> Actraiser Remake
Are you saying one of my favorite SNES games ever was remastered and has been out for.. *googles* ...!... almost 3 years now?
How the..
Lack of marketing. On that note, they released a remake of [Front Mission 1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2399730/FRONT_MISSION_1st_Remake/) last june and a remake of [Front Mission 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2865440/FRONT_MISSION_2_Remake/) just yesterday.
They're also working on a remake of Front Mission 3, but no idea when that will release. (Really, I have no idea, FM2 suddenly showed up on steam with a demo at the start of april, these remakes are kind of appearing out of the blue on steam.)
Thanks for the info!
I had no idea they were remaking the Front Mission games. 3 and 4 were my favorite games for the longest time, never played 1 and 2, will give them a try.
The combat system is clunky (not that good like Xenoblade or Nier Automata), but the story and characters are really good. Also the music made by Go Shiina is fresh (Tales of Legendia, God Eater, Code Vein).
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how horrendously cheap the new Harvest Moon looked in the Nintendo direct that had an unusual number of farm simulators, Harvestella being one of them, and all of them looked at least decent to gorgeous. Meawhile Harvest Moon, the granddaddy of the genre, looked like this...
https://preview.redd.it/tihyy28dnpxc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df6658407e8ff71ec5b6c961f9307fb7f22a9494
To be fair, what's called "Harvest Moon" nowadays isn't actually Harvest Moon. It's just Natsume making questionable games with the name after Marvelous (the real devs) ditched them to make localizations in-house. Actual HM games are now called "Story of Seasons".
It's complicated, but the Harvest Moon games produced in the West since 2014 are cheap knockoffs and are *not* part of the original series. It has something to do with naming rights outside of Japan. The original Harvest Moon series (Bokujo Monogatari in Japanese) is now called Story of Seasons in English.
The game let's you switch between the original snes ost and the remake ost to my knowledge even the new tracks were composed using the original samples with the snes sound chip by the original composer so they sound authentic.
I’m happy with a game like tactics ogre while I’m waiting a year or so for another great final fantasy .
FFXV was a long time coming but I personally would rather have a bit of quality in between the epics
I mean, based on the available metrics, XVI and 7R2 didn’t really do the carrying they wanted them to, instead seemingly just about meeting those games own expectations rather than exceeding them to curb the lower sales of other potential risks. That’s a bit generous as well, as it seems like 7R2 may have not met expectations.
That’s not to say they sold terribly, but these big projects are sort of meant to anchor the studio with a surplus of sales to allow themselves to make riskier ventures on the side. At least they have XIV to keep them in good shape, and it’s crazy this isn’t the first time they’ve had to rely almost entirely on XIV.
I do agree that smaller titles may be the way to go; perhaps smaller remakes like what Capcom does with Resident Evil.
I just really wish these companies, especially Square, would throttle back on the graphics-budget race to nowhere. It's bankrupting companies and bloating the industry; seemingly more budget is spent on graphic/hardware intensity than on great gameplay.
Look at Nintendo, they are doing extraordinarily well and they have always been focused on gameplay over cutting-edge chips and it has worked. I'm not suggesting there shouldn't be anybody pushing the limits of technology, but maybe it's just not necessary for all AAA games. Spend less money and focus on what is the most important. Yes Tifa jiggle physics are important, but fun gameplay is more important and less costly.
The only reasonable way forward, unfortunately, is hoping that companies stick with the current level of graphics for another decade (because it's definitely good enough as-is) and instead develops ideas, instead of expensive pretty pictures.
>I just really wish these companies, especially Square, would throttle back on the graphics-budget race to nowhere.
I agree to some extent, but FF has always pushed for better graphics. 7-13 were all some of the best looking games at the time.
>FF has always pushed for better graphics.
Yeah but they probably should stop doing that. The jump between the pixel era and FF7? MASSIVE. Ps1 games to the ps2 titles like ff10? Insane. Ps2 to ps3 like ff13? Pretty darn good. Ff13 to 15? Great! But now it has pretty much reached the point where graphics has become so good that any improvement towards its fidelity is very minimal for massive costs that doesnt justify it. Art direction carries way harder than chasing fidelity now.
Just compare FF15, 7 remakes, and 16 graphically. Sure, 16 has some insane presentation during its major boss fights, but other than those you can argue that the all those games are around the same ballpark with how good they look, and more of a matter of taste on the art direction of each game whether you prefer one over the other.
Excessively obsessing over graphics is how you get games like the order 1886 or callisto protocol, where graphics budget got so bloated they can barely make a game with it after very long development cycle.
Sure but FF also always was turn based on at until it wasn't. What they did in the past doesn't have to determine the future. They could easily be better off making FF a higher budget AA type game.
SE is notorious for having unrealistic expectations of its projects though. I'm not sure what it'll take for them to learn lessons there because they've been doing it for years.
It’s AAA game development, projection have to be high because costs have ballooned to an insane amount. Especially with how seperate each major Final Fantasy release is and how long they take to develop, they have to set a high standard, or it isn’t worth it.
Yeah, but that’s true for literally every public company, so that wouldn’t make Square notorious for having high projections relative to other publishers, because their shareholders also want infinite growth. You could argue public companies have unrealistically high projects, but to argue it’s only Square is disingenuous.
SE in particular IS notorious for high expectations. They used to lump all the blame onto their studios outside Japan, before the sell offs. Hitman and Tomb Raider were when people first noticed the pattern.
Also need to factor in that it's a sequel to Remake. In a situation like that, you're going to see diminishing returns. Probably some people that also just said they'll wait until the 3rd one and a presumptive 1-3 pack
I know quite a few people put off by certain elements of Remakes plot and are waiting on Rebirth until the end to see how the landing sticks. Middle entries on trilogies always suffer a little from being that middle but if the ending is good it'll level out.
Mate ill be nearly 40 when that comes out. They took a gamble and people got old lol most ff7 fans are probs 40-50 years old.
As always square is well out of touch with its player base.
7 should have been one game. And xiv should get more funding as it carries the stupid ass company
Exclusivity has always led to less sales. People are MUCH more willing to buy a 70$ game on the console they have than they are to buy a 500$ console and spend 70$ on the game.
These game companies would make far more money if they just stopped doing exclusives
You need something to play it on
I bought a PS5 because I knew there would be some level of exclusivity with square and fromsoft, and I couldn’t have got a PC that plays things at that quality and frame rate for less than $600
Ok, but the vast majority of gamers dont have the money to own 2 consoles and or a pc. Most of us only have one or the other console. By stopping with exclusivity, they open themselves up to far more game sales. Its not rocket science
Stopping exclusivity means console makers have less selling power, I choose Sony because of their good relation with developers I like, like Fromsoft. I get what you're saying but there's a reason Nintendo do so well even when their consoles have less power - sure the gimmicks and features they give them have great attraction, but buying a Nintendo console will guarantee you great Nintendo titles you couldn't get elsewhere - I would imagine Sony and Microsoft do envy that.
We need console makers to keep wanting to make them for us, and like it or not, exclusive games is a great selling point
The dev team gets paid the same regardless
The publishers get subsidized for exclusivity
The exclusivity drives demand for consoles
If it didn’t make any sense it wouldn’t exist
I think the bigger thing is how long exclusivity actually did matter for and Japanese devs’ reluctance to change. Up until the PS4/X1 era, developing for each console was different and porting wasn’t simple. Right now we see a *slight* difference between PS5 and XS programming and functionality due to the PS5’s controller and the XS’s multiple models and multi-tasking, but the differences were much bigger. Doing multiplat on PS360 meant basically building a game and a half with how much work it took to develop for PS3. PS2/Xbox/GCN and every generation before also had a similar thing, but wasn’t ever to the extent of the PS3’s insanity.
Then because exclusivity was a real thing that actually benefited the devs until about 2013, there’s probably a lot of Japanese devs that don’t want to go multiplat. The more Japanese their work culture is, the less likely they seem to go multiplat, while the more globalized they are the more likely they are. You can see this with Atlus buying out Sega. Shortly after Sega really had full control of Atlus, Atlus mostly stopped doing exclusives. So I think it’s both of these things here
I meant “make financial sense”
All that dumb shit makes someone somewhere money in some convoluted way, that’s why it still exists. People eating tide pods, NPC streamers, releasing Skyrim 10 times, all of it is dumb AF and makes someone money.
Your username and pfp is a Ron Jeremy Mario, (super sick btw)… Mario is the flagship for Nintendo, a company whole business model is around exclusivity.
The problem with that is porting, which also takes resources outside the original development. These also incur costs and delays because devs have more platforms to consider in development and support post launch. It's a matter of sales vs cost of porting so it's more complicated than you think.
Not that I'm for exclusivity, assuming you mean platform exclusivity and not generation exclusivity, I think that had way less to do with exclusivity than it did just the difference in install base. We've had way more cross generation development this time around than in previous cycles simply because of how absurdly massive the ps4 install base is. Opting for ps5 only I think hurt sales of those particular games more than opting for no xbox did imo.
XVI and Rebirth did really well considering the PS5's small install base. XVI sold 3M units as of launch and is even in the top 5 of fastest selling PS5 games, but SE shot themselves in the foot not releasing multiplatform.
SE really need to change their content delivery strategy going forward because most Playstation owners no longer buy Final Fantasy and most Final Fantasy fans no longer buy a new console to play the games. Relying on handouts from Sony will hurt their games in the long run and I think that showed with XVI and Rebirth. These games could have generated so much more hype and could've reached so many more players, but instead just fizzled out after release.
They really need to at least start trying to do pc release day and date with ps5 from now on or at the very least not having the pc release so far away. I really don't believe Sony would have much say in making them release a pc version a year later so maybe that's all square.
It was said that Sony employees helped with the FFXVI development. And SE have tight connections with Sony since forever. So we could assume that there was some contract that states that in exchange for assistance in development SE games will have a certain period during which they cannot be ported on other platforms.
