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Square Enix's stock falls by 30%

Fake

Member
What is this "what's ff is really about" exactly?

Difficult, element table, iconic/funny group of characters.

I mean, every FF besides this one have this. What I see is a more acessable game than any other in the franchise. At least is what make my decision to not buy. Can't say about the rest.
 
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Matsuchezz

Member
I think the worst part of Square Enix is the Enix part. The shouldn't have merged. I never liked Enix games. I think they were bland looking and never appealed to me. Squaresoft should have bought the team that created Xenosaga, Xenogears and all the current Xeno games. Those guys make pretty cool games.
 
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I agree. I expect FF7R P2 to sell less simply because FF7R was overhyped as the full blown FF7 remake with everything. In the end even FF7R did not sell amazingly well (we know now that SE was unhappy with legs of FF7R game).

Now we have the second part of the game, meaning that newcomers need the first part to gain deeper understanding of the story (meaning that their primary target are the people who bought the original), then we have the general decline of FF IP (post FF16 for example) and we don't have PS4 userbase any. Plus FF7R was also a time exclusive for EGS on PC.


I think the problem is that remakes are not coming out fast enough. Like compare the cadence of RE2, RE3, RE4. Add to that RE Village and RE7 being successful. That type of cadence is necessary for FF - and none of those games were platform exclusive.

To recover, SE will have to release FF7R P1 and P2 on the next Switch 2 at least. And PC Day 1.
They really screwed themselves over, because they HAVE to finish it now that they started... And part 1 didnt sell as well as they had hoped.

Imagine if they got part 2 out but not part 3; the FF version of HL3.

Squeenix has been on extremely poor footing for a very, very long time. Well over a decade - probably closer to two.
 
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ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Maybe Square should do some soul searching an go back to turn-based RPGs. Like the ones that everyone remembers. If SMT and Persona can be successful after all these years and they are TB. Why can't Square do something like X again? Though 7 Remake is pretty good. 16 in my opinion wasn't very good, and I'm sure remake part 2 will sell a vagina-ton of copies

Either Sony needs to buy them or Square needs to stop all this exclusive shit with Sony.
Oh Jesus. Neither of these has anything to do with it.

This stock drop canr even be blamed entirely on FF16. It probably has a lot more to do with Square's drop in mobile game revenue, which is supposed to be the evergreen cash cow.

Whatever responsibility FF16 does have to bear, it's not because of exclusivity on PS5 (which is where the supermajority of copies would sell even if they released it on both other consoles and PC), or because it wasn't turn based like the 5 million copies selling Persona 5 after a Pokémon Platnium-esque release. I said this before the game came out that it wasn't exciting, and people got butthurt about it.
 

Big Baller

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Sony...

motivational just do it GIF



Otherwise MS might do it.

Square-Enix-Microsoft-Takashi-Kiryu-Phil-Spencer.jpeg
 

Inanilmaz

Member
No dude, the real reason is because they don’t make enough traditional turnbase games. All they need to do is make a big budget Final Fantasy that’s just like the games I remember from when I was 12, except make it more bigger and better. It would sell 30 million easily. I’ve been saying this for decades, how come Square Enix won’t listen to me?
My uncle that works at Square Enix says someone is holding a gun to their head not to release a turn based Final Fantasy game.
 

Fabieter

Member
Difficult, element table, iconic/funny group of characters.

I mean, every FF besides this one have this. What I see is a more acessable game than any other in the franchise. At least is what make my decision to not buy. Can't say about the rest.

It seems like everyone seeing other stuff in final fantasy. They should stop making them altogether because no matter what they do there will always ve people bitch about it.

By the way, do we know whether Square are working on the Super Mario RPG remake or not? I couldn't find anything on it.

I just found that the composer will return but I would think that some people at sqaure enix will overlook it but the actual development will be another studio.
 

zapper

Member
incredible that they are in a bad way with everything they have released in a few months:
  1. diofield,
  2. forspoken,
  3. a new star ocean,
  4. an old star ocean remastered (second story)
  5. valkyrie elisyum
  6. octopath 2,
  7. ff16,
  8. tactis ogre,
  9. final fantasy pixel remastered
  10. live a live

and maybe I'm even forgetting some...
I think they were really idiots to release all this stuff together, without giving proper attention to both the launch windows and the state of the work (forspoken, valyrie, star ocean are low quality)
 

Fabieter

Member
incredible that they are in a bad way with everything they have released in a few months:
  1. diofield,
  2. forspoken,
  3. a new star ocean,
  4. an old star ocean remastered (second story)
  5. valkyrie elisyum
  6. octopath 2,
  7. ff16,
  8. tactis ogre,
  9. final fantasy pixel remastered
  10. live a live

and maybe I'm even forgetting some...
I think they were really idiots to release all this stuff together, without giving proper attention to both the launch windows and the state of the work (forspoken, valyrie, star ocean are low quality)

As someone who owns everything you listed. We'll if are interested in games you probably knew most of those were coming but people still didn't bother.
 

Virex

Banned
Hell even asking the basics from RPG like, IDK, using a fucking water element on fire element foes because rememeber the old times of FF series when elemental advantage was a thing?

They tried to sell a game for 'everyone', but forget what FF is really about.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Well they didn’t do that for anything else other than COD so I don’t see that being an issue for Sony TBH.

You realize that for regulators to force that, MS would have to prove that the revenue of Square games is very important for them?

... and we all know that such statement would be a big fat lie.


Good luck trying to convince regulators that MS/xbox rely on any SE game for even 0.1% of their revenue. Not that I condone that consolidation but that's not happening.

1. Sony is in a dramatically different market position compared to Microsoft.

2. More importantly, you people are severely hamstrung by your ‘Sony vs MS’ mindset. Ever heard of Nintendo?

With Nintendo coming out with a console next year capable of playing any Square Enix AAA title in the works, I’d be surprised if we see any further deals for exclusivity post Switch 2.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
I think the worst part of Square Enix is the Enix part. The shouldn't have merged. I never liked Enix games. I think they were bland looking and never appealed to me. Squaresoft should have bought the team that created Xenosaga, Xenogears and all the current Xeno games. Those guys make pretty cool games.

Square buying Monolith Soft and not Nintendo is an Age Of Apocalypse timeline.
 
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OuterLimits

Member
I quite enjoyed the AA games from Square but they stupidly released many of them within a several month period. They ended up competing against each other in the holiday season. I was interested in Diofield, Harvestella, and Tactics Ogre but waa only going to buy one of them at launch. Both Triangle Strategy and Tactics Ogre are among my favorite games from last year.

I also will eventually buy Octopath 2 and try one of the Voice of Cards games. It seems Square is going to be ditching most of their smaller budget games though to focus on AAA which is a bummer.
 

Fabieter

Member
1. Sony is in a dramatically different market position compared to Microsoft.

2. More importantly, you people are severely hamstrung by your ‘Sony vs MS’ mindset. Ever heard of Nintendo?

With Nintendo coming out with a console next year capable of playing any Square Enix AAA title in the works, I’d be surprised if we see any further deals for exclusivity post Switch 2.

Ms buying two different publishers and the only concern was cloud and cod shows that sony could easily buy sqaure enix.

Should we allow ms to buy everything just because they are third place in console gaming. If anything with the buying spree of ms its easy for sony to snack something themselves.

I fully expect sony to buy two publishers by the end of this decade.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Frustrated World Cup GIF
But is it really that surprising when they blow money on games like Forspoken, change beloved series into something the fans seemingly aren’t interested in (FF16) and keep investing in NFT’s which feels like it’s already a dead?
 
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yurinka

Member
No way i will buy 80 euro games on Pc.
It is not available on PC. Did they announce it for PC, is there any release date?

Both forespoken and FF16 cost a lot to make and didn’t return on either.
Square has said so themselves. 😵‍💫 I mean it’s literally in the article and many others.

Stop buying into obvious PR when sales drop off a week after.
Wrong. What Square said -and is mentioned in the articles- is that its launch sales didn't meet their expectations, which is completely different than saying if the game has been profitable or not.

Square had a big impact on their operating profit of that quarter because they put all the cost of the game in the quarter it gets released and since games like FFXVI are very expensive then when they release a game of that size the impact is big in that quarter, instead of spreading it over all the quarters of its development.

Profits get a big punch that quarter but after it according to Square all that generates the game are profits, meaning that the game already recouped its costs in the first quarter.

Considering the PS5 installbase the FFXVI launch sales have been great, proportionally better than FFXV or FFVIIR, which were released on platforms with bigger combined installbases. As the game and the console keep selling will keep generating profit and after showing the results in the upcoming quarterly reports the stock prices will go back to continue growing.

image.png


That's all. Other than that, the articles are only MS "ambassadors" at Bloomberg and VGC trying to troll a PS exclusive to get some clicks and make some damage control.

The only Capcom exclusive in the last years on Sony consoles has been SFV and it was funded by Sony because Capcom was having financial issues, the funding actually helped Capcom more than Sony.
To launch SF5 without content :messenger_tears_of_joy:
It was weak in content at launch, but it's Capcom's best selling fighting game project ever, a top 10 best selling game project in Capcom history. It did help grow the fighting game genre and its eSports, and Sony ended acquiring EVO and creating a eSports accesories brand and eSports dedicated console features.

PS4 also got console generation exclusivity for Ultra Street Fighter IV port and Street Fighter 6, which XBO and Switch didn't get. Same happened with RE4 Remake, that generation was only available on PS4. RE4 Remake and RE Village also got PSVR2 VR exclusivity.

