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Forums - Sales Discussion - Square Enix Revises Earnings Forecasts For Major Loss

A203D said:
darkknightkryta said:
 

Look again at the credits of Square's games and you'll see how involved he is.  And I never meant to say they move the entire production team, just management.  Final Fantasy XIII not coming out the door 2 years ealier as it should have is his fault.  It's his job to make sure his producers are doing their jobs, they're not, he failed to fix the problem and that game suffered.  On top of that he's letting Kitase and Toriyama make the sequel, they screwed up terribly with the last game (Not necessarily saying the game was the worst game I've ever played, but something's wrong when after 3 years your entire production team doesn't know how the game should be played, that's bad direction and Toriyama should have been taken off the project a long time ago.) and you're gonna let them make the next game?  You even admitted they screwed up and did they get a good talking too?  No, and that is Wada's fault and he's gonna let them go on to ruin more games.  Sakaguchi wasn't the CEO at the time of his movie, yes he wrote a bad story, but look at the gamble this way, if Sakaguchi wrote the movie properly and it was amazing, Square would have had a massive movie studio on par with Pixar and Dreamworks.  Gamble failed and the CEO and Sakaguchi took the punishment, which to say is more than what they deserve, and is what Wada currently deserves.  And as far as Dragon Quest goes, NIntendo published the game here in the "west" not Square all the marketting was paid for by Nintendo cause they were publishing it.  And they did the same with Monster Hunter, so I don't think Wada's "partnership" had anything to do with it, it's something Nintendo is offering to devs not the other way around.  As far as the expansion in Europe goes, I'd say it would have happened anyways, back in the PSX days when the old CEO was in charge the "others" region wasn't as big as Japan or North America, now it is, that shift to those regions was going to happen regardless of Wada's leadership or not.

Sakaguchi was vice president of Sqaure at the time - so he had much involvement in the allocation of resources. i havent seen The Spirirts Within, but i've heard its actully very good - its just he took a gamble with when he should not have - or Sqaure wouldnt have gone bankrupt or almost bankrupt.

actully, Sqaure Enix were going to publish Dragon Quest 9 here in the west, but Wada gave the contract to Nintendo, because he thought that with their marketing resources they could do what Square couldnt do. this was a good business decision, as were his decsions to release the old Dragon Quest games here in Europe and rerelease them in the US. something other publishers in Japan are unwilling to do, ie Tales series.

i think Wada also secured the contract to publish Call of Duty in Japan, while this isnt a monumental success in Japan, it shows how hes willing to take calculated decisions like this because he wants Sqaure Enix to suceed on a global level and he knows how to do it - because hes buisness minded.

hes listed as excutive producer, this means he allocates resources to the production team, he dosent have anything to do with the conceptual design of the games. besides would you rather Wada told Toriyama and Kitase to work on FF15 and ruin another installment in the series, or simply work on the sequel to FF13, where they can do less damage to the series?? and Wada has told Kitase he has to have a new game every 2 years, i think this is good, because it means no more 5 year development cycles!

your blaming Wada for the mismanagment of the Japanese production teams, but your not attributing the internations gains of Sqaure Enix to him at all, yet he is the CEO. how can the CEO be responsible for all the things that go wrong, but not the things that are done right.

seems like you and Carl2291, dont like the fact that Final Fantasy is struggling, and the only person you can blame is the CEO who runs the company and its finances, it dosent seem to matter you that this CEO has been actively doing things for SE on an international level, and it dosent seem to matter that Wada is not a game designer and has nothing to do with the games conceptual design.

Wada has put the peices in place, hes given the studios enormous resources, freedom and in some cases advertising, its not his fault the games arnt selling well.

Like I said with Sakaguchi, he took a gamble that could have made Square more money now than anything Wada has done.  His gamble failed and the then CEO and Sakaguchi were punished accordingly, which is why they're not with the company anymore.  Yes Square was going to publish the game here, that's what they do, but Nintendo took over for the same reason they took over for Monster Hunter Tri, they were games that don't sell well outside of Japan and they were Nintendo exclusives, if Nintendo didn't publish Monster Hunter I'd have conceded to you, and unless you have an article for me to read Nintendo offered Square the same deal they offered Capcom, not the other way around.  As far as Kitase and Toriyama are concerned, like I said before and I'll say it again, they terribly mismanaged Final Fantasy XIII, the game didn't get into full development until a year and a half before release, Wada should have stepped in way before, and he didn't.  And I'd rather Toriyama not step near a game with a 100 foot pole, and he shouldn't be directing any console game let alone a sequel to your companies main franchise.  And international gains?  What international gains would that be?  Oh wait that's right, he bought out a company that was proving to be a big financial loss for its parent company which was trying to get rid of them for the past few years, there's a reason no one was willilng to buy out Eidos.  He opened up a bunch of oversea facilities which just had their game cancelled resulting in 55 million dollars worth of losses.  Square is nearing a point of disarray, it's not all doom and gloom, but it could easily be and he let the company get into this situation.  Like, he's trying to fix it now, but he let it get into this situation to begin with.  And no, I don't blame Wada for the way Final Fantasy XIII came out, I blame Toriyama and Kitase.  I blame Wada for letting them run things for so long.  And like I said in previous posts, Final Fantasy XIII could have been a lot better had it gone through QA which it didn't until close to release and as the man running the company he should have made sure the dev teams have proper QA, which with looking at what Square's released these past 5 years is close to non-existant.