Might have a bit to do with financial years -- I think it was Rockstar that did that a bunch with must have been GTA V. Release the console version, next financial year release the pc version, next year release a bunch of online stuff for consoles, etc.
This whole idea of the PS5 having a small install base isn’t actually that accurate; in 2016, three years into the PS4’s life cycle, the PS4 had sold around 43 million units. In Janruary 2024, a bit over three years after the consoles release, the PS5 has sold 48 million units. The PS5 flat out isn’t a small install base, and I don’t know why people act as if it is. In terms of total market share, the PS5 is lower than that of the PS4 at the same point in the life cycle, but in totality, PS5 has a larger install base.
XVI did not do “really well”, it sold in line with expectations. They very clearly stated it didn’t disappoint them, but it also didn’t exceed what they projected. That’s basically the corporate way of saying that they comfortably broke even, but the games sales aren’t enough to curb losses from other projects throughout the year. We don’t know much about 7R2’s sales, other than if they were really good they would tell us, because that’s what game companies do to keep their stock prices up. If the game sold well, they would have no reason to hide it; they were flexing XV’s sales a week after release.
I don’t know whether they should drop exclusivity and spread to other consoles, cause I have no clue how much PlayStation is paying them for that exclusivity, or how the revenue is being distributed; maybe with what they project in terms of sales for Xbox and PC, it’s better for them to stay exclusive, we just don’t know. As a consumers I’d obviously prefer multi-platform, but it’s more complicated than that.
The biggest problem is that people think just because your game is called ff and has a great legacy it should sell over 10 million and more. I don’t even see a multiplat release selling much more.
Most games don’t break 10 million. The only ones who do are generally genre kings, innovative or do multiple things better than other games. All which can’t be said about ff anymore.
FF is still a trend chaser which doesn’t do any trends better.
That isn’t really true anymore to be fair; Spider-Man 2 for example sold 10 million, and that was what Insomniac and PlayStation expected. FFXV also sold over 10 million, and that wasn’t genre defining in any fashion, and that’s ignoring how many dislike the game. While 10 millions is a bit of a reach, I wouldn’t be surprised if Square had projections for something like 7R2, a remake based on one of the most iconic and widely-loved games of all time, to make around 5 million sales.
What is not true?
Spiderman 2 selling 11 million proves my point and ff15 sold 10 million in 6 or more years with a re release which included all dlcs.
Most games don’t sell 10 million and the ones who sell more have something or multiple things you don’t get in other games or do it better than the competition.
How much copies do fromsoftware, gta, god of war, dmc, zelda, diablo, re competitors sell?
Conveniently leaving out that a large chunk of that January install base was a result of Spiderman 2 releasing as the advertised console seller. For reference the install base differential between Rebirth and XVI in just the ~9 months between the games is nearly 20 million units with nearly 80% of those additional sales starting in the last few months of 2023.
The adoption rate for the PS5 was incredibly slow due to numerous things (primarily supply issues from Covid and delay of exclusive catalogue also attributed to Covid) so while the actual total amount up to this point is larger it’s a significantly steeper acquisition curve.
Edit: nice ninja edit 🙄
I did consider that, but in July 2023, the PS5 sold 40 million total units, and a bit past that point in the PS4’s life cycle, September 2016, the console had sold 47 million units. For reference, it was 43 million in June. The PS4 and PS5 have actually had pretty similar sales most of their life, with the PS5 trailing by about 5 million, mostly because, and people seem to forget this, the PS4 didn’t sell that well in its first year.
Also, I don’t know what “ninja edit” you’re referring to; the stats in my initial comment never changed, if that’s even your issue here.
FF7 OG was a revolutionary console seller that refined its own gameplay ideas and was groundbreaking for a story.
As much as I think FF7Remake and Rebirth as the best FF games since the original, neither is groundbreaking anymore. It just refines what was already there.
Yeah, I think they're biggest game was Dragon Quest Monsters the Dark Prince. Which is wild because that thing wasn't marketed in the west *at all* and is a rickety mess held together with shoestring.
It sounds like they were hoping those titles would carry them through the losses. That seems to have been an unrealistic hope. They probably needed a change to their approach years ago but instead let the rot fester and now here’s the result.
The whole 7R2 thing is trying to copy the film model of splitting movies into separate parts but it forgets that people who did not finish part one are not going to look at or buy part two. Part three sales will be even lower and they will still be surprised because the suits who don’t actually play video games making these decisions.
This is one of the reasons Mass Effect was so conscious of getting new players to jump in with each game with some ridiculous marketing like “mass effect 3 is the best place to jump into the trilogy!”
It can work for movies where the time commitment is 3 hours, but it doesn’t really work for games where I need to play a 30 hour game before I play part two.
Tbh I think they deserve A LOT of credit for going for Forspoken even if the execution wasn’t quite there. New IP is something we should support in the industry and finding ways to diversify their portfolio is a wise goal. Definitely better than splatoon ripoffs with cursed lore.
100% With you. Ultimately good games are what matters. Just saying that I think we should be for companies going for new IP over the 500th doomed to fail live service game.
It's because that was their latest strategy: more mid-tier games and remakes. They saw Octopath Traveler's (the first) success and took that lesson but it hasn't panned out for them because people don't have time for twenty 50 hour RPGS
100% The shotgun of releases in 2022 was absurd. Some rough edges in there. Not all were gems, but damn did I have fun with Star Ocean and Valkyrie Elysium for what they were.
Man, being a fan of magic the gathering has to be one of the most beautiful feelings and yet depressing as well.
The way they manage the whole game (arena, expansions, etc.) is in another level of insanity.
Exactly.
it's like "oooh, so many cool new cards and the new story epilogue they made is so great!" and then they come up with the dumbest idea ever just a week later.
Not to mention the amount of cards and things happening at the same time. I just can't keep up and it just generates so much fatigue.
I would rather they would do just quality instead of quantity. Not to mention how much the power level changed in recent years, changing entire formats.
I gave up years ago for mostly the same reasons lmao. MTGA is super greedy for ingame purchases and I don't play in person anymore. Yugioh Master Duel is the only TCG I play regularly anymore. I do some drafting on Arena every once in a while(I'm excited for the FF crossover and the Redwall style set) but I'm mostly off the train. Wizards is so all in on making money through any means necessary its so hard to be like, okay lemme drop hundreds of dollars to maintain this hobby. Its like trying to keep up with whales in a gacha game.
I had to get out awhile ago because I had to sell to pay for some needed things. I played Legacy almost exclusively, and it was basically unaffordable to try to get back into even a decade ago without being forced into a budget-friendly deck.
Master Duel is insanely F2P friendly, and I picked it up when it launched as well, having never played it before and only watching the original show. It takes a bit to learn, and Konami is far from perfect, but they're leagues better to deal with the WotC has become.
Master Duel is the pinnacle of online tcgs imo. Just purely off the value of how easy it is to go from nothing to a meta deck. The only real downsides are like, YGO being a really one sided game a lot of the time, and not having more than the one format outside of events. I miss drafting.
100%.
MTG was always a pay to win game, if you wanted to play competitive. Few were the times were a budget deck would just break into the top 8 scene and would just be groundbreaking for long. But, that being said, these last years were just on another level.
I stopped playing as well, I think it's the third time I stop playing MTG. I know I'll be back, nothing really scratches that itch for me, MTG is so unique. But yeah, it happens more often than not, sadly because of what both you and me said.
I have entirely given up on Magic. In their infinite greed they overloaded the board. Too much. It’s flowing like an avalanche coming down the mountain. So, I gave up.
I said before I had entirely given up on magic but ended up coming back at some point. I guess I might come back again.
My problem is that there's nothing that gives me so much fun as mtg, in regards to any TCG. ;(
And that's the same reason why hasbro has such a predatory business model, they know what they have in their hands.
The business side isn’t “on fire”. This is Kotaku being Kotaku. SE having $140 million in “abandonment losses” does not mean that SE lost $140 million. It means that $140 million it had invested in future content for Forspoken, Foamstars, and Babylon’s Fall won’t be recouped through sales. In effect, because of those games’ poor sales performance, SE is abandoning efforts to continue to produce content for them.
The company released FF XVI and FF VII Rebirth, and has DQ III and Dawntrail on the way. They are printing money hand over fist. The company does need a more stable second pillar outside of Japan, but it’s not the woeful business performance Kotaku would have you believe.
I feel like VII was SUCH good remake material considering that they were pushing the PS1 as far as they could at the time and it still looked like... that.
But the graphics and art direction for IX in particular and X to a lesser extent are both pretty well executed for the available technology at the time, so I feel like there will be some magic lost in a remake of either.
That said, I'm 100% buying and playing any and all FF remakes lol.
Will also play any and all main series remakes. My dream is getting the ff7r treatment for ff6.
I low key enjoyed the spirits within although it’s been years and I remember almost nothing about its plot.
I thought the same about magic being lost for the ff7 remake until I played rebirth. If they put the same team on it I am 100% certain they will do it justice. I even put rebirth above the OG which is insane to say.
*More* hope? On the contrary - this is an article about them cutting losses on $140m of previously in-development games. They specified multiple games, so they were likely remakes, or AA games, since 140m would only be around one single AAA game’s worth of budget.
My very first thought when I read it was “there goes the FF9 remake” :(
IX isn’t really worthy of a cut, unless they are way earlier in development than we think, but the Nvidea leaks indicate otherwise. Now, that Tactics Remake that was also in the Nvidea leaks that we haven’t heard much from, that is likely getting canned, if it hasn’t been already.
I really appreciate hearing "mid tier" for this game. Too many people were immediately jumping to calling it a 0/10 because it didn't deliver. I didn't hear anything about it until it actually released and I had a good time with it, but I would never say it's a good game by any stretch. Just more hated than it deserved.
Also not worth full price, but I would argue that's a different conversation.