In addition to this there was minor stuff like exclusive demos or marketing deal with them.
 
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Vblad88

Member
FF is more overhyped with each new release.

Objectively speaking each part is stellar 8/10. Each part since is played differently so there is no way of direct comparisons.

The main problem is that IP is overblown with nostalgia. That sets unrealistic expectations.

Truly the end of FF will be when they will go back to copy gameplay mechanics from the past. That's a staple - they may hit or miss, but they always go forward and unsafe. A recipe for financial disaster really.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Well according to MS acquiring logic, they get one publisher without any of that. This would be their Bethesda.

Also, please don't buy up publishers.

Unlikely to work that way, I’m afraid. All major regulators considered Microsoft’s market position before approving the Bethesda deal.
 

Fabieter

Member
Unlikely to work that way, I’m afraid. All major regulators considered Microsoft’s market position before approving the Bethesda deal.

Do xbox fans indeed believe that ms can do whatever they want because they are third in console business (while not counting their pc part) and the other two console makers can't buy big stuff. Like srsly?

I think you should get the price for wrongest opinion of the year because it's nothing more than that.
 
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Fbh

Member
Sucks for them.
But I don't know why the article and this thread are talking as if this is 100% only about FFXVI when:
-Mobile and MMO are down
-Forspoken bombed
-Bunch of smaller scale but still full price titles like Diofield, Valkyrie Elysium and Star Ocean come out to middling reviews and fairly poor word of mouth
-Their inability to really come up with a truly successful new IP
-Multiple failed attempts at GAAS (Babylons Fall and that FFVII Battle Royale)

Honestly I think it's kinda pathetic that in the last year we saw ONE German dude and a Canadian team of like 20 people both come out with more compelling JRPG's on their first attempt than Square with their hundreds of millions and decades of experience.

Maybe Square should do some soul searching an go back to turn-based RPGs. Like the ones that everyone remembers. If SMT and Persona can be successful after all these years and they are TB. Why can't Square do something like X again? Though 7 Remake is pretty good. 16 in my opinion wasn't very good, and I'm sure remake part 2 will sell a vagina-ton of copies

FFXVI sold 3X more in under a week than SMTV did in like 5 months on the much bigger install base of the Switch.
Persona is popular because it's an anime highschool simulator, not because it's turn based.

Not that I'm against a good turn based JRPG (in fact my favourite ones in recent years have been turn based...and not made in Japan) but IMO the biggest issue with FFXVI isn't the type of combat but the fact it's not really a RPG and overall just isn't that good. It got solid reviews but most of the word of mouth I saw online was fairly negative for good reason. I still enjoyed it and it does a few things really well, but the game is like a 7/10 at best.

If FFXVI had launched with the same combat but like interesting locations that reward your exploration with new gear, sidequests, optional areas, etc, and good sidequests, and a decent loot system, and stores that actually have stuff worth buying, and dungeons that consist of more than walking almost in a straight line from one combat encounter to the next and like a semblance of challenge or at least an optional hard mode available from the beginning, I think it would have done way better.
 
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It’s the quality of their recent games. Forspoken was a desaster, at least compared to what people hoped it would be.

And then there is of course FFXVI, I finished it and I liked it and had a lot of fun, but I really didn’t had the feeling that I play a mainline FF game, too much stuff felt just raw (particularly some of the dialogue scenes in the main campaign could have used some work, they felt sometimes like playing a poor side quest).
Don’t want to complain about the battle system, since although I will always prefer turn based combat, I feel like that was not the main issue why FFXVI couldn’t live up to expectations.

Sure people will say it’s because they released their last games exclusively on PlayStation, but since we don’t know how much Sony paid for the exclusivity, we just don’t know.
 

Sanepar

Member
Square is not happy with Sony saying the problem is PS5 small install base. Ms is just waiting to make a cheap get in main Japanese franchises.
 
2. More importantly, you people are severely hamstrung by your ‘Sony vs MS’ mindset. Ever heard of Nintendo?

With Nintendo coming out with a console next year capable of playing any Square Enix AAA title in the works, I’d be surprised if we see any further deals for exclusivity post Switch 2.
It would be a vertical merger. And Sony would love that income from Nintendo. They kept Bungie multiplat because they like that income and market.

They may cut Microsoft out, but they wouldn’t do that to Nintendo. They almost certainly will go case by case. Frankly, Microsoft would deserve that.
 
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Dream-Knife

Banned
I think the worst part of Square Enix is the Enix part. The shouldn't have merged. I never liked Enix games. I think they were bland looking and never appealed to me. Squaresoft should have bought the team that created Xenosaga, Xenogears and all the current Xeno games. Those guys make pretty cool games.
Monolithsoft was created when Square didn't want to do Xenogears 2 (or whatever it would be called; Xenogears is actually part 5).
(while not counting their pc part)
No one uses microsoft store, so MS isn't getting money from that.
 
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