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Square Enix: Forspoken Sales Were Lackluster, Many Small and Mid Games Underperformed

Although, to top things off, Square Enix also hopes you "...look forward to the blockchain games we plan to launch in FY2024/3 and thereafter."
Funny GIF
 
I just bought some Panorama visual novel they just put out yesterday that no one is talking about. Some people are saying its a GOTY contender.

Bought Diofield, Triangle Strategy, Star Ocean, Stranger in Paradise, Chrono Cross, Voice of Cards, Dungeon Encounters. Bought Octopath 2.

Price on Tactics Ogre and Harvestella was absurd.

Skipped Valkyrie Elysium. Skipped Front Mission 1. Skipped Centennial Case. Skipped Forspoken.

Their AA games are some of the best things they make.
 
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Not surprised to be honest. Most of them are good games, don’t get me wrong, but releasing them within a timeframe of like two months was an absolutely stupid move.

I haven’t played Forspoken yet but will probably pick it up once it goes on sale or joins PS Plus.
 
Honestly the sheer number of smaller games they released is kind of ridiculous. There are like 5 games that I still plan to get to, but even if I only played those games it would take me a few months to get through them since they are all RPGs.

And release Star Ocean 2 already ffs. The Japanese version exists, an English translation exists, get Sony to pay for the manpower for someone to combine the two and throw it on Plus as the big Premium classic game for a month.

I just bought some Panorama visual novel they just put out yesterday that no one is talking about. Some people are saying its a GOTY contender.
Paranomasight? I've just been deleting every marketing email I got about it without reading, I didn't realize it would actually be good. Not that it matters since it isn't getting a Playstation release, but I'll have to keep an eye on it in case it does.
 

Dr_Ifto

Member
It's disappointing to hear titles like Diofield, Harvestella, and Tactics Ogre likely underperformed, but they all launched literally a couple of weeks apart at full price and not too much marketing, so I'm not sure what they expected.
You know what sucks, I forgot Diofield even existed and I wanted to play it. I also bought Tactics Ogre, and have yet to play it....
 
Honestly the sheer number of smaller games they released is kind of ridiculous. There are like 5 games that I still plan to get to, but even if I only played those games it would take me a few months to get through them since they are all RPGs.

And release Star Ocean 2 already ffs. The Japanese version exists, an English translation exists, get Sony to pay for the manpower for someone to combine the two and throw it on Plus as the big Premium classic game for a month.


Paranomasight? I've just been deleting every marketing email I got about it without reading, I didn't realize it would actually be good. Not that it matters since it isn't getting a Playstation release, but I'll have to keep an eye on it in case it does.
I know almost nothing about it. What I've heard;
  • Recommended to go in blind
  • Famous artist?
  • Some people who've played think it's extremely good.
 

Faust

Perpetually Tired
Staff Member
Excluding Forspoken, I loved all their games they recently released. Harvestella was fun, Diofeld was fun, Triangle Strategy and Octopath 2 were amazing, I adore dungeon encounters, voice of cards, and Valkyrie Elysium.

Tactics Ogre is fantastic as well, even if I don’t like the smoothing of the pixel art.

I would gladly pay full price for an A to AA game from them than most of their AAA titles any day of the week.

If anything, they releases too many games I want and delayed their physical releases. I prefer to get physical English Asia copies from Play Asia typically so I am 2-3 months behind their digital launches.
 
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SHA

Member
I think people just started beating their old library, they aren't interested unless there's something equivalent to what they have.
 

Labadal

Member
I want to buy Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Diofield Chronicle, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force, but not at their current price.

The Valkyrie Elysium demo didn't sell me on the game.

There have been several posts by people on GAF questioning the release timing of these games. All released close to each other, with basically no marketing, and at high prices.

My just hope I can get one last SaGa game out of Kawazu.
 
It fits right into gamepass what do you mean?
Considering that you're straight up trolling and there's a mod commenting like 2 posts above you, maybe knock it off. Has literally nothing to do with the thread. You guys argue constantly that retail is the only healthy future of the medium, that Sony gamers like paying for their games, that Sony helps with development, that Sony helps with marketing. Well this game didn't turn out well. Now you argue it should be on Gamepass. Why are you bringing this up?
 
Considering that you're straight up trolling and there's a mod commenting like 2 posts above you, maybe knock it off. Has literally nothing to do with the thread. You guys argue constantly that retail is the only healthy future of the medium, that Sony gamers like paying for their games, that Sony helps with development, that Sony helps with marketing. Well this game didn't turn out well. Now you argue it should be on Gamepass. Why are you bringing this up?

Why is gamepass being brought up at all? Only reason you idiots keep bringing up forspoken is because of the exact reasons you listed above because of it being an playstation exclusive, you’re not slick and i dont care if you run and report me to the mods. You know what you’re doing as well
 
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Why is gamepass being brought up at all? Only reason you idiots keep bringing up forspoken is because of the exact reasons you listed above because of it being an playstation exclusive, you’re not slick and i dont care if you run and report me to the mods. You know what you’re doing as well
Dude, I don't have to report you and I don't really report anyone except in extremely rare occurrences - back when we had a politics forum. I'm trying to talk to you like a normal person and tell you to cut it out. How about we just leave it at that.