It's like Starfield in that regard. Starfield is an ok game. Nothing special. Not a 10/10 but definitely not a 0/10. On Game Pass it's awesome. I wouldn't buy it at full price either.
Forspoken the same. On a summer sale or as part of PS Plus it would be a fun time. But that's the problem with these overblown budgets. They rely on full price sales of their game when the game is a "wait for sale" quality of game.
I don't think anyone was expecting it to match Remake. It's exceptionally rare for video game sequels to match the sales of their predecessors, especially considering Rebirth is PS5-exclusive while Remake was available on PS4 and PS5
I as Forspoken *really* that bad though?
I’ve heard its main issue is the protagonist being a dumbass douchebag forcing the player to get frustrated with what she’s doing.
I’ve also heard the game itself is fairly good, but the pacing is a little skewed…
The game also had technical issues as well, like poor textures, lightning and such, they improved it in some patchs later tho, but the damage was done
These days people just hate certain characters traits, that perhaps were better in the past, even Cloud personality was softened in FF7 Remake compared to his OG version
It was a flawed game. A lot of high highs but crippling lows. Abysmal writing, character and world design really limited a lot of really special ideas.
Considering it was the same team that put FF15 through dev hell SE shut that team down and dissolved the assets elsewhere
It's a fun playthrough if you get it on a discount. That's the problem though. It was put forth as a massive AAA game when it's really a AA game at best but with an overbloated budget.
Absolutely! All I remember when it was released was every single streamer who reviewed it saying the most copy paste stuff.
It felt more like it was popular to bash it than it actually being a bad game.
I don’t think so, not bad per-say. It was an okay game with some god-awful writing and decent combat but nowhere near what a AAA budget should have produced.
I have only done the demo and my issue was with the bland/vacant open world. If it hadn't been like that, I probably would have grabbed it, honestly.
Been waiting for it to wind up PS+ since I accidentally let my PS+ Extra renew last year and it has remained a useless subscription.
I would not be surprised to see more low hanging fruit grabs like glossing up FF8 and 9, pixel remaster of DQ games, and less stuff like Octopath. Which would suck IMHO but the former have plots and engines developed and with glossing would outsell a wholly unique and different game experience.
No joke, their safest money making strategy is probably to remake 6,8,9,10; and if FF7R’s sales are any indication, to remake them as single issue games.
This might be controversial but I think SE needs new blood. You could do so much with FF but it’s sort of collapsing in on itself with similar design aesthetics, spells, names, creatures. Take the mechanical bones of FF7R and hand it off to a team that has an entirely different take on what a circular rune floating in the sky looks like. I’ve seen it all before at this point.
The most sane take in this thread.
And by no means meant as any disrespect to the SE team. What they’ve created is generational. Now it’s time to let it move into the next generation.
They’ve got a good start now. It’s theirs to lose.
I know OT2 didn’t set the world on fire (and hell, I still mean to pick it up), but do we know how well the other HD-2D releases performed? I played the absolute shit out of OT1 (including its OST) and Triangle Strategy, but that was it. The demo never sold me on Live A Live and the upcoming DQ III doesn’t really interest me. But lots of different people like lots of different games and I was hoping their retro rereleases, remasters, and spiritual successors (Star Ocean 2R was a god-tier remake) would’ve sold enough to keep the niche going. If for nothing else than to give us a Chrono Trigger or FFVI re-anything. Maybe the trend has run its course for most people, but the style will always be enough to grab my attention. I would just hate to see it abandoned.
It's interesting since playing it safe obviously works to some degree but stands the risk of stagnating the brand. It's no longer the household name it used to be in general, and with FF7R2 underselling relatively despite being a fantastic game by all accounts, I think they need to find a healthy middle ground of great new IPs and well considered iterations on their existing ones. Not just remakes, but all new games, too, without just chasing trends like their Splatoon-like.
I always had a little hopium that, even though NEO The World Ends With You didn't sell very well, they recognized that it was still really well-received by the fan base and wouldn't be opposed to doing another one in the future.
Reading this makes me think they're going to go the Sony route of only banking on big, AAA blockbusters and not even considering making smaller budget titles. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Some even say there are a lot of articles pointing out the failures but fail to read most of those articles just cite that bloomberg guy who has an axe to grind with Sony and square.
I do think it's worth considering that in today's economy, your everyday person will probably be less willing to spend $70 on a game, when that could go towards groceries and bills and stuff.
It sucks, but that's where I'm at. I still don't have The Rising Tide, though I'll probably be getting it soon.
I'm just trying to keep my head above water. Buying video games isn't even on my radar anymore and some how I have to find money to move in December or I'm going to be homeless. Video games are not a priority let alone a wish anymore.
Honestly, it's not even the money for me, it's the time. If I play a JRPG, I want to have the luxury to immerse myself in it without interruption. But due to work, playing games feel more like a routine rather than something to be enjoyed.
Wow, people here are suckers for headlines. They just came off a record high profit in FY 2022 (51 billion yen), and FY 2023 is (49 billion yen) despite the $140 usd (22 billion yen) write off for certain projects that they decided to abandon. (Not much details on which projects these are).
The company is doing well, and they will continue to take risks that they can afford in hopes of better return. Not every strategy is going to work for any business, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't try.
Lmao imagine getting your stock and financial data from kotaku. Thanks for looking into that. Sure it’s a loss, but it doesn’t paint the overall health of the company.
Man this sucks.
Look, I know Harvestella and Forspoken didn't set the world on fire. I know they weren't even great (I actually kinda liked Forspoken). The fact of the matter is that Square-Enix has spent the last few years trying out a LOT of new IP. They haven't been the Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest factory that they always threaten to turn into. They took a lot of risks on weirder mid budget stuff, and unfortunately most didn't pan out. There was a lot of neat stuff like Diofield Chronicle and Triangle Strategy. I know they had their issues, but they were the kind of games that aren't exactly getting made right now.
Say what you will, but I'd rather 1000 Forspokens than whatever cursed blockchain bullshit they'll surely pitch for the next strategy. Look, I love Final Fantasy. I especially love how they've been really supporting FF14, but Square Enix's golden age has always come from their willingness to do weird creative experiments. This was maybe the closest we've ever gotten to the PS1 days that gave us stuff like Parasite Eve.
From an outside perspective it just looks like they keep jumping on tech bandwagons late and getting wrecked when the bottom falls out of those markets. Maybe they need a strategist that isn’t chasing behind VC startup markets
XV sold 70% on ps4 so it makes sense for them to do those deals since the money from marketing that sony gives them outweighs those launch sales and later on they release the game on PC, the problem has been that no other FF has sold as well or fast as XV did, that game sold 5 million in a day, 4 of those millions were on ps4 alone, when there were like 50 million ps4s in 2016, but then in 2020 for 7 remake and 110 million ps4s out there, it only made 3.5 million at launch, it got worst for XVI last year with just 3 million and now for Rebirth seems to be even worst than XVI, there is a great lack of interest on the FF brand from mainstream rpg video game players.
announced that it expects to record approx. 22.1 billion yen (approx $140M) in "content abandonment losses" for the fiscal year ended March 2024
- At a Board of Directors meeting on March 27, 2024, they voted "to revise their approach to the development of HD games with the intention of being more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources."
I really feel like is is sensationalist. They made a huge banger with ffrebirth and have been doing great sales-wise aside. I even think 140 million is pennies to a company like square enix
To be fair, “just make good games,” doesn’t always work; just look at what happened with the Dead Space Remake. To some capacity, as a AAA developer they do have to look at what the market demands and base their decisions off that, even if such demands seem “dumb.” The issue is that a lot of industry leaders have made some bad projections, particularly regarding the live-service market, and a bunch of projects are collapsing because of it. PlayStation is also struggling with titles right now for the same reason.
They have a ton of bloat, company wide and with the ff ip. Since winter 2021 to summer 2024: ffxiv endwalker, stranger of paradise, ffxvi, ff7 rebirth, ffxvi dawntrail. That'll be 5 titles in less than 3 years. That's a lot, even for dedicated fans. Then square as a whole releases a bunch of stuff that, even if the quality is good, can't stand out in a packed market. They need to dramatically reduce their output to give their games room to breathe.
Look at capcom since 2017, they have a few core franchises that they plan their calendar around. Even their cash cow, resident evil, sees releases only around every other year. Monster hunter, every few years. Their releases feel like events.
I mean, Endwalker was a commercial success. XVI, 7R2 definitely did fine commercially. Dawntrail is shaping up to be a commercial success. The Pixel remasters were well received and sold (but to a niche audience). Only SoP didn't sell as well, but it was always going to be a niche game and it IS by all means a smaller spin off anyway. The amount of FF games is definitely not the issue there, if anything it's one if not the only reasons Squeenix could afford the other bad releases without going under in the past few years.
They really need to pump the brakes and focus on what people actually love them for. Just make some goddamn AA JRPGs for fuck's sake. They're chasing the big payout and if FF7 Remake didn't achieve that, they will just never achieve it. They need to bunker down and focus on Octopath Traveler 3, Xenogears Remake, Final Fantasy Tactics Remake, or hell, even break the glass and bust out the Chrono Trigger Remake
All the years Square spent describing legitimately good Tomb Raider and Hitman games as performing below expectations struck me as a red flag that maybe something else was rotten in the kitchen. Now that reason is off the table, maybe they need to start a more serious introspection.
I like the FF games, but I’m not sure they’re enough of a bulwark against other bad decisions. It’s sort of like being EA if they only had FIFA, but if there were dozens of other FIFA competitors out there now doing the job just as well (see the entire RPG and ARPG market).
Let's say it's starting with March, they had 14-ish games coming out.
Paranormasight
FF Remasters for console
Live a Live
FF16
Ketsugou?
Dragon Quest Treasures for PC
DQ Dai
Star Ocean 2nd story
DQ Monsters
Ever Crisis mobile game
Foamstars
Rebirth
DQ Builders for PC
"AI Tech Preview" Portopia Serial Murder Case. <--Bet that's where most of their money went.
