| Ssenkahdavic said: Hopefully things turn around for SE. We have missed them. |
I will take this as an excuse to point out Square Enix's actual problem this generation.
Their games sold, and as a general observation they sold well and they were critically acclaimed.
Numbers rolled in but for some reason revenue slowed down. Square's problem is not the absence of hipsteriasis in relation to their Final Fantasy decisions.
Square's problem is that they couldn't deal with the fact that HD gaming demanded -increasingly- huge amounts of production costs. And the result of them not being able to adapt in that environment is that whereas their numbers would be deemed as satisfactory by many other developers, Square showed -extraordinary- loses in the last FY. Heavy hitters Tomb Raider, Hitman and Sleeping Dogs did not bring in revenue which raises questions regarding how realistic Square's sales expectations were. At the end of the day they simply couldn't break even.
Some people -very vocally- thought they found a scape goat in the face of a CEO to blame for the creative direction of the latest FF game which steamed from their inability to follow a slightly more complicated than usual story line. Their answer ? A more widely accepted creative direction. Do what the fans really want.... Yeah, that's the thing: a lack of acceptance is not really the problem here; the problem is that big sellers lost money. That's the head line, that's Square's report and the main story of every gaming news article. Square's problem is failing to balance the huge development costs for HD triple A games that this gen calls for and a result having out of touch sales expectations.
There are no easy solutions. Dead Space 3 needed 5 m sales to continue being a viable IP. RE 6 is failing despite reaching 4 m. How many millions do people think Versus is going to sell ? How many millions would KH 3 sell ? Would any of them reach the heights of FF XIII ? Square Enix have actually addressed this issue again and again. Production costs have been a problem with FF XIII development and also the reason stopping a FF VII remake, which would have to be treated as a full production - a subtle hint about costs there-. People obviously rushed into making comments about the dire state of FF without reading the actual announcements Square made. In their charts FF XIII-2 didn't lose money. Hitman and Sleeping Dogs did. What's the difference ? XIII-2 is actually a pretty modest production. What else made money ? "mobile trash" made money. I'm not standing up for iOS shovelware of course, I just want to show that some people are a little out of touch, since this is a purely financial matter and not a matter of taste.
| Soundwave said: I also call "BS" on FFXIII "being delayed a whole year!" because of the 360 version. LOL. |
You can call Patrick for all i care... I already pointed out this is not facebook. If you want to make a point then prove me wrong.
The fact is that the 360 port did delay the game.