I didn't talk about Forspoken much at all. I'm much more interested in their AA games.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Financially Square will be fine, I believe they have a hefty amount of cash and constant revenue from the likes of FFXIV and a few others. Their bigger hitters will also bring home the bacon over the next couple of years, FFXVI, FFVIIR, DQXII, KH4 etc...

However they really need to put an end to this bleed and produce fewer games, but of higher quality. As well as bring in better talent into their smaller production units.

Something like Stranger of Paradise, deserved a higher budget and more resources for example, which it could have got if they weren't funding about 10 other projects on the side. It likely would have been a hit then given the fundamental basis of the game is well recieved.
 
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Ar¢tos

Member
Square: This game will be a PC+Switch only, that game will be PC+ Mobile only, that one PC+Xbox, that one PC+Playstation and that one will be PC+Switch+Playstation

Also Square : Wahhhhhhh! Why don't our games sell tons of copies?? This isn't profitable!!!
 

Rat Rage

Member
Square Enix get what they deserve. Like so many legendary video game studios before them, they've become victim to the devil of too much money & corporatism.
It's a universal disease that plagues all of humanity. The only tiny chance they had to have prevented this, was. to never have grown so rapidly and stayed small as a company.
Realistically, they could've gone handheld only, focusing on their former strength in gameplay, storytelling, world creation, thus not being forces to fully compete in the next gen console arms race, but they chose the way of quick money & corporatism, abandoning their own identity by forever chasing trends.
Instead of being kings in one domain, they chose to become mediocre trash in another.
But it's hard to blame them, because preventing that quality decline would've taken a lot of wisdom, which they clearly didn't have back then.

I'm still looking forward to Front Mission 2 Remake (and 3), because there seems to be at least a very tiny group of actually passionate developers left at this company.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
In hindsight it seems Luminous problems might have been connected to Tabata leaving in 2018. The guy got a pretty raw deal having basically pulled together FFXV from the ashes and it selling decently, but then management still canning half the DLC. Next he sets up Luminous with a small team (20-30 people) presumably gets Forspoken under way, but then leaves/is removed less than 6 months later.

Its pretty obvious when a guy sets up a new internal studio then departs shortly after to become CEO of his own studio outside of SE that he wasn't given either the freedom or backing he was after.
 
Dude, I don't have to report you and I don't really report anyone except in extremely rare occurrences - back when we had a politics forum. I'm trying to talk to you like a normal person and tell you to cut it out. How about we just leave it at that.

I didn't talk about Forspoken much at all. I'm much more interested in their AA games.
You know you were in the past as Remember Spinal, with interesting posts but hiden console wars messages inside of them. Lately you have turned around and you are just an interesting poster, what about to send a message to him/her what you did to improve. It's shame to lose people with good takes and interesting opinions because they have always to protect for some reason their brand of choice.
 

stn

Member
I'm not surprised. Like, I love Stranger of Paradise, for example, but the average gamer will be turned off due to the graphics feeling last-gen. Same with Star Ocean - very solid game but it looks mediocre and runs poorly. Based on what I tried with the Elysium demo, it has the same issues.

I'm still playing Stranger and Star, and plan to purchase Elysium, but what was Square expecting, honestly?
 

Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
Forspoken_20220309_12.webp

The briefing primarily discusses the financial results for Q1-Q3 of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, focusing on the most recent quarter of October through December 2022. However, given that the briefing itself took place a week after the release of Forspoken, Square Enix also makes comment about the recent RPG from the soon-defunct Luminous Productions.

On page 3 of the outline, while a specific title is not mentioned, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda (who will leave the position next Summer) stated the following about the slate of "small and mid-sized titles" that released in the current fiscal year.
Hopefully, they'll go belly up they deserve it for what they did to FF starting with X. Don't @ me and yes I'm triggered. 🤣
 

Majukun

Member
well with that kind of quality it's unsurprising...square really needs to put their shit together...and they even sold their best studios fairly recently
 

OuterLimits

Member
Ugh. This sucks. Not about Forspoken, but the many quality AA titles they were releasing. Granted, towards the end of the year they were just releasing many of them not far apart. Not sure how they expected that to work well.

They better make another Triangle Strategy though. Brilliant game.
 

UnNamed

Banned
From what I played, Forspoken is not a bad game, and there are some good elements technically like the magics, all that sparks and so on.

But you can't release a game in this state and say this is a next gen game only because you put some raytracing here and there. FFXV in 2016 was better and more coherent.

And yes, there is a ocean between being irreverent and being annoying.
 

Gambit2483

Member
Now I see why they changed leadership. Way too many mistakes have been made....hopefully new management puts an end to that block chain bullshit.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Forspoken was advertised as marquee ps exclusive. Why are the graphics so rotten on that platform? Especially compared to cross gen lookers like horizon fw
 
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