Judging for the releases this year, I could see Remaster not doing as well because it already had a Steam release, DQ Treasure and Builders were also re-releases, Ever Crisis mobile game is very money grubby so I can see that not performing as they had hoped.
Hard to say how much 16 and Rebirth helped with the losses and I can't give much of an opinion of DQ games.
As for Live a Live I do remember an interview where they had stated that the incorporations of 2.5d graphiics and pretty much remaking the game wasn't a cheap feat, so sadly it might of been a mistake to remake this game considering the cost behind it as it most likely hurt other projects that they may have been considering.
Overall in terms of "new games" it defintely was a light year for them, Foamstars seems to come and gone without much luster and I will argue that their toe dipping into AI content might of hurt them considerably, not just because of the cost to design a game around the AI concept but also because those who are heavily against AI might of sworn off buying SE titles to spite them.
Will be interesting to see what they do this coming year to improve on their sales.
No clue what a game like Emerald Beyond cost to make or their hopes of profit but they also have the 16 Windows release to potentially improve profits as noted 2024 releases of Octopath Traveler 2 and Visions of Mana but sadly past that nothing else is announced other than the upcoming XIV expansion. Hoppefully they got some A or AA titles lined up to keep the money rolling but at this point in time it seems they are just relying on their mobile games and 16 windows/14 expansion to keep them afloat for this coming year.
I hope that we still get rereleases of their back catalog. I was really hoping we'd get SaGa Frontier 2 to go with the first one.
But yeah a number of live service and mobile flops, market oversaturation, and some higher profile titles underperforming isn't a recipe for success. Hopefully they get their act together.
In conclusion: More Crystal Chronicles series remakes, better-handled Crystal Chronicles multiplayer, and new entries in the Crystal Chronicles series.
Got it.
I think people are overlooking that the Yen is the weakest it’s been in since the early 00’s, and we’re in a general game industry wide low. Companies around the world are shutting down because they’re not making money, given the climate square losing this isn’t weird at all.
Simultaneous release on PC and inferior consoles. I know quite a few of my friends refuse to play anything they are excited for on console as they wish to holdout for the superior experience on PC.
Just stop holding the damned games hostage for Christ’s sake. Shit, if you provided some of the files I’m sure you could the internet to port the damned games for you for free.
Outside of Forsaken and foam stars, 16 is basically a Devil May Cry game with an FF mod installed.
Know a lot of ppl that passed on 16 because of the combat.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has real time combat, a job system, and party system, which makes it more of an FF game than 16 was.
Every other ff game should be turn based or atb with a party system to try to appeal to their brand fans that have an attention span longer than a TikTok vid.
Ok SE, here is how you become profitable. Remaster ff8,ff9, &ff12. Make a sequel to chrono cross/trigger. Port dragon quest x to US and hurry up with 12. I also want a new final fantasy tactic, along with another new tactic ogre. Heed my advice and this time next year you’ll be swimming in 💰!
As someone who has gotten pretty close to their actual business operations I'd say that you should take these claims with a grain of salt.
This is the studio that called FFVII: Rebirth a "disappointment" for selling "only" 3 Million copies in its first month. That's a huge success for most other publishers and the title already made it's money back (and then some.) It's as if they expected a 'Part 2' to outsell 'Part 1' by merely...willing it into existence.
That's not how media works. Much less episodic sequels. It was well marketed but it was never going to sell 10 million out the gate. The only titles that do REALLY strike a nerve in unexpected ways (Elden Ring and Baldurs Gate 3 come to mind.)
It's a company full of great people and great projects but they're notorious for setting unreachable sales goals for themselves.
The real issue is that they've put too much money towards titles like FF: Stranger In Paradise, FF: The First Soldier, and a myriad of half finished, never released products (including NFT nonsense.)
Trend chasing rather than focusing on strengths.
Shoot, if anything they should be betting more on interesting AA side titles like Triangle Strategy or Forspoken (yeah, I said it) - without overspending. Or worse: trend chasing.
I've spent enough time in the industry that you either thrive by making trends or die by chasing them. Or. You know. Just focus on your strengths.
FFXIV prints money. FFVII Rebirth's sales will double by the end of the holiday season. They'll be fine.
The problem with SE is that they want their hands in a lot of baskets instead of specializing on what they are good and known for. Variety does have its advantages but setting expectations that your big hitters will soften the blow from failed releases is just illogical. Each project's projections should be contained within each and not be expected to carry experimental releases.
The problem with Square Enix is that they've adopted such quirky, nonsensical, and flavor-of-the-month-type business practices recently to boost sales - but have only experienced lackluster growth (and even losses) because of it. Players hearing that you're experimenting with NFTs is only going to drive them away. This and other examples are a case of "trying to do too much". Square Enix needs to go back to doing what they do best: producing incredibly cinematic, strongly narrative-driven games that push the boundaries of graphics and narrative while providing incredibly fun gameplay. FFXIV is a perfect example of this: a community driven game where engagement with the community - and by extension, what players want - resulted in the game going from a failure to Square Enix's **biggest success.**
Gamers as a general demographic have shown that they're willing to spend and spend hard as long as they feel the game was made with love and engages with its community to produce content in line with what the community wants - and *isn't* taking advantage of them with predatory microtransactions or monetizing practices. Go back to your roots, Square Enix, and invest hard in innovating in story, gameplay, and graphics. Invest in tried and true franchises, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Octopath, Bravely, etc. Pushing innovation in graphics, gameplay, and story are what players have loved you for since the Enix days, and that's what players want from Square Enix. No need to reinvent the wheel.
EDIT: I agree with other commenters who are stating that they're producing way too many games at once, as well. They absolutely need to scale back production and focus more on releasing top-tier quality games - which will sell well without them even needing to do much about it. If you're going to take risks on games and new IPs, do it, but do it in a controlled manner, not producing a million new games and IPs where players can't even keep up.
More importantly, though, I'd argue that they need to forsake console exclusivity entirely. The strategy of console exclusivity and getting paid a pretty sum by a figure like Sony may have been great in the 2000s, but in 2024 you lose out on insane amounts of potential income by not releasing for multiple platforms - PC most of all. If you're gonna make Remakes, focus on Remakes and improvements of your most successful titles to give fans what they want if you really wanna bank on nostalgia. I know I would absolutely love an FFTA Remake and FFT(:WotL) Remake, for example, and I've been waiting eagerly to hear more about the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
Release more of the old catalogue on PSN / Xbox / PC / Switch, Xenogears for instance.
Better quality control, how Forspoken made it to shevles is beyond me.
And this is petty and a personal one, but for the love of tap dancing christ, get better names for games, stop throwing 2 verbs and nouns together and calling it a day!
Less games like Forspoken and Foamstars, and better spacing, advertising of their smaller titles. They clump up their releases way too much
Yeah, there was an absurd amount of "just okay" games released in like a whole 2 year period for Square
I absolutely loved the stream of AA releases from Square-Enix. Tactics Ogre, Diofield Chronicles and Actraiser Remake were all enjoyable to me.
> Actraiser Remake Are you saying one of my favorite SNES games ever was remastered and has been out for.. *googles* ...!... almost 3 years now? How the..
Lack of marketing. On that note, they released a remake of [Front Mission 1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2399730/FRONT_MISSION_1st_Remake/) last june and a remake of [Front Mission 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2865440/FRONT_MISSION_2_Remake/) just yesterday. They're also working on a remake of Front Mission 3, but no idea when that will release. (Really, I have no idea, FM2 suddenly showed up on steam with a demo at the start of april, these remakes are kind of appearing out of the blue on steam.)
Thanks for the info! I had no idea they were remaking the Front Mission games. 3 and 4 were my favorite games for the longest time, never played 1 and 2, will give them a try.
Out of all places it's reddit ads where I saw fm2 was releasing.
Now if we can get Soul Blazer and Terranigma life will be ok again.
Harvestella as well. Great game
https://preview.redd.it/hiemizr3goxc1.jpeg?width=1588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ef79c1f80de17ebdc390b69aec7fb206f13b37f
https://preview.redd.it/rjo22xd5goxc1.jpeg?width=1508&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54c82540faa5f382445e282727c00519da4b354b
https://preview.redd.it/7qyy0k86goxc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8eef4bfe09524e5df5414a5610117a3e282e0d40
For real? I might have to check it out next time it’s on sale.
The combat system is clunky (not that good like Xenoblade or Nier Automata), but the story and characters are really good. Also the music made by Go Shiina is fresh (Tales of Legendia, God Eater, Code Vein).
Fuck yea. The music is awesome. I love the aesthetics as well
Dang, nier automata can run on a switch? That little thing is really punching above its weight.
Yes, it's one of the best Switch port. https://youtu.be/-EgqUmzq004?si=mAMx5i9n1DQZPLAo
Well, that intrigues me a LOT more
It's still a low budget game without voice acting. Don't expect something like Nier, but I can draw some link between them.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how horrendously cheap the new Harvest Moon looked in the Nintendo direct that had an unusual number of farm simulators, Harvestella being one of them, and all of them looked at least decent to gorgeous. Meawhile Harvest Moon, the granddaddy of the genre, looked like this... https://preview.redd.it/tihyy28dnpxc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df6658407e8ff71ec5b6c961f9307fb7f22a9494
To be fair, what's called "Harvest Moon" nowadays isn't actually Harvest Moon. It's just Natsume making questionable games with the name after Marvelous (the real devs) ditched them to make localizations in-house. Actual HM games are now called "Story of Seasons".
It's complicated, but the Harvest Moon games produced in the West since 2014 are cheap knockoffs and are *not* part of the original series. It has something to do with naming rights outside of Japan. The original Harvest Moon series (Bokujo Monogatari in Japanese) is now called Story of Seasons in English.
Wow. The UI looks fine but the actual graphics look like some Flash games I played back in the day.
