Square Enix is a bit of an... oddball. Since its creation via merger in April 2003, it has been involved in some of the biggest games of the past 12 years... for better and for worse. Since it can be a bit hard to remember the past fairly, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the company's track record since it was created, on a year-to-year basis.
Note that this is not an exhaustive analysis of the company's fortunes, but rather a quick look at games released, their reception, and other tidbits when interesting and/or relevant. Also, in order to keep things comprehensible, I'm not paying much attention to Eidos creations. Square Enix as judged here will be the same entity throughout.
2003:
This was actually an alright year for Square Enix. The big game that year, Final Fantasy X-2, had actually been published by Square a couple of weeks before the merger, making it essentially the borderline of two eras. FFX-2, despite skepticism that lasts to this day, had solid reviews and sales, reaching 5.29 million lifetime, or about 2/3 of the original FFX. Note that this is somewhat higher than the 50% of sales FFXIII-2 had compared to the original FFXIII, suggesting either X had more fans or that X-2 was a better game than XIII-2. Other notable releases (some released in Japan pre-merger) included Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube, Tactics Advance for the GBA, and FFXI in the West, generally to good sales and reviews.
2004:
In some ways, a calmer year, but it still had its high points. The biggest was Dragon Quest 8, which ended up being the best-selling PS2 game of all time in Japan (it's currently #29 overall), and ended up being better received elsewhere than prior Dragon Quest games. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was cool back before handheld spinoffs were the default for the franchise, and pushed the GBA to its technical limits. Star Ocean, an final Enx title in Japan, was released in the West this year, and is still the best-selling entry in the series.
2005:
Another year, another big release with Kingdom Hearts 2, which sold 4.33 million lifetime and the best reviews in franchise history. Note that KH2 actually performed better in Japan than the original, while KH2 actually did much worse in Europe. There were also a few more obscure titles released, including a GBA version of FF4, Grandia 3, etc, the obvious leaders was Kingdom Hearts 2.
2006:
Final Fantasy XII was the obvious star this year, selling nearly 6 million copies despite it being a late entry into the PS2's library, which was already rich with RPG's. Also note that FFXII, though often derided today, received plenty of love from critics and fans, especially those who like the Ivalice setting. Besides this though, 2006 was rich with Square Enix. Final Fantasy 3 got a remake for the DS, which not only gave Westerners the game for the first (legal) time, but along with Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, also was successful enoguh so that Square Enix supported the DS for the rest of its life. FF6 would be one of the last great GBA games. Dirge of Cerberus was disappointing, but overall a nice year.
2007:
In retrospect, this was possibly the point where Square Enix began to run into trouble. 2007's big game was Crisis Core for the PSP. It was far from a bad game, and sold over 3 million copies lifetime, but compared to prior years, it was less, for lack of a better term, AAA. That said, there were plenty of good stories for Square Enix in 2007. Ports, remakes, and spinoffs for handhelds continued with FF4, Dragon Quest 4, War of the Lions, and Revenant Wings, the four of which sold over a million each. Games like The World Ends WIth You were more critical than sales hits, but still did well enough. So not a bad year, but not one to aspire for either.
2008:
Like last year, but worse. The big game of 2008 was Dissidia for the PSP, which only ever sold 2.21 million lifetime. Ports/Remakes like DQ5, Chain of Memories, and Chrono Trigger did well enough, but otherwise, there was little to celebrate. Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant were sales and critical failures, the first of several for Square Enix. At least that space Invaders Extreme game was pretty fun.
2009:
Finally, some big names! Good news: Dragon Quest 9, despite being on the DS instead of a console, was a huge success. And it would do well in the West also, thanks to help from Nintendo. Final Fantasy XIII, however, was a bit disappointing. Even counting the eventual 360 sales, the game sold about 7.37 million across two platforms, less than FFVII (9.72) and FFX (8.05), which were PlayStation exclusives. Also note that the sales loss was arguably most notable in Japan; the game sold under 2 million copies there, a feat managed by every prior main series entry since Final Fantasy V in 1992. And of course, this game divided quite a bit of the fanbase. So not the best situation. The failure of the The Crystal Bearers, possibly the only serious attempt Square Enix has made for a Nintendo console since the original Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube, failed. At least Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was somewhat successful.
2010:
Not counting the 360 version of FFXIII, this year's champion was Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP. To be fair, this is still the best-selling non-numbered Kingdom Hearts game, with just over two million copies, but considering how this felt like it could have been Kingdom Hearts 3 with a bit of extra effort, not great. This was also the year of Final Fantasy XIV: We Hate You Edition. FFXI was the biggest money maker in Square Enix history, so its successor being possibly the biggest failure in the history of both the company and the MMO genre was dramatic. Nier, another attempt at a new series, also failed to break into the market, while The 3rd Birthday was considered a disappointment. If it weren't for Eidos games like Just Cause 2 and Dragon Quest games on the DS, this would have been a very bad year.
2011:
This year's big game was Final Fantasy XIII-2, which sold about 3.5 million lifetime. Despite not being as big a hit as FFX-2 back in the day, this game did alright in light of the blemishing of the Final Fantasy brand starting in 2009. Besides this, it was a quiet year. Dissidia got a sequel, but since it was for the PSP, it didn't break a million copies. The same applied to Type-0, which I heard actually will get released in the West this March unless Square Enix does something else. The PSP also got a deluxe version of Final Fantasy 4, while the Wii got Famicom Dragon Quest ports. Bleh.
2012:
Ignoring Eidos, this year sucked. Kingdom Hearts 3D, the year's biggest Square Enix game, still hasn't reached 2 million sold. On the bright side, Bravely Default eventually reached a million, but only in 2014, after it was finally released in a the main JRPG market outside of Japan. Dragon Quest Monsters 3D did well enough for a Japan exclusive, but Dragon Quest X for the Wii did about as well as you'd expect from an MMO on an aging console that was never known for its online play in the first place. Especially since it was never released outside of Japan, even for the Wii U, meaning that Square Enix STILL couldn't make an MMO worth the trouble.
2013:
Ignoring Eidos's Tomb Raider, which apparently didn't make sales projections for Square Enix, this year's big game was Kingdom Hearts 1.5, with about 1.5 million lifetime sales as of early 2015. FFX/X-2 sold about 1.2 million on the PS3, more than Lighting Returns did on the same platform. A Realm Reborn did a lot to fix the damage of FFXIV, but these numbers are so low...
2014:
The biggest hits this year were a Game Boy Color remake for the 3DS and a PS2/PSP collection for the PS3.
Conclusion:
Take a Look at the following unscientific line graph, shwoing the sales of SE's biggest game each year. 2014 is omitted to give games legs.
Other than 2009's FFXIII, which has no decent comparison available, the best years for Square Enix were obviously on the PS2 from 2003 to 2006. Conversely, other than XIII-2's 2011, the worst years for Square Enix were 2010 onwards, after FFXIII was released. The other two main oddities, the fairly moderate 2007 and 2008, were when Square Enix released major PSP games in a time where the PSP was at its worldwide peak. Note that Crisis Core sold better in North America than Japan, and even Dissidia had only about 40% of its sales in Japan.
In less than a decade, Square Enix has transformed from a company that regularly releases some of the biggest RPG titles on an annual basis to a company that relies increasingly on its prior efforts, even beyond the usual sequel