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PantherLotus: I like to compare faulty numbers!

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N

Nif

Member
rykomatsu said:
i wouldn't say expert, but it's a relatively common comment seen on 2ch at the very least, and well...i'm a native to say the least.
Click to expand...

I'm kidding. ;) It was a reference to the "Square-Enix should apologize" post during E3.
 
T

Troidal

Member
Sounds like Toyota, Panasonic, etc.

What's with the magic number 70%?

And the answer in Square-Enix's case is simple. Not enuf Final Fantasies.

XIII, Versus XIII, Agito XIII, get your arse in line!
 
P

PillowKnight

Member
viciouskillersquirrel said:
It seems to me that Square Enix's strategy was fundamentally broken by the Wii, but, like too many Japanese businessmen, the management team refuse to acknowledge that anything is wrong and continue unabated. Sure, they'll throw some token gestures towards fixing problems, but they'll be band-aid solutions to fundamental business model problems.

It'll take nothing short of an investor revolt to make them turn the ship around.

Their "This is the software era! WE are in control!" nonsense reminds me of when they thought that they were the kingmaker prior to the start of the generation. I remember someone from Square Enix saying in an interview something along the lines of: "We'll support the PS3, but we won't support them too much *wink*" .

Well, we all saw how that worked out.

EDIT: See also: over-reliance on FF & DQ to stay afloat.
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:lol Haven't been in these threads in a long time. But it's good to see fanboyism is still doing well.
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Hcoregamer00 said:
Oh man, this is insane.

You mean releasing less games means that they will sell less??

This is news to me, next you will tell me that Japan is south of Korea.
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wait a minute..... what?
 
J

Jonnyram

Member
They have actually spent a large part of 2008 strengthening their brand overseas. I'm not sure a Japan-centric discussion is entirely relevant, and certainly not what Square Enix is focusing on.
 
W

Wollan

Member
I remember when Square Enix was hot. Enjoying record breaking sales, making 100million dollars movies and pushing cg tech from offices in Japan and Hawaii, starting up mmo's and releasing exciting games worldwide every quarter. This gen just killed it all.
 
L

lupinko

Member
Aselith said:
Errr, isn't Japan largely shifting towards the handheld market?
Click to expand...

Yep, while the Wii and PS2 are holding the fort for consoles, it's become handheld island there now.
 
F

freddy

Banned
Era 3 is quite interesting especially the date given . 2010.

What will happen in 2010 to enable the content era to begin?

I can see benefits for software makers in making short downloadable episodic content as it would shorten their production cycle so they don't have to wait as long for their efforts to see profits. They remove some of the middle men.

Hmm... which console manufacturers have been pushing the digitial distribution envelope the hardest? Will it be delivered in a different way to what the majority imagined?
 
T

The_Endless

Member
I don't think that Square-Enix will be that concerned about a slump in 2008 calendar year (Jan-Dec) sales/revenues........ SE's all-important financial year 2008 runs from April 08 to March 09, which will include sales from the mammoth Dragon Quest IX and FF Dissidia, bumping them up to and maybe even conceivably eclipsing FY07 unit sales.
 
W

Wollan

Member
freddy said:
What will happen in 2010 to enable the content era to begin?
Click to expand...
Maybe Square is aiming for their next big MMO product to be a launch title for the next wave of consoles (though 2010 would be a bit too early for that).
 
D

Defuser

Member
As the rest pointed out, watch how SE will rape 09.

KH 358/2,KH BBS,FFXIII demo and maybe FFXIII?,DQ9,Third Birthday, FFCC:Echos of time
 
L

legend166

Member
The_Endless said:
I don't think the Square-Enix will be that concerned about a slump in 2008 calendar year (Jan-Dec) sales/revenues........ SE's all-important financial year 2008 runs from April 08 to March 09, which will include sales from the mammoth Dragon Quest IX and FF Dissidia, bumping them up to and maybe even conceivably eclipsing FY07 unit sales.
Click to expand...


That would by FY09, no?
 
T

TheGrayGhost

Banned
PillowKnight said:
:lol Haven't been in these threads in a long time. But it's good to see fanboyism is still doing well.
Click to expand...

