sales records set a year before...By Modern warfare 3. This is a four year trend, where the biggest launch is a Call of Duty game, and it's as current as the last release.

Maybe we should look at how Call of Duty is actually doing before we talk about the death of it, the fanbase, and the so-called fad. Or maybe it should tell you that your premise is flawed.

At least be happy that you sold over a million.

Now that I can agree with. Sleeping Dogs,a new franchise, sold almost two million copies not counting digital sales. And I know people will be all "True Crime!" But that was a slap-on title that didn't make it out of development, so no. Two million, give or take, is a good number here, especially for a new title.

 

[Something Amyss]

I wish Valve would start outing publishers who pretend the digital/PC market doesn't exist.

That would require Valve giving real numbers to people, and that has long been Gabe Newell's kryptonite. So don't count on it. Gabe is gaming's Kim Jong-Il. Even when his numbers don't look good compared to more accountable numbers, he insists otherwise, and the Steam market jumps up and supports him because they're in their own niche of the internet that only reports the Kim Jong-Newell side of things.

You probably don't want Gabe outing people. It's more than likely going to be like finding out Santa Claus is just your dad in a red suit and white beard.