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Yeah, i'm not arguing about this anymore man, i agree with some of your points and concede that Wada shouldve mabye have stepped in a lot sooner to make sure the allocation of resources was spent well. my point was really targeted at Carl2291, who seemed to think that Wada is to blame for everything - and Kitase and Toriyama have zero accountability.

okay, i concede that maybe Wada couldve done things better with QA testing, but i personally think he has the right time of buisness know how to run a company like Sqaure Enix. and i think Edios will prove their worth with Deus Ex.



Wada talked at the investor meeting, almost half of the loss came from Final Fantasy XIV and canceled games:

Speaking at an investor's briefing on the 13th (via Nikkei), Wada explained that of the 12 billion loss, about 4.5 billion came from such things as Final Fantasy XIV's reworking and the cancelation of multiple titles. Most of the 4.5 billion was related to domestic development, he said.

"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.

To reverse Square Enix's fiscal fortunes, Wada hopes to give a major push to social networking games and apps for high powered cell phones. However, he is unsure if developers who've worked on package games can work in these areas, so he's hoping to make use of external developers. However, he's not considering an acquisition.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/



Square Enix needs to drop this bullshit charade and launch FFXIII Versus. They need to stop focusing on other titles until after that launch and gauge what people might like out of that title, because it's probably their most wanted title outside of Deus Ex.



alfredofroylan said:



"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/

This is pretty much Malstrom's worst nightmare coming alive; developers becoming self-important and making what they want rather than what is imperative to sell games. It is similar to how they forcefully added story to S.M. Galaxy despite being told specifically not to.

When people in the company will not do their job it's pretty much anarchy, and the inmates run the asylum. Dont be surprised when Square dies...........



Leatherhat on July 6th, 2012 3pm. Vita sales:"3 mil for COD 2 mil for AC. Maybe more. "  thehusbo on July 6th, 2012 5pm. Vita sales:"5 mil for COD 2.2 mil for AC."

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SaviorX said:
alfredofroylan said:



"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/

This is pretty much Malstrom's worst nightmare coming alive; developers becoming self-important and making what they want rather than what is imperative to sell games. It is similar to how they forcefully added story to S.M. Galaxy despite being told specifically not to.

When people in the company will not do their job it's pretty much anarchy, and the inmates run the asylum. Dont be surprised when Square dies...........

Depending on how you look at it, you could take devs making what they want as a good thing. More originality and freedom to create what they invision rather than including or removing elements to make it more popular. >_>



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

outlawauron said:
SaviorX said:
alfredofroylan said:



"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/

This is pretty much Malstrom's worst nightmare coming alive; developers becoming self-important and making what they want rather than what is imperative to sell games. It is similar to how they forcefully added story to S.M. Galaxy despite being told specifically not to.

When people in the company will not do their job it's pretty much anarchy, and the inmates run the asylum. Dont be surprised when Square dies...........

Depending on how you look at it, you could take devs making what they want as a good thing. More originality and freedom to create what they invision rather than including or removing elements to make it more popular. >_>

No, their suppose to make the game popular, so it sells. 

Its their job.  They, serve, us.  It doesn't matter what they want, its what we want. 

Honestly, you people...

 



^^^theres a novel idea lets just add stuff thats popular because it will sell, with that kind of brilliant thinking we might as well just play FPSs cause there so popular, screw it dont even make any other type of game



Dinomax said:
outlawauron said:
SaviorX said:
alfredofroylan said:



"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/

This is pretty much Malstrom's worst nightmare coming alive; developers becoming self-important and making what they want rather than what is imperative to sell games. It is similar to how they forcefully added story to S.M. Galaxy despite being told specifically not to.

When people in the company will not do their job it's pretty much anarchy, and the inmates run the asylum. Dont be surprised when Square dies...........

Depending on how you look at it, you could take devs making what they want as a good thing. More originality and freedom to create what they invision rather than including or removing elements to make it more popular. >_>

No, their suppose to make the game popular, so it sells. 

Its their job.  They, serve, us.  It doesn't matter what they want, its what we want. 

Honestly, you people...

It's not so much not giving what 'we' want, but rather not having to worry about making a popular game but making a great game. There are plenty examples of such and without this philsophy, many genres would just dissapear entirely.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

outlawauron said:
Dinomax said:
outlawauron said:
SaviorX said:
alfredofroylan said:



"Our game development has become weaker than expected," admitted Wada. "Revamping it will take one or two years."

Wada attributed the poor state of development to weak communication. Creative leads did not pass on his opinion to their subordinates. Additionally, there was trouble with division of labor amongst technical staff, who were protective and would fulfill only their own roles.


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/14/wada_on_losses/

This is pretty much Malstrom's worst nightmare coming alive; developers becoming self-important and making what they want rather than what is imperative to sell games. It is similar to how they forcefully added story to S.M. Galaxy despite being told specifically not to.

When people in the company will not do their job it's pretty much anarchy, and the inmates run the asylum. Dont be surprised when Square dies...........

Depending on how you look at it, you could take devs making what they want as a good thing. More originality and freedom to create what they invision rather than including or removing elements to make it more popular. >_>

No, their suppose to make the game popular, so it sells. 

Its their job.  They, serve, us.  It doesn't matter what they want, its what we want. 

Honestly, you people...

It's not so much not giving what 'we' want, but rather not having to worry about making a popular game but making a great game. There are plenty examples of such and without this philsophy, many genres would just dissapear entirely.


Yes it is. 

We. 

Pay. 

Them. 

Money.

They don't decide for us to spend our money.  Its not our fault if they make a ""Great game"" (according to them)  doesn't sell.  Its their job to convince people to spend their money on them, its also their job to MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE. 

LOSING MONEY IS NOT GOOD.    YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS.