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Soundwave on 14 March 2024
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Chazore said:
Soundwave said:

Internally I think they are worried, it's not like they had 10 big IP, Final Fantasy is really the only one they have that has global reach in big way (well used to anyway). It's more the damage being done to the brand really, once a brand becomes less relevant in this business, it's very, very difficult to get it back. 

Their stock price has been down since FF16 released and didn't sell maybe up to some people's expectations, so having a low forecast for Q4 would make sense ... if you have a sky high Q4 guidance and didn't deliver that would be a monumental disaster that would shake their stock price to its core. They had to be more cautious after FF16. 

How they are going to prevent FF17 and FF7 Remake Part III from selling even worse has to be a pretty big discussion behind the scenes I would think.

I do find it weird though, how now of all times, only now are they releasing FF XIV onto Xbox, and only now are they ultra specifically using Western style marketing to try to nab that audience (No offence to anyone that liked the FF XIV Xbox trailer, but that came off as immensely cringe and Western designed, that it felt slightly insulting for how basic it come off as, while acting like it was some new game). 

Usually SE is just doing their thing, making spin off FF's and a mainline, mostly pandering to Sony's side first and foremost, then PC, maybe Nintendo, but largely ignoring Xbox, right up until now, when they mentioned they'll be bringing XIV over to the Xbox side. I don't think they can live on short term exclusivity deals forever, much like how a far smaller company like Remedy has been doing for most of their life.

Long-term sales and reach these days should be any company's main focus, I mean MS gets it, that's why they're starting to just give up the goose and port over their games to multiple platforms and stores over time, because having X/Y game on one system in today's market simply isn't good enough for the long-term, and actually makes it harder to port later and ask for a high price up front (Like how I won't ever pay SE's asking price for any of the late games they port over, because I gain no benefit whatsoever for paying a high price on a year old game, with a mediocre port job, that actually feels like a negative to me than a positive of a good port and a good price). 

FF 17 really does need to hit multiple platforms day 1 going forward, instead of Sony first, PC a year later and calling it a day, because that is not going to carry them through like they think it will. It is time to adapt with the times and what others are doing, rather than sticking with the same strat for decades on end, expecting bigger results (definition of insanity).

I think it's coming out now because they have a new president just recently put into the job now. His first order of business was probably "fuck, we have to get some of these games on other platforms guys, we can't keep operating like this". FFXIV he could do, FF16/7 Remakes were probably tied up by exclusivity contracts up the rear end before he became president so there's probably not much he can do with that. 

I think even Phil Spencer alluded to that, that they were happy to have Square-Enix helping them again and they weren't going to push them to have to do something that they knew was tied up by pre-existing contracts.