Stop me if you’ve heard this before but it seems that once again, Square Enix is not happy with its current sales forecast.
“Reviews of Forspoken, which we released on January 24, 2023, have been challenging,” said Square Enix’s president Yosuke Matsuda. “However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future.
“That said, its sales have been lacklustre, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings.”
A month after launching Forspoken around the world, we learned that Luminous Productions would merge with Square Enix this May.
“Square Enix Co, Ltd has developed numerous AAA high-definition games and possesses a wealth of intellectual property and content,” the company said about the merger “Luminous Productions Co, Ltd. is meanwhile equipped not only with AAA title development capabilities but also technical expertise in areas such as game engine development.
“Combining the two entities will further enhance the Group’s ability to develop HD games.”
Meanwhile, over the last 12 months, Square Enix has released dozens of smaller titles including Babylon’s Fall, Strange of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, Live A Live, Various Daylife, Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden, The Diofield Chronicle, Valkyrie Elysium, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Harvestella, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Romancing Saga Minstrel Song, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII -Reunion-, Forspoken, Theatrythm Final Bar Line, Octopath Traveler 2, and Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo.
Square Enix is famous for killing franchises that do not meet the lofty sales goals the publisher often has in mind. This has led to the demise of franchises like Deus Ex, Sleeping Dogs, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the case of the last year’s multitude of titles, perhaps Square Enix released far too many games in a short span. This past fall alone included a deluge of video games and they were not properly spaced out to get the most satisfaction out of them. Mere weeks apart, several games didn’t have enough time to breathe before something else came along to replace it.