What are talking about? Game developers like Square-Enix are at risk the most because of Wii's paradigm shift. That's a pretty fair assessment, I think.
 
C

cvxfreak

Member
No FF games in Japan this year (yet)?

Crazy. I certainly hadn't noticed.

EDIT: Wait, Crystal Chronicles Wii. But still, when I moved to Japan last year, a new FF game had been released every month until 2008.
 
L

loosus

Banned
Jonnyram said:
They have actually spent a large part of 2008 strengthening their brand overseas. I'm not sure a Japan-centric discussion is entirely relevant, and certainly not what Square Enix is focusing on.
Click to expand...
Really? I live in this place called "overseas," and they seem more irrelevant than ever.
 
T

Troidal

Member
freddy said:
Era 3 is quite interesting especially the date given . 2010.

What will happen in 2010 to enable the content era to begin?

I can see benefits for software makers in making short downloadable episodic content as it would shorten their production cycle so they don't have to wait as long for their efforts to see profits. They remove some of the middle men.

Hmm... which console manufacturers have been pushing the digitial distribution envelope the hardest? Will it be delivered in a different way to what the majority imagined?
Click to expand...

Unlike Sega and Namco who have other means of making money, Square used to not have any other means.

Square has always tried to get into the IP content business since the PS1 era with the incorporation of Digicube, for example, releasing strategy guides and Final Fantasy books on their own but failed in the end. The merger with Enix revitalized their vision since Enix always was strong in that field, they have their own set of publications like the GanGan monthly magazines and a lineup of manga comic books. So it's natural for them to pursue this market, and this time in digital format.

In regards to games, they already are starting to do episodic contents on cell phones, take a look at Front Mission 2089 (or whatever year it was), Before Crisis FFVII and Final Fantasy IV The After for example. Hopefully they'll be able to integrate episodic contents into consoles and handhelds as well, but will PSN and XBL be the ideal platform (taking into account license fees, certification, etc.)?
 
P

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
freddy said:
Era 3 is quite interesting especially the date given . 2010.

What will happen in 2010 to enable the content era to begin?

I can see benefits for software makers in making short downloadable episodic content as it would shorten their production cycle so they don't have to wait as long for their efforts to see profits. They remove some of the middle men.

Hmm... which console manufacturers have been pushing the digitial distribution envelope the hardest? Will it be delivered in a different way to what the majority imagined?
Click to expand...

I want to make sure I didn't mistranslate/misquote what was being said:
http://www.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/ar/20080808_01.pdf (page 8-9)

Stage 1: The era of hardware manufacturers (industry conception to the early-2000s)
Stage 2: The era of publishers (mid 2000s to early-2010s)
Stage 3: The era of media and content market convergence (from the mid-2010s)

Basically, he goes on to explain that competition will increase exponentially due to content convergence (crowd-sourcing). Fascinating read, if a little bit much of the square-tinted glasses.
 
S

Sean

Banned
This guy called it a few months ago:

PLYAhMP.png
 
F

Flying_Phoenix

Banned
PantherLotus said:
Discussion
PS3 or Wii gets it worse from Square Enix?
Would you rather have the most capable system with zero Square Enix awesome-ass games, or would you rather have the highest selling system with a single, lame-ass waggle game rip-off of an actually decent series?
Click to expand...

I think it really depends on the game. If they're making something like Skies of Arcadia or Persona (YES I KNOW THESE AREN'T SQUARE-ENIX GAMES) then I think that being on the PS3 would just be overkill with inconsistency (amazing jaw dropping graphics with such unimmersive (technical wise) gameplay, as well as that those games rely on the players imagination to create a morph the world around them. I think that the Wii would be far better for those types of games.

However for games like Final Fantasy that are made to be cutting edge then I think that the PS3/360/PC combo is a no brainer.
 
E

Esch

Banned
They've just been releasing boring looking software and remakes/spinoffs so much lately. It's been like years since i looked at an upcoming S-E project and really had a jaw drop.

That's just my opinion though.
 
M

M°°nblade

Banned
Muppet345 said:
Square just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXIII for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.

Square, publicly apologize and cancel FFXIII for 360 or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...