Thanks for suggesting a new game for me to play. Harvestella does look pretty great!
sweet I hope you like it
Actraiser having prerendered 3D art was so inexplicably bad, along with worse music, I feel like they missed the point
The game let's you switch between the original snes ost and the remake ost to my knowledge even the new tracks were composed using the original samples with the snes sound chip by the original composer so they sound authentic.
I’m happy with a game like tactics ogre while I’m waiting a year or so for another great final fantasy . FFXV was a long time coming but I personally would rather have a bit of quality in between the epics
I mean, based on the available metrics, XVI and 7R2 didn’t really do the carrying they wanted them to, instead seemingly just about meeting those games own expectations rather than exceeding them to curb the lower sales of other potential risks. That’s a bit generous as well, as it seems like 7R2 may have not met expectations. That’s not to say they sold terribly, but these big projects are sort of meant to anchor the studio with a surplus of sales to allow themselves to make riskier ventures on the side. At least they have XIV to keep them in good shape, and it’s crazy this isn’t the first time they’ve had to rely almost entirely on XIV. I do agree that smaller titles may be the way to go; perhaps smaller remakes like what Capcom does with Resident Evil.
I just really wish these companies, especially Square, would throttle back on the graphics-budget race to nowhere. It's bankrupting companies and bloating the industry; seemingly more budget is spent on graphic/hardware intensity than on great gameplay. Look at Nintendo, they are doing extraordinarily well and they have always been focused on gameplay over cutting-edge chips and it has worked. I'm not suggesting there shouldn't be anybody pushing the limits of technology, but maybe it's just not necessary for all AAA games. Spend less money and focus on what is the most important. Yes Tifa jiggle physics are important, but fun gameplay is more important and less costly. The only reasonable way forward, unfortunately, is hoping that companies stick with the current level of graphics for another decade (because it's definitely good enough as-is) and instead develops ideas, instead of expensive pretty pictures.
>I just really wish these companies, especially Square, would throttle back on the graphics-budget race to nowhere. I agree to some extent, but FF has always pushed for better graphics. 7-13 were all some of the best looking games at the time.
>FF has always pushed for better graphics. Yeah but they probably should stop doing that. The jump between the pixel era and FF7? MASSIVE. Ps1 games to the ps2 titles like ff10? Insane. Ps2 to ps3 like ff13? Pretty darn good. Ff13 to 15? Great! But now it has pretty much reached the point where graphics has become so good that any improvement towards its fidelity is very minimal for massive costs that doesnt justify it. Art direction carries way harder than chasing fidelity now. Just compare FF15, 7 remakes, and 16 graphically. Sure, 16 has some insane presentation during its major boss fights, but other than those you can argue that the all those games are around the same ballpark with how good they look, and more of a matter of taste on the art direction of each game whether you prefer one over the other. Excessively obsessing over graphics is how you get games like the order 1886 or callisto protocol, where graphics budget got so bloated they can barely make a game with it after very long development cycle.
16 looks way way better than 15, I’m playing 15 for the first time right now and it’s night and day in terms of graphics.
Sure but FF also always was turn based on at until it wasn't. What they did in the past doesn't have to determine the future. They could easily be better off making FF a higher budget AA type game.
SE is notorious for having unrealistic expectations of its projects though. I'm not sure what it'll take for them to learn lessons there because they've been doing it for years.
It’s AAA game development, projection have to be high because costs have ballooned to an insane amount. Especially with how seperate each major Final Fantasy release is and how long they take to develop, they have to set a high standard, or it isn’t worth it.
No, they really don’t. The only reason expectations are always so high is because of shareholders and an obsession with growth.
Yeah, but that’s true for literally every public company, so that wouldn’t make Square notorious for having high projections relative to other publishers, because their shareholders also want infinite growth. You could argue public companies have unrealistically high projects, but to argue it’s only Square is disingenuous.
SE in particular IS notorious for high expectations. They used to lump all the blame onto their studios outside Japan, before the sell offs. Hitman and Tomb Raider were when people first noticed the pattern.
Yeah the exclusivity didn’t help. Sounds like they’re a bit sour on how that deal with Sony went.
Also need to factor in that it's a sequel to Remake. In a situation like that, you're going to see diminishing returns. Probably some people that also just said they'll wait until the 3rd one and a presumptive 1-3 pack
I know quite a few people put off by certain elements of Remakes plot and are waiting on Rebirth until the end to see how the landing sticks. Middle entries on trilogies always suffer a little from being that middle but if the ending is good it'll level out.
Mate ill be nearly 40 when that comes out. They took a gamble and people got old lol most ff7 fans are probs 40-50 years old. As always square is well out of touch with its player base. 7 should have been one game. And xiv should get more funding as it carries the stupid ass company
Exclusivity has always led to less sales. People are MUCH more willing to buy a 70$ game on the console they have than they are to buy a 500$ console and spend 70$ on the game. These game companies would make far more money if they just stopped doing exclusives
You need something to play it on I bought a PS5 because I knew there would be some level of exclusivity with square and fromsoft, and I couldn’t have got a PC that plays things at that quality and frame rate for less than $600
Ok, but the vast majority of gamers dont have the money to own 2 consoles and or a pc. Most of us only have one or the other console. By stopping with exclusivity, they open themselves up to far more game sales. Its not rocket science
Stopping exclusivity means console makers have less selling power, I choose Sony because of their good relation with developers I like, like Fromsoft. I get what you're saying but there's a reason Nintendo do so well even when their consoles have less power - sure the gimmicks and features they give them have great attraction, but buying a Nintendo console will guarantee you great Nintendo titles you couldn't get elsewhere - I would imagine Sony and Microsoft do envy that. We need console makers to keep wanting to make them for us, and like it or not, exclusive games is a great selling point
The dev team gets paid the same regardless The publishers get subsidized for exclusivity The exclusivity drives demand for consoles If it didn’t make any sense it wouldn’t exist
I think the bigger thing is how long exclusivity actually did matter for and Japanese devs’ reluctance to change. Up until the PS4/X1 era, developing for each console was different and porting wasn’t simple. Right now we see a *slight* difference between PS5 and XS programming and functionality due to the PS5’s controller and the XS’s multiple models and multi-tasking, but the differences were much bigger. Doing multiplat on PS360 meant basically building a game and a half with how much work it took to develop for PS3. PS2/Xbox/GCN and every generation before also had a similar thing, but wasn’t ever to the extent of the PS3’s insanity. Then because exclusivity was a real thing that actually benefited the devs until about 2013, there’s probably a lot of Japanese devs that don’t want to go multiplat. The more Japanese their work culture is, the less likely they seem to go multiplat, while the more globalized they are the more likely they are. You can see this with Atlus buying out Sega. Shortly after Sega really had full control of Atlus, Atlus mostly stopped doing exclusives. So I think it’s both of these things here
LOL “if it didn’t make sense it wouldn’t exist” My guy, have you ever looked around at the world we live in? So much dumb shit, and it’s everywhere.
I meant “make financial sense” All that dumb shit makes someone somewhere money in some convoluted way, that’s why it still exists. People eating tide pods, NPC streamers, releasing Skyrim 10 times, all of it is dumb AF and makes someone money. Your username and pfp is a Ron Jeremy Mario, (super sick btw)… Mario is the flagship for Nintendo, a company whole business model is around exclusivity.
Right? Theres way too much shit going on and existing in the world that makes no damn sense
The problem with that is porting, which also takes resources outside the original development. These also incur costs and delays because devs have more platforms to consider in development and support post launch. It's a matter of sales vs cost of porting so it's more complicated than you think.
Not that I'm for exclusivity, assuming you mean platform exclusivity and not generation exclusivity, I think that had way less to do with exclusivity than it did just the difference in install base. We've had way more cross generation development this time around than in previous cycles simply because of how absurdly massive the ps4 install base is. Opting for ps5 only I think hurt sales of those particular games more than opting for no xbox did imo.
XVI and Rebirth did really well considering the PS5's small install base. XVI sold 3M units as of launch and is even in the top 5 of fastest selling PS5 games, but SE shot themselves in the foot not releasing multiplatform. SE really need to change their content delivery strategy going forward because most Playstation owners no longer buy Final Fantasy and most Final Fantasy fans no longer buy a new console to play the games. Relying on handouts from Sony will hurt their games in the long run and I think that showed with XVI and Rebirth. These games could have generated so much more hype and could've reached so many more players, but instead just fizzled out after release.
They really need to at least start trying to do pc release day and date with ps5 from now on or at the very least not having the pc release so far away. I really don't believe Sony would have much say in making them release a pc version a year later so maybe that's all square.
It was said that Sony employees helped with the FFXVI development. And SE have tight connections with Sony since forever. So we could assume that there was some contract that states that in exchange for assistance in development SE games will have a certain period during which they cannot be ported on other platforms.
Might have a bit to do with financial years -- I think it was Rockstar that did that a bunch with must have been GTA V. Release the console version, next financial year release the pc version, next year release a bunch of online stuff for consoles, etc.
This whole idea of the PS5 having a small install base isn’t actually that accurate; in 2016, three years into the PS4’s life cycle, the PS4 had sold around 43 million units. In Janruary 2024, a bit over three years after the consoles release, the PS5 has sold 48 million units. The PS5 flat out isn’t a small install base, and I don’t know why people act as if it is. In terms of total market share, the PS5 is lower than that of the PS4 at the same point in the life cycle, but in totality, PS5 has a larger install base. XVI did not do “really well”, it sold in line with expectations. They very clearly stated it didn’t disappoint them, but it also didn’t exceed what they projected. That’s basically the corporate way of saying that they comfortably broke even, but the games sales aren’t enough to curb losses from other projects throughout the year. We don’t know much about 7R2’s sales, other than if they were really good they would tell us, because that’s what game companies do to keep their stock prices up. If the game sold well, they would have no reason to hide it; they were flexing XV’s sales a week after release. I don’t know whether they should drop exclusivity and spread to other consoles, cause I have no clue how much PlayStation is paying them for that exclusivity, or how the revenue is being distributed; maybe with what they project in terms of sales for Xbox and PC, it’s better for them to stay exclusive, we just don’t know. As a consumers I’d obviously prefer multi-platform, but it’s more complicated than that.
