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Breaking News: Yoichi Wada resigns as Square Enix CEO, likely being replaced by CFO
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Acquiescence
Member
A simplistic viewpoint here, but if this means less games featuring Lightning then good.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Sales that people plan are progressive.
Having a fire sale mere weeks/months after release to clear stock that you expected to sell at $60 is a disappointment.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
clay_ghost
Member
legacyzero
Banned
So what does this mean for Square, and more importantly to me, what does it mean for FINAL FANTASY?
Drastic change has been needed at Square for some time now.
This PLEEEEEEEASE this. You just couldn't beat that era.
Drastic change has been needed at Square for some time now.
Theres a light at the end of every tunnel.
This PLEEEEEEEASE this. You just couldn't beat that era.
Sleeping dogs made a ton of money back on dlc and it was an easy publish considering it was mostly done
Also what doesn't bomb these days?
zomgbbqftw
Banned
$40m was written off on the sale of their F2P division, $40m was written down on their currently held assets (likely FFXIV) and there was some "other" extraordinary loss for around $10m. The board can blame NA+EU as much as they want and try and shift Eidos into the spotlight and make it look like Wada is leaving because he bought Eidos, but it clearly isn't the case. They are trying to take the heat off the under performing Japanese division which hasn't released anything of note for a long, long time now (FFXII was the last good mainline FF game which released 7 years ago).
This is not the fault of Eidos, Eidos brings in cash which is more than can be said for Squaresoft at the moment.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
The video game company Nintendo, has good online infrastructure. :|I don't think anyone can use "Nintendo" and "good online infrastructure" in the same sentence and keep a straight face.
:/
Heart Attack
Member
They did? Do you have a link for that?
I wouldn't be surprised if the best solution was something akin to THQ's fate: cherry pick what they want to keep (Deus Ex surprised them, so Eidos Montreal could be renamed and kept), while those like IO Interactive get sold off to whoever wants them if not outright shuttered.
Takamura-San
Member
I welcome the Nomura Overlord.
Best leader.
Best leader.
All you're talking about is digital versus physical retail. No one plans Sleeping Dogs at $30 unless it's not selling well.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Enix to secede, form own Dragon Quest state.
Femmeworth
Banned
I think they are for political reasons. In actuality, I think they are mediocre.
More like drop the Square crap. They DID have a slightly larger stake.
I think they're enjoyable enough, even if they're not what I want from FF. At least it's a fairly elastic series and XIII-2 was already backing off of some of XIII's garbage gameplay wise, otherwise I'd probably be much colder to it.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
I don't think anyone can use "Nintendo" and "good online infrastructure" in the same sentence and keep a straight face.
And yet SE pushed for an MMO to be published on the Wii in the shape of DQX and suffered a massive drop off in sales. We don't know the current activity and payment rates for it, but if they were any good SE would have told us. Their silence on the matter is very telling.
Tizoc
Member
I see, but if someone could explain this please, and it may sound like a silly question, but wouldn't selling to retailers count as well...an income?
I think you're confused about something here. In financial terms an "extraordinary loss" is not a "huge loss" but rather a "unique one time loss attributed to special circumstances". The extraordinary loss here is 10 billion yen. The sluggish sales contributed to their other losses (about 3 billion yen since the net loss is projected to be 13 billion yen). It has nothing to do with the extraordinary loss.
The 10 billion yen loss is not money they lost from poor sales, but rather completely attributed to their reform and restructure. What this usually means is they're writing stuff off as a loss because of a change in direction or management, which could either be due to layoffs or in the case of entertainment companies it could be significant product cancellations resulting in the invested development cost in those products being written off.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
I wonder if it's Wada's fault that they tried really hard to appease Westerners by making pseudo Western titles like lolMindjack and lolGunloco and lolFrontMissionEvolved.
Really? People bought phones long before plans for the Vita were drafted.
Vita's sales are due to several other factors.
Price
Piss Poor Marketing
No Gta, FF, Wrpg, real cod game etc.
all served up on a bun of negative press & underrated software reviews. 3ds reviews seem to be very over rated.
That new Luigi game could be fun as hell but looks jaggy as shit. SM3d land looks a ton better.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Ok, but these games are retail. They shipped what they thought was a sure-seller. It was not. It was disaster.
If the argument is that they should have shipped digitally to avoid stock problems, and allow for more reactive pricing, that's a different thread.
I told you that is not always true. I "showed up" for 13-2 and have no interest in finishing the "trilogy" (roflmao).
Aquamarine
Member
Oh yes. I just read another article that mentioned the 10 billion is from the restructuring.
Breaking news indeed! I'd say finally given his recent results, but still shocking news. Seriously.
This year lineup seems to be far better than last year overall, so probably that had to be the first sign of changes. Now, bring Bravely Default here (as the producer teased many times recently on Twitter) and it'll be a fantastic lineup for the West too XD
This year lineup seems to be far better than last year overall, so probably that had to be the first sign of changes. Now, bring Bravely Default here (as the producer teased many times recently on Twitter) and it'll be a fantastic lineup for the West too XD
Takamura-San
Member
Has anyone posted impressions from the JP forums? Or Twitter?
