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Square Enix reports 13.7b yen loss, 99.7% yoy decrease in games income
- Thread starter Pooya
- Start date
SlipperyFishes
Banned
What's going to kill Square Enix is focusing their key titles on the PS4 (if true). Not going to all three platforms deprives them of serious revenue and given the platforms all share a common sense of shares architecture it's inexcusable that FF15 may only be a PS4 title.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Huh? They own Eidos so they're publishing their own games.
What titles were you thinking of?
Glass Rebel
Member
So why do you think they bought them? Just to burn money? Tomb Raider Underworld still sold over 2m and is one of the most recognizable characters in gaming. If they hadn't expected some good results they wouldn't have bought Eidos.
Both sides are struggling. May I remind you of Final Fantasy XIV that has almost completely stalled their Japanese output?
They haven't done that. SEE still answered to Wada. Sadly Wada was a hack.
UberTag
Member
Pretty much this right here.
When every profitable company under the sun is going cross-gen with all of their releases for as long as humanly possible, Square Enix putting all of their eggs in any basket is a recipe for destruction. Especially a Japanese-centric/developed RPG on an expensive console when their own market and primary customer base has largely divorced themselves from console gaming.
If they're exclusive to anything it should be to 3DS... or to PS3/Vita cross-buy. No other scenario leads to a warm and happy place for them.
which is practically what a publisher does.
I mean to focus on their own teams.
Oh, and reviving Cavia and giving them all the funds they want. Although, that is somewhat in the makings.
I honestly do not think it would make a difference unless they released it for the PS3 which probably won't happen for various reasons.
Canis lupus
Member
Man, I completely forgot about the Enix games, but Im not sure another DQ will come out on consoles.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Again. Eidos is one of their own teams. If the rebranded it Square Enix UK would that help?
Well....
Seriously though they needed a publisher's arm in the western market because their endeavour before weren't that great.
No need to talk about the franchises they got as a bonus, it was supposed to give them a better presence in places they were selling their wares.
They're a publisher, they publish stuffs after all.
Exactly both sides are in the shitter, that's my point.
Well considering they did fuck all to direct the Eidos ship, I'd say they let them to fend for themselves.
Wada was bad but that wasn't a secret that got blown out in the open on the wake of his firing either.
You mean like the latest one that was released on 2 home consoles already?
The Square I love died long ago... they can only blame themselves. I'd love to see them churn out classics once again but there's clearly some major talent drain that's gone on at SE over the last 10, 12 years or so.
If they think moving more and more into mobile/social games is going to turn it around for them then they are truly lost for me.
They seem to be putting a lot of resources into FFXIV and I am totally certain that this is the wrong call on their part. It already had a botched launch, there is zero change of it turning around. They should have totally rebranded it with a new name and started fresh, continuing with the FFXIV name was only their first mistake. I guess they don't pay attention to Nintendo's misbranding follys.
If they think moving more and more into mobile/social games is going to turn it around for them then they are truly lost for me.
They seem to be putting a lot of resources into FFXIV and I am totally certain that this is the wrong call on their part. It already had a botched launch, there is zero change of it turning around. They should have totally rebranded it with a new name and started fresh, continuing with the FFXIV name was only their first mistake. I guess they don't pay attention to Nintendo's misbranding follys.
You're doing that on purpose, right?
It's a "foreign" developer they simply bought. They just OWN it, that doesn't make it "their" team. I'm speaking of the pre-enix time, where Square was actually delivering quality products by producing good games that sold because they were good games, and not because they tinker with some watered down magical "mass streamlined" AAAAA title ala Tomb Rider and co that are expected to sell 84124124153 googleplex units within the launch week to break even.
Magicpaint
Member
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Give me BDFF and it's sequel(if that even happens) so I can leave you behind forever.
My prediction of Square becoming a handheld only developer slowly comes closer to reality.
My goodness how the mighty have fallen.
Poor Eidos, they get all the blame when Square's own output is abysmal.
And the sad thing is their handheld output is great but titles like Type 0(platform choice wasn't the best decision in retrospect) and BDFF they don't want to bring out and for BDFF much like Dragon Quest Nintendo needs to kick down their door to get things done.
My prediction of Square becoming a handheld only developer slowly comes closer to reality.
My goodness how the mighty have fallen.
Poor Eidos, they get all the blame when Square's own output is abysmal.
And the sad thing is their handheld output is great but titles like Type 0(platform choice wasn't the best decision in retrospect) and BDFF they don't want to bring out and for BDFF much like Dragon Quest Nintendo needs to kick down their door to get things done.
Neko Mimi Mode
Member
Vastly reducing the potential market you are appealing to wouldn't make a difference?
That said, it's SE's own stubbornness, mixed with gross incompetence, that is the sole reason they are in such dire straits today. Worse still they seem completely unable or unwilling to actually address the issues, choosing to focus on the scapegoat of disappointing sales from Western games, almost as if it wasn't their fault.