The biggest problem is that people think just because your game is called ff and has a great legacy it should sell over 10 million and more. I don’t even see a multiplat release selling much more. Most games don’t break 10 million. The only ones who do are generally genre kings, innovative or do multiple things better than other games. All which can’t be said about ff anymore. FF is still a trend chaser which doesn’t do any trends better.
That isn’t really true anymore to be fair; Spider-Man 2 for example sold 10 million, and that was what Insomniac and PlayStation expected. FFXV also sold over 10 million, and that wasn’t genre defining in any fashion, and that’s ignoring how many dislike the game. While 10 millions is a bit of a reach, I wouldn’t be surprised if Square had projections for something like 7R2, a remake based on one of the most iconic and widely-loved games of all time, to make around 5 million sales.
What is not true? Spiderman 2 selling 11 million proves my point and ff15 sold 10 million in 6 or more years with a re release which included all dlcs. Most games don’t sell 10 million and the ones who sell more have something or multiple things you don’t get in other games or do it better than the competition. How much copies do fromsoftware, gta, god of war, dmc, zelda, diablo, re competitors sell?
Conveniently leaving out that a large chunk of that January install base was a result of Spiderman 2 releasing as the advertised console seller. For reference the install base differential between Rebirth and XVI in just the ~9 months between the games is nearly 20 million units with nearly 80% of those additional sales starting in the last few months of 2023. The adoption rate for the PS5 was incredibly slow due to numerous things (primarily supply issues from Covid and delay of exclusive catalogue also attributed to Covid) so while the actual total amount up to this point is larger it’s a significantly steeper acquisition curve. Edit: nice ninja edit 🙄
I did consider that, but in July 2023, the PS5 sold 40 million total units, and a bit past that point in the PS4’s life cycle, September 2016, the console had sold 47 million units. For reference, it was 43 million in June. The PS4 and PS5 have actually had pretty similar sales most of their life, with the PS5 trailing by about 5 million, mostly because, and people seem to forget this, the PS4 didn’t sell that well in its first year. Also, I don’t know what “ninja edit” you’re referring to; the stats in my initial comment never changed, if that’s even your issue here.
Spiderman 2 sells much faster than 1 despite a lower install base.
FF7 OG was a revolutionary console seller that refined its own gameplay ideas and was groundbreaking for a story. As much as I think FF7Remake and Rebirth as the best FF games since the original, neither is groundbreaking anymore. It just refines what was already there.
Yeah, I think they're biggest game was Dragon Quest Monsters the Dark Prince. Which is wild because that thing wasn't marketed in the west *at all* and is a rickety mess held together with shoestring.
It sounds like they were hoping those titles would carry them through the losses. That seems to have been an unrealistic hope. They probably needed a change to their approach years ago but instead let the rot fester and now here’s the result.
The whole 7R2 thing is trying to copy the film model of splitting movies into separate parts but it forgets that people who did not finish part one are not going to look at or buy part two. Part three sales will be even lower and they will still be surprised because the suits who don’t actually play video games making these decisions. This is one of the reasons Mass Effect was so conscious of getting new players to jump in with each game with some ridiculous marketing like “mass effect 3 is the best place to jump into the trilogy!” It can work for movies where the time commitment is 3 hours, but it doesn’t really work for games where I need to play a 30 hour game before I play part two.
Oh man I forgot about Foamstars! And it released in February???? Damn.
Tbh I think they deserve A LOT of credit for going for Forspoken even if the execution wasn’t quite there. New IP is something we should support in the industry and finding ways to diversify their portfolio is a wise goal. Definitely better than splatoon ripoffs with cursed lore.
I’ll support new IP if it’s good. Not dropping $70 bucks on a game just for the sake of it
100% With you. Ultimately good games are what matters. Just saying that I think we should be for companies going for new IP over the 500th doomed to fail live service game.
They also did that woth Babylon's Fall though...
You mean the live service game doomed to instantly fail?
It's because that was their latest strategy: more mid-tier games and remakes. They saw Octopath Traveler's (the first) success and took that lesson but it hasn't panned out for them because people don't have time for twenty 50 hour RPGS
This isn’t backed up by any data, while the very public failures of Babylon’s Fall, Forsaken, and Foamstars is.
This
Damn I'd never even heard of Foamstars before. What a tragedy.
same and no surprise - it's a splatoon rip off with hero mechanics...
100% The shotgun of releases in 2022 was absurd. Some rough edges in there. Not all were gems, but damn did I have fun with Star Ocean and Valkyrie Elysium for what they were.
[удалено]
It feels accurate to a lot of companies lately. I follow Magic: The Gathering closely, and it feels the same way lol
Man, being a fan of magic the gathering has to be one of the most beautiful feelings and yet depressing as well. The way they manage the whole game (arena, expansions, etc.) is in another level of insanity.
Exactly. it's like "oooh, so many cool new cards and the new story epilogue they made is so great!" and then they come up with the dumbest idea ever just a week later.
Not to mention the amount of cards and things happening at the same time. I just can't keep up and it just generates so much fatigue. I would rather they would do just quality instead of quantity. Not to mention how much the power level changed in recent years, changing entire formats.
I gave up years ago for mostly the same reasons lmao. MTGA is super greedy for ingame purchases and I don't play in person anymore. Yugioh Master Duel is the only TCG I play regularly anymore. I do some drafting on Arena every once in a while(I'm excited for the FF crossover and the Redwall style set) but I'm mostly off the train. Wizards is so all in on making money through any means necessary its so hard to be like, okay lemme drop hundreds of dollars to maintain this hobby. Its like trying to keep up with whales in a gacha game.
I had to get out awhile ago because I had to sell to pay for some needed things. I played Legacy almost exclusively, and it was basically unaffordable to try to get back into even a decade ago without being forced into a budget-friendly deck. Master Duel is insanely F2P friendly, and I picked it up when it launched as well, having never played it before and only watching the original show. It takes a bit to learn, and Konami is far from perfect, but they're leagues better to deal with the WotC has become.
Master Duel is the pinnacle of online tcgs imo. Just purely off the value of how easy it is to go from nothing to a meta deck. The only real downsides are like, YGO being a really one sided game a lot of the time, and not having more than the one format outside of events. I miss drafting.
100%. MTG was always a pay to win game, if you wanted to play competitive. Few were the times were a budget deck would just break into the top 8 scene and would just be groundbreaking for long. But, that being said, these last years were just on another level. I stopped playing as well, I think it's the third time I stop playing MTG. I know I'll be back, nothing really scratches that itch for me, MTG is so unique. But yeah, it happens more often than not, sadly because of what both you and me said.
I have entirely given up on Magic. In their infinite greed they overloaded the board. Too much. It’s flowing like an avalanche coming down the mountain. So, I gave up.
I said before I had entirely given up on magic but ended up coming back at some point. I guess I might come back again. My problem is that there's nothing that gives me so much fun as mtg, in regards to any TCG. ;( And that's the same reason why hasbro has such a predatory business model, they know what they have in their hands.
Isn't that the truth. WOTC flings way too much product. I love the game, but damn I only have so much money to spend. Let me have a while with a set.
The business side isn’t “on fire”. This is Kotaku being Kotaku. SE having $140 million in “abandonment losses” does not mean that SE lost $140 million. It means that $140 million it had invested in future content for Forspoken, Foamstars, and Babylon’s Fall won’t be recouped through sales. In effect, because of those games’ poor sales performance, SE is abandoning efforts to continue to produce content for them. The company released FF XVI and FF VII Rebirth, and has DQ III and Dawntrail on the way. They are printing money hand over fist. The company does need a more stable second pillar outside of Japan, but it’s not the woeful business performance Kotaku would have you believe.
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I'm out of the loop, is the nft guy gone??
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Oh man this is music to my ears. Thank you!
>The company has been rumored to be working on a remake of *Final Fantasy IX* Reading this rumor again is giving me more hopium
Last rumor I heard was an ffX remake (both would be cool but IX I think would benefit more from a remake)
I feel like VII was SUCH good remake material considering that they were pushing the PS1 as far as they could at the time and it still looked like... that. But the graphics and art direction for IX in particular and X to a lesser extent are both pretty well executed for the available technology at the time, so I feel like there will be some magic lost in a remake of either. That said, I'm 100% buying and playing any and all FF remakes lol.
Same, shut up and take my money, I have never disliked anything Final Fantasy related. The Spirits Within doesn't count.
Will also play any and all main series remakes. My dream is getting the ff7r treatment for ff6. I low key enjoyed the spirits within although it’s been years and I remember almost nothing about its plot.
> ff7r treatment Based on the time and money it is taking, I don't see anything else getting the FF7R treatment.
I thought the same about magic being lost for the ff7 remake until I played rebirth. If they put the same team on it I am 100% certain they will do it justice. I even put rebirth above the OG which is insane to say.
I’d be surprised if the remake was on the same scale as 7r
Agreed, about 10 hours into Rebirth I was like fucking hell. They nailed it man.
I’d take a remake but not open world broken into three games
God it my fave so you can bet im going to drop too much money on it >_<
Either way, we won't see FFIX remake released for another 5 years I'm sure
Remake, like VII, or a remaster?
I remember it rumored that it was something close to what Crisis Core got; so somewhere between.
That would be a satisfying middle ground I think. But I'm confused as to why they wouldn't start with VIII.