OMG this guy was right after all.

edit beaten.
 
D

donny2112

Member
It looks like the numbers are comparing full 2007 year + how much games sold in 2008 to 2008 through mid-November (i.e. cutting out the biggest month of the year) which would significantly skew the results. It would also be much more illuminating to compare historical numbers back further to see if this year is normal or not. Here's a (hopefully) fairer comparison using what numbers I have.

Square/Enix/Square-Enix yearly sales January - September:

2002: 2.41 million <- Kingdom Hearts
2003: 4.85 million <- FFX-2, SO3, DQM
2004: 2.63 million <- DQV (remake)
2005: 1.92 million <- Romancing SaGa
2006: 5.67 million <- FFXII, FFIII (remake), DoC:FFVII
2007: 4.54 million <- DQM:J, CC:FFVII, FFXII:RW, DQS
2008: 2.03 million <- DQV (remake)

* Square-Enix is down 55% (not 74%) with my available numbers.
* This isn't their lowest 9 month period in recent memory (2005).
* Comparing it to the last time when the only big seller they had was a DQV remake, they're down 23% through September.

i.e. This is not something to get greatly worked up about.
 
T

The_Endless

Member
legend166 said:
That would by FY09, no?
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure if the current period is FY08 or FY09, but the point still stands: Square Enix doesn't view unit sales/revenue from a calendar year perspective. It views all releases from an April-March financial year perspective.....

... which is why it's highly unlikely that Square Enix will ever release a mainline Final Fantasy and a mainline Dragon Quest in the same financial year going forward, simply to ensure revenues stay relatively constant year-on-year. Why do you think the DQ IV/V/VI DS remakes are spaced the way they are? DQ IV DS and DQ V DS were released in Nov 07 and July 08, respectively, in two separate financial years.... DQ VI DS is almost guaranteed to be released post April-09, which will allow SE is book the relatively constant sales/revenues from the three remakes across three different financial years.
 
M

M°°nblade

Banned
BishopLamont said:
People actually believe what Muppet is saying?
Click to expand...
You think?

Anyway I'm more interested in this:

Stage 1: The era of hardware manufacturers (industry conception to the early-2000s)
Stage 2: The era of publishers (mid 2000s to early-2010s)
Stage 3: The era of media and content market convergence (from the mid-2010s)

What do they mean with media and content convergence? One console future?
 
K

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
M°°nblade said:
You think?

Anyway I'm more interested in this:

Stage 1: The era of hardware manufacturers (industry conception to the early-2000s)
Stage 2: The era of publishers (mid 2000s to early-2010s)
Stage 3: The era of media and content market convergence (from the mid-2010s)

What do they mean with media and content convergence? One console future?
Click to expand...

I wish for it.
 
F

freddy

Banned
Basically what the are saying is that movies, music and games will all be readily available on a wide range of systems from Handhelds, Phones, Consoles and Pdas etc. They want to position themselves to able to compete for peoples entertainment dollar amid the increased competition.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
It's not surprising to see SE selling less copies if they also release less titles. I'm surprised though to see how bad their the bulk of their DS titles perform. With so many games selling less than 50,000 copies I wonder if its worth their while to do so many titles. It would be better to concentrate on a few biggies that get guaranteed huge sales instead of all these titles no one wants.

BTW I'm again surprised by the bad business sense of Japanese companies... SE hasn't released ANY titles for the PS3 so far, yet they did publish two FFXI titles for the 360 in 2007 which became their worst selling titles in Japan. The only logical conclusion would be to invest even more in the 360: two titles in 2008, one in early 2009. Both 2008 titles have bombed so far. The Last Remnant hit the (online) bargain bins only one week after release...
 
A

AmMortal

Banned
ymmv said:
It's not surprising to see SE selling less copies if they also release less titles. I'm surprised though to see how bad their the bulk of their DS titles perform. With so many games selling less than 50,000 copies I wonder if its worth their while to do so many titles. It would be better to concentrate on a few biggies that get guaranteed huge sales instead of all these titles no one wants.
Click to expand...


Yep.

Man, I really hope this pushes them to do a remake VII :D

I HAVE DREAM
 
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