DigitalDevilSummoner said:
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.
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While I do understand that in this topic it might look like I am blaming the CEO, but I did not say that. (And really Im not sure if you are saying that either, or just using me as a spring board to put into words what you think the issue is, either way....)
SE is losing money and a lot of it. Case and Point they had to shake things up and the top had to be cut off.
What I want is the Square of old. The Square that released Japanese focused games. While I understand their need to branch out to the west (and in purchasing certain studio's they are working towards that) their Eastern Focus and the money generated from that has faultered.
I think you are on to something with their inability to balance the huge production costs of the gen, with the actual amount of games sold. I am not sure that the hybrid approach is working for them.