Hemorrhaging money on ill-conceived attempts to revive Final Fantasy's XIII and XIV and betting the farm on there not being a fan backlash over shovelware mobile games seem to be far greater issues they adamantly refuse to even acknowledge. They'll play it safe, perhaps understandably, on localizing Type 0 etc but they'll throw money to the wind for games far less anticipated. It's bizarre.
You're like blaming Sony's performance on Sony Santa Monica....
new thread for slides http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=556968 some good bits there :b
Apples and oranges.
You get the idea, you're blaming the poor performance of a big publisher on a dev team that's slacking off.
I mean Square Enix is so much bigger than just a FF factory it's not even funny.
Sammy Samusu
Member
Serves them well for ignoring DQ7, DQ10, DQRS3, BD, T0 and many others.
Nobody asked for 13-2 or 13-3.
Nobody asked for 13-2 or 13-3.
Nah, they will think that they didn't casualize ENOUGH. Also their budgets should have been even higher. Fuck 6 million Tomb Raider copies, they should go for 10 million instead.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Kitase protects him for some reason and I think Japan has that lifetime job security policy.
Where did I blame anyone? I'm saying they should focus on their own teams, that's all. You know... those that made the company so successful... those that set sales records... those that could be bought blindly because they were good. Yeah, those.
So you want more Dragon Quest?
Because you know that's their most succesful and prestigious product right now.
Ha ha, too late.
SniperHunter
Banned
only one game, which sony has money paid for (rumor)
theif is coming to ps4 xbox and pc....
I don't get why doesn't he just join a generic moe jrpg developer. Seems much more in line with his shitty story telling methods and waifu interests....
SimpleGamer
Member
Hmmm maybe someone needs to come up with a new strategy? Where is versus?
Neko Mimi Mode
Member
You don't know what kind of market the next Xbox will have. There's also the obvious PS3 and VITA ports. If they are bringing it out as soon as is rumored then there's no reason, other than Sony needing reasons for people to buy PS4, for it not to be cross-gen and multi-plat.
Seeing their new strategy posted in the other thread, I'm pretty much hopeless to ever see Square back in its glory. Apart from publishing NieR, SE hasn't brought out ANY "great" game in the past 10+ years.
Tis a shame. =/
Because only the prestige of FF and the cash of Square Enix can entice poor fools into believing that there's anything subtle, logical, or good about the plot of XIII-2. He only keeps his cred as long as he's working on a franchise for a company that used to have cred.
Square is dead.
darkhunger
Member
They are in a no different place than they were back then financially. The Square of the late 90s were making thin profit margins on their games and then took the heavy loss with the Spirits Within movie.
The fact is the company NEEDS to diversify, because their bread and butter, the JRPG, is a shrinking market and something that requires tremendous resources to execute. The only time were JRPGs were really profitable for them was when 16-bit games took 20 people to make and they could sell them for $80 each. So no, the Square of old isn't coming back and it's a poor idea to suggest at this time and age.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
I think you're projecting what you think an internal team should be. Do you consider Naughty Dog to be a SCEA studio, or merely one that Sony 'bought'? The same applies for Squaresoft and Enix, the former of which was taken over by Enix thus making all Square properties and internal studios essentially Enix studios (albeit keeping the Square name upon which to trade the FFbrand).
Square would make a ton of money by licensing out their much vaunted Luminous engine, but they'll keep that for the two or three exclusive Japan studio titles they plan to release this generation. Mismanaged from the top town, and you can't blame any of that on Eidos.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Handheld output is superb(other then localizing their damn games). It's the console output that's the problem.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Yes, but FF is considered their most 'premium' brand, and whilst Thief will sell pretty well it won't do anywhere near the same numbers or get as much visibility in marketing terms.
There's also the rumoured development problems the game has had over the years, leading many to think Thief is going to be a bit of a mess.
Glass Rebel
Member
Handheld output was superb. It's DQ remakes and Bravely Default these days.
They should focus on Wii U development. Heavily back Nintendo and leave the next gen a few years until they're more stable.
Edit. Yes I know the Wii U is in bad shape, but with Square behind it, making FF and KH, the system would soon fly off the shelves. Plus making a KH for the Wii U is bound to be cheaper then next gen development.
Edit. Yes I know the Wii U is in bad shape, but with Square behind it, making FF and KH, the system would soon fly off the shelves. Plus making a KH for the Wii U is bound to be cheaper then next gen development.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Square did fine until they thought up that horrendous movie idea.
Also, don't take everything too literally. A shift of focus doesn't equal copying everything from the past.
Just look at their strategy forecast and you see that they straight forward walk into their demise with a wrong focus in thinking.
That's still better than most of what they do now. But yea, they aren't exactly enthusiastic about making new handheld games.
TheBryanJZX90
Member
For people that want to look at some actual facts before making wild proclamations about how they could save S-E check out p.13 of this PDF: http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/13q4earnings.pdf
That 6 billion yen operating loss was caused, among other things, by a 5 billion yen increase in advertising, apparently.
That 6 billion yen operating loss was caused, among other things, by a 5 billion yen increase in advertising, apparently.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
HAHAHAHA you just said sack Miyamoto. There's more chance of a kaiju attack.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Technically they still are. Mobile devices can be held in your hand.