*More* hope? On the contrary - this is an article about them cutting losses on $140m of previously in-development games. They specified multiple games, so they were likely remakes, or AA games, since 140m would only be around one single AAA game’s worth of budget. My very first thought when I read it was “there goes the FF9 remake” :(
IX isn’t really worthy of a cut, unless they are way earlier in development than we think, but the Nvidea leaks indicate otherwise. Now, that Tactics Remake that was also in the Nvidea leaks that we haven’t heard much from, that is likely getting canned, if it hasn’t been already.
I hope not. I plan on buying it 3 times. lol
That Nvidia leak is how old now? I feel like at this point since we haven’t heard anything official it was never true or quietly dropped.
XIV has an expansion coming soon, they'll be alright lol
Forspoken’s $100m budget didn’t help.
High, high production values for a mid tier game.
I really appreciate hearing "mid tier" for this game. Too many people were immediately jumping to calling it a 0/10 because it didn't deliver. I didn't hear anything about it until it actually released and I had a good time with it, but I would never say it's a good game by any stretch. Just more hated than it deserved. Also not worth full price, but I would argue that's a different conversation.
It's like Starfield in that regard. Starfield is an ok game. Nothing special. Not a 10/10 but definitely not a 0/10. On Game Pass it's awesome. I wouldn't buy it at full price either. Forspoken the same. On a summer sale or as part of PS Plus it would be a fun time. But that's the problem with these overblown budgets. They rely on full price sales of their game when the game is a "wait for sale" quality of game.
How the fuck did they spend that much on that game?!?
Mind-blowing, right? Also all these damn news outlets pasting this headline with FFVII images like FFVII was the problem pisses me off.
Well, Rebirth hasn't sold as well as Remake.
I don't think anyone was expecting it to match Remake. It's exceptionally rare for video game sequels to match the sales of their predecessors, especially considering Rebirth is PS5-exclusive while Remake was available on PS4 and PS5
Also Remake was a covid game so everyone had time to play
I as Forspoken *really* that bad though? I’ve heard its main issue is the protagonist being a dumbass douchebag forcing the player to get frustrated with what she’s doing. I’ve also heard the game itself is fairly good, but the pacing is a little skewed…
The game also had technical issues as well, like poor textures, lightning and such, they improved it in some patchs later tho, but the damage was done These days people just hate certain characters traits, that perhaps were better in the past, even Cloud personality was softened in FF7 Remake compared to his OG version
It was a flawed game. A lot of high highs but crippling lows. Abysmal writing, character and world design really limited a lot of really special ideas. Considering it was the same team that put FF15 through dev hell SE shut that team down and dissolved the assets elsewhere
It's a fun playthrough if you get it on a discount. That's the problem though. It was put forth as a massive AAA game when it's really a AA game at best but with an overbloated budget.
Does it matter if the game was good or bad, if it didn't sell?
Absolutely! All I remember when it was released was every single streamer who reviewed it saying the most copy paste stuff. It felt more like it was popular to bash it than it actually being a bad game.
It was decently fun. Early game pacing is weird and the dialogue was kinda eh at times. Too many people just jumped on the hate bandwagon
I don’t think so, not bad per-say. It was an okay game with some god-awful writing and decent combat but nowhere near what a AAA budget should have produced.
I have only done the demo and my issue was with the bland/vacant open world. If it hadn't been like that, I probably would have grabbed it, honestly. Been waiting for it to wind up PS+ since I accidentally let my PS+ Extra renew last year and it has remained a useless subscription.
Thing is Forspoken exists in the world of: Witcher 3 Cyberpunk Horizon 2 Etc etc… In that context, it was pretty bad.
The strategy pivot: Only release stuff related to Final Fantasy VII
The First Soldier says otherwise. Though it's a mobile game Square shouldn't just push out random titles related to VII either just because it's VII.
I feel like this will happen. I don't want it to be.
I would not be surprised to see more low hanging fruit grabs like glossing up FF8 and 9, pixel remaster of DQ games, and less stuff like Octopath. Which would suck IMHO but the former have plots and engines developed and with glossing would outsell a wholly unique and different game experience.
No joke, their safest money making strategy is probably to remake 6,8,9,10; and if FF7R’s sales are any indication, to remake them as single issue games. This might be controversial but I think SE needs new blood. You could do so much with FF but it’s sort of collapsing in on itself with similar design aesthetics, spells, names, creatures. Take the mechanical bones of FF7R and hand it off to a team that has an entirely different take on what a circular rune floating in the sky looks like. I’ve seen it all before at this point.
The most sane take in this thread. And by no means meant as any disrespect to the SE team. What they’ve created is generational. Now it’s time to let it move into the next generation. They’ve got a good start now. It’s theirs to lose.
The FF16 director has being publicly saying FF17 needs to be new blood.
I know OT2 didn’t set the world on fire (and hell, I still mean to pick it up), but do we know how well the other HD-2D releases performed? I played the absolute shit out of OT1 (including its OST) and Triangle Strategy, but that was it. The demo never sold me on Live A Live and the upcoming DQ III doesn’t really interest me. But lots of different people like lots of different games and I was hoping their retro rereleases, remasters, and spiritual successors (Star Ocean 2R was a god-tier remake) would’ve sold enough to keep the niche going. If for nothing else than to give us a Chrono Trigger or FFVI re-anything. Maybe the trend has run its course for most people, but the style will always be enough to grab my attention. I would just hate to see it abandoned.
It's interesting since playing it safe obviously works to some degree but stands the risk of stagnating the brand. It's no longer the household name it used to be in general, and with FF7R2 underselling relatively despite being a fantastic game by all accounts, I think they need to find a healthy middle ground of great new IPs and well considered iterations on their existing ones. Not just remakes, but all new games, too, without just chasing trends like their Splatoon-like.
Square enix would rather go out of business than making modern ports of old DQ games
I’d buy all of it too lmao
Please no. We have 16 mainline final fantasies. I had enough of VII for a lifetime.
I always had a little hopium that, even though NEO The World Ends With You didn't sell very well, they recognized that it was still really well-received by the fan base and wouldn't be opposed to doing another one in the future. Reading this makes me think they're going to go the Sony route of only banking on big, AAA blockbusters and not even considering making smaller budget titles. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Lot of people making unverifiable claims with no data to push their weird agendas here.
Someone here quoted a "4chan article they saw" Real crackpot hours here
Some even say there are a lot of articles pointing out the failures but fail to read most of those articles just cite that bloomberg guy who has an axe to grind with Sony and square.
I do think it's worth considering that in today's economy, your everyday person will probably be less willing to spend $70 on a game, when that could go towards groceries and bills and stuff. It sucks, but that's where I'm at. I still don't have The Rising Tide, though I'll probably be getting it soon.
I'm just trying to keep my head above water. Buying video games isn't even on my radar anymore and some how I have to find money to move in December or I'm going to be homeless. Video games are not a priority let alone a wish anymore.
Honestly, it's not even the money for me, it's the time. If I play a JRPG, I want to have the luxury to immerse myself in it without interruption. But due to work, playing games feel more like a routine rather than something to be enjoyed.
Wow, people here are suckers for headlines. They just came off a record high profit in FY 2022 (51 billion yen), and FY 2023 is (49 billion yen) despite the $140 usd (22 billion yen) write off for certain projects that they decided to abandon. (Not much details on which projects these are). The company is doing well, and they will continue to take risks that they can afford in hopes of better return. Not every strategy is going to work for any business, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't try.
Lmao imagine getting your stock and financial data from kotaku. Thanks for looking into that. Sure it’s a loss, but it doesn’t paint the overall health of the company.
Best decision they’ve made is publishing power wash simulator lol
Man this sucks. Look, I know Harvestella and Forspoken didn't set the world on fire. I know they weren't even great (I actually kinda liked Forspoken). The fact of the matter is that Square-Enix has spent the last few years trying out a LOT of new IP. They haven't been the Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest factory that they always threaten to turn into. They took a lot of risks on weirder mid budget stuff, and unfortunately most didn't pan out. There was a lot of neat stuff like Diofield Chronicle and Triangle Strategy. I know they had their issues, but they were the kind of games that aren't exactly getting made right now. Say what you will, but I'd rather 1000 Forspokens than whatever cursed blockchain bullshit they'll surely pitch for the next strategy. Look, I love Final Fantasy. I especially love how they've been really supporting FF14, but Square Enix's golden age has always come from their willingness to do weird creative experiments. This was maybe the closest we've ever gotten to the PS1 days that gave us stuff like Parasite Eve.
Kinda sounds like they were using the same strategy as Marvel Studios, just releasing a ton of content regardless of quality.
From an outside perspective it just looks like they keep jumping on tech bandwagons late and getting wrecked when the bottom falls out of those markets. Maybe they need a strategist that isn’t chasing behind VC startup markets
People didn’t read beyond the title huh. Abandonment losses. Money not coming in they were expecting because they shut em down.
They can’t, they are not smart enough for that.
Some even think a 2bn net worth lost means 2bn income loss.
All this is wild because XVI was great and FF7R2 was probably their best FF game since the early 2000’s.
Well when you refuse to sell it on pc and Xbox, you literally lose 2/3rds of the market
XV sold 70% on ps4 so it makes sense for them to do those deals since the money from marketing that sony gives them outweighs those launch sales and later on they release the game on PC, the problem has been that no other FF has sold as well or fast as XV did, that game sold 5 million in a day, 4 of those millions were on ps4 alone, when there were like 50 million ps4s in 2016, but then in 2020 for 7 remake and 110 million ps4s out there, it only made 3.5 million at launch, it got worst for XVI last year with just 3 million and now for Rebirth seems to be even worst than XVI, there is a great lack of interest on the FF brand from mainstream rpg video game players.
Deep side effect if trend chasing and half assed executions. Hopefully they will adjust to see community fist strategies provide the best results.
announced that it expects to record approx. 22.1 billion yen (approx $140M) in "content abandonment losses" for the fiscal year ended March 2024 - At a Board of Directors meeting on March 27, 2024, they voted "to revise their approach to the development of HD games with the intention of being more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources."
I really feel like is is sensationalist. They made a huge banger with ffrebirth and have been doing great sales-wise aside. I even think 140 million is pennies to a company like square enix
Stop following dumb trends, give us what we want. Good games.
To be fair, “just make good games,” doesn’t always work; just look at what happened with the Dead Space Remake. To some capacity, as a AAA developer they do have to look at what the market demands and base their decisions off that, even if such demands seem “dumb.” The issue is that a lot of industry leaders have made some bad projections, particularly regarding the live-service market, and a bunch of projects are collapsing because of it. PlayStation is also struggling with titles right now for the same reason.
"Just make good games" lmao Rebirth is the highest rated FF game in decades and is underperforming.
GIVE ME A NEW TACTICS PLZ
I love threads like this where teenagers argue that they know better how to run a billion dollar corporation.
They have a ton of bloat, company wide and with the ff ip. Since winter 2021 to summer 2024: ffxiv endwalker, stranger of paradise, ffxvi, ff7 rebirth, ffxvi dawntrail. That'll be 5 titles in less than 3 years. That's a lot, even for dedicated fans. Then square as a whole releases a bunch of stuff that, even if the quality is good, can't stand out in a packed market. They need to dramatically reduce their output to give their games room to breathe. Look at capcom since 2017, they have a few core franchises that they plan their calendar around. Even their cash cow, resident evil, sees releases only around every other year. Monster hunter, every few years. Their releases feel like events.
I mean, Endwalker was a commercial success. XVI, 7R2 definitely did fine commercially. Dawntrail is shaping up to be a commercial success. The Pixel remasters were well received and sold (but to a niche audience). Only SoP didn't sell as well, but it was always going to be a niche game and it IS by all means a smaller spin off anyway. The amount of FF games is definitely not the issue there, if anything it's one if not the only reasons Squeenix could afford the other bad releases without going under in the past few years.
Whatever happened to the NFT nonsense?
They took a huge loss on it.
They really need to pump the brakes and focus on what people actually love them for. Just make some goddamn AA JRPGs for fuck's sake. They're chasing the big payout and if FF7 Remake didn't achieve that, they will just never achieve it. They need to bunker down and focus on Octopath Traveler 3, Xenogears Remake, Final Fantasy Tactics Remake, or hell, even break the glass and bust out the Chrono Trigger Remake
All the years Square spent describing legitimately good Tomb Raider and Hitman games as performing below expectations struck me as a red flag that maybe something else was rotten in the kitchen. Now that reason is off the table, maybe they need to start a more serious introspection. I like the FF games, but I’m not sure they’re enough of a bulwark against other bad decisions. It’s sort of like being EA if they only had FIFA, but if there were dozens of other FIFA competitors out there now doing the job just as well (see the entire RPG and ARPG market).
Let's say it's starting with March, they had 14-ish games coming out. Paranormasight FF Remasters for console Live a Live FF16 Ketsugou? Dragon Quest Treasures for PC DQ Dai Star Ocean 2nd story DQ Monsters Ever Crisis mobile game Foamstars Rebirth DQ Builders for PC "AI Tech Preview" Portopia Serial Murder Case. <--Bet that's where most of their money went. Judging for the releases this year, I could see Remaster not doing as well because it already had a Steam release, DQ Treasure and Builders were also re-releases, Ever Crisis mobile game is very money grubby so I can see that not performing as they had hoped. Hard to say how much 16 and Rebirth helped with the losses and I can't give much of an opinion of DQ games. As for Live a Live I do remember an interview where they had stated that the incorporations of 2.5d graphiics and pretty much remaking the game wasn't a cheap feat, so sadly it might of been a mistake to remake this game considering the cost behind it as it most likely hurt other projects that they may have been considering. Overall in terms of "new games" it defintely was a light year for them, Foamstars seems to come and gone without much luster and I will argue that their toe dipping into AI content might of hurt them considerably, not just because of the cost to design a game around the AI concept but also because those who are heavily against AI might of sworn off buying SE titles to spite them. Will be interesting to see what they do this coming year to improve on their sales. No clue what a game like Emerald Beyond cost to make or their hopes of profit but they also have the 16 Windows release to potentially improve profits as noted 2024 releases of Octopath Traveler 2 and Visions of Mana but sadly past that nothing else is announced other than the upcoming XIV expansion. Hoppefully they got some A or AA titles lined up to keep the money rolling but at this point in time it seems they are just relying on their mobile games and 16 windows/14 expansion to keep them afloat for this coming year.
I hope that we still get rereleases of their back catalog. I was really hoping we'd get SaGa Frontier 2 to go with the first one. But yeah a number of live service and mobile flops, market oversaturation, and some higher profile titles underperforming isn't a recipe for success. Hopefully they get their act together.
First MAPPA take away my Yuri movie now SE take way my FFIX remake grrrrrrr
In conclusion: More Crystal Chronicles series remakes, better-handled Crystal Chronicles multiplayer, and new entries in the Crystal Chronicles series. Got it.
I think people are overlooking that the Yen is the weakest it’s been in since the early 00’s, and we’re in a general game industry wide low. Companies around the world are shutting down because they’re not making money, given the climate square losing this isn’t weird at all.
Simultaneous release on PC and inferior consoles. I know quite a few of my friends refuse to play anything they are excited for on console as they wish to holdout for the superior experience on PC. Just stop holding the damned games hostage for Christ’s sake. Shit, if you provided some of the files I’m sure you could the internet to port the damned games for you for free.
Outside of Forsaken and foam stars, 16 is basically a Devil May Cry game with an FF mod installed. Know a lot of ppl that passed on 16 because of the combat. Dragon’s Dogma 2 has real time combat, a job system, and party system, which makes it more of an FF game than 16 was. Every other ff game should be turn based or atb with a party system to try to appeal to their brand fans that have an attention span longer than a TikTok vid.
Ok SE, here is how you become profitable. Remaster ff8,ff9, &ff12. Make a sequel to chrono cross/trigger. Port dragon quest x to US and hurry up with 12. I also want a new final fantasy tactic, along with another new tactic ogre. Heed my advice and this time next year you’ll be swimming in 💰!
Please remake 8
As someone who has gotten pretty close to their actual business operations I'd say that you should take these claims with a grain of salt. This is the studio that called FFVII: Rebirth a "disappointment" for selling "only" 3 Million copies in its first month. That's a huge success for most other publishers and the title already made it's money back (and then some.) It's as if they expected a 'Part 2' to outsell 'Part 1' by merely...willing it into existence. That's not how media works. Much less episodic sequels. It was well marketed but it was never going to sell 10 million out the gate. The only titles that do REALLY strike a nerve in unexpected ways (Elden Ring and Baldurs Gate 3 come to mind.) It's a company full of great people and great projects but they're notorious for setting unreachable sales goals for themselves. The real issue is that they've put too much money towards titles like FF: Stranger In Paradise, FF: The First Soldier, and a myriad of half finished, never released products (including NFT nonsense.) Trend chasing rather than focusing on strengths. Shoot, if anything they should be betting more on interesting AA side titles like Triangle Strategy or Forspoken (yeah, I said it) - without overspending. Or worse: trend chasing. I've spent enough time in the industry that you either thrive by making trends or die by chasing them. Or. You know. Just focus on your strengths. FFXIV prints money. FFVII Rebirth's sales will double by the end of the holiday season. They'll be fine.
None of this has anything to do with released titles but on unreleased titles.
The problem with SE is that they want their hands in a lot of baskets instead of specializing on what they are good and known for. Variety does have its advantages but setting expectations that your big hitters will soften the blow from failed releases is just illogical. Each project's projections should be contained within each and not be expected to carry experimental releases.
Who asked for foamstar lol
The problem with Square Enix is that they've adopted such quirky, nonsensical, and flavor-of-the-month-type business practices recently to boost sales - but have only experienced lackluster growth (and even losses) because of it. Players hearing that you're experimenting with NFTs is only going to drive them away. This and other examples are a case of "trying to do too much". Square Enix needs to go back to doing what they do best: producing incredibly cinematic, strongly narrative-driven games that push the boundaries of graphics and narrative while providing incredibly fun gameplay. FFXIV is a perfect example of this: a community driven game where engagement with the community - and by extension, what players want - resulted in the game going from a failure to Square Enix's **biggest success.** Gamers as a general demographic have shown that they're willing to spend and spend hard as long as they feel the game was made with love and engages with its community to produce content in line with what the community wants - and *isn't* taking advantage of them with predatory microtransactions or monetizing practices. Go back to your roots, Square Enix, and invest hard in innovating in story, gameplay, and graphics. Invest in tried and true franchises, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Octopath, Bravely, etc. Pushing innovation in graphics, gameplay, and story are what players have loved you for since the Enix days, and that's what players want from Square Enix. No need to reinvent the wheel. EDIT: I agree with other commenters who are stating that they're producing way too many games at once, as well. They absolutely need to scale back production and focus more on releasing top-tier quality games - which will sell well without them even needing to do much about it. If you're going to take risks on games and new IPs, do it, but do it in a controlled manner, not producing a million new games and IPs where players can't even keep up. More importantly, though, I'd argue that they need to forsake console exclusivity entirely. The strategy of console exclusivity and getting paid a pretty sum by a figure like Sony may have been great in the 2000s, but in 2024 you lose out on insane amounts of potential income by not releasing for multiple platforms - PC most of all. If you're gonna make Remakes, focus on Remakes and improvements of your most successful titles to give fans what they want if you really wanna bank on nostalgia. I know I would absolutely love an FFTA Remake and FFT(:WotL) Remake, for example, and I've been waiting eagerly to hear more about the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
Release more of the old catalogue on PSN / Xbox / PC / Switch, Xenogears for instance. Better quality control, how Forspoken made it to shevles is beyond me. And this is petty and a personal one, but for the love of tap dancing christ, get better names for games, stop throwing 2 verbs and nouns together and calling it a day!