I believe this is good news for them too.... right?
I believe this is good news for them too.... right?
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It's funny when you line up all those titles in a row, because I'm pretty sure they generated a total reaction of "DO NOT CARE" from both western and japanese audiences. Who were they for?
I have little doubt that while games like Hitman probably underperformed, possibly by a very disappointing level, the two that got released of the three were undoubtedly MASSIVE failures. Damn, if SE were smarter with Front Mission they probably would've just looked at Valkyria Chronicles or something, imagine something similar to that but with mechas you can customize (even if they provide easy options as an out for people who don't want to fiddle.)
The hypothetical market that execs WANTED to hit, when in reality they're just bad attempts at fitting in with the AAA crowd.
RumblingRosco
Member
Theres a light at the end of every tunnel.
I think you have it backwards.
THEY'RE BACK BABY!
Instead of looking at it as "OMG S-E SALES WERE REALLY FUCKING BAD" the much more interesting question is "what did they write off which amounted to 100 million dollars".
This move literally killed HD JRPG Gaming.
GhaleonQ
Member
I try to react only when people I love leave, but let me write that I loathe Wada more than almost anyone in entertainment, that I'm glad he's resigned as a loser, and that I hope he doesn't so much as wave hello to anyone involved in video game development for the rest of his life.
He is the worst video game executive ever, and though I doubt "reconstruction" (whatever that means) will turn out well and the financial reports are indeed grim, the company is indisputably better without him.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=44131749#post44131749
You're an optimistic fool, Jonnyram, but I want to believe you!
I don't disagree for some, but I hardly think the majority of the reactions are bloodlust.
Has the video game industry been around long enough to have case studies on stuff like this, even though the economics of the 1980s and 1990s are not the economics of the 2000s and 2010s? Does anyone know where to find something like that, or are video game companies too secretive?
He is the worst video game executive ever, and though I doubt "reconstruction" (whatever that means) will turn out well and the financial reports are indeed grim, the company is indisputably better without him.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=44131749#post44131749
You're an optimistic fool, Jonnyram, but I want to believe you!
I don't disagree for some, but I hardly think the majority of the reactions are bloodlust.
Instead of looking at it as "OMG S-E SALES WERE REALLY FUCKING BAD" the much more interesting question is "what did they write off which amounted to 100 million dollars".
Has the video game industry been around long enough to have case studies on stuff like this, even though the economics of the 1980s and 1990s are not the economics of the 2000s and 2010s? Does anyone know where to find something like that, or are video game companies too secretive?
Instead of looking at it as "OMG S-E SALES WERE REALLY FUCKING BAD" the much more interesting question is "what did they write off which amounted to 100 million dollars".
Versus...
;b
clay_ghost
Member
They are allways good.I think you have it backwards.
THEY'RE BACK BABY!
SE's real problem is the time it takes to get a locally developed game out the door. They've been working on FF XIV and FF vs XIII with very large development teams for 6+ years in each case and so far it's only been money down the drain.
However you want to slice it, I just think it's still overblown. They try to sell as many copies as they can to retailers. That's how it works.
I got Deus Ex HR: + all the DLC + 9 other SQEX games on Amazon digital for only $10 this year. That's like $1 for Deus Ex. No one talks about that though, they just trash XIII-2. That's my point.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It's interesting seeing the masses of people come into this thread declare their distaste for Wada.
Did anyone on earth like this guy at the helm?
Stockholder and fanboy alike
Did anyone on earth like this guy at the helm?
Stockholder and fanboy alike
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Pretty much. Their internal development teams seem to have lost the plot entirely under Wada.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
They also greenlit Drag-on Dragoon 3, which is probably one of the biggest surprises this year.
Wait? They sold off the f2p division? That's huge seeing that a lot of their games recently were f2p, especially from Japan.
Giving the 360 a handful of exclusive jrpgs was definitely a disastrous move for the company.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Femmeworth
Banned
Unsold copies at retailers might not be bad for SE immediately, but it would make the retailers more conservative with their orders for future titles like the sequel. Also in-store promotions etc. At least that's my take on it, and that's just the external effects.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Yes.
Most of the jrpg audience are on PS and having exclusive to new console is just plain stupid. The games bombed both in Japan and here and Square decided to play it safe for the rest of the generation with handheld games and FF.
Whats the last jrpg from square thats not FF on consoles?
GitarooMan
Member
Kingdom Hearts 3 maybe will come out this decade now? Talk about leaving money on the table. Square-Enix's complete inability to efficiently produce console titles this gen has been ridiculous, rivaled only by SCEJ.
Aquamarine
Member
I wouldn't be surprised if Square Enix has spent $100 million so far working on JUST Versus XIII, considering all of the excessive delays (and rumored transformation into Final Fantasy 15).
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I can see what you're hinting at. It's okay for titles to have variable pricing, and in many cases its considered a healthy business model.
But again, they thought their shipment of FFXIII-2 would equate to relative sales. It did not. Aside from the fact that they probably made (diminished) profit off these shipped copies... the main point is that XIII-2 did far worse than they thought it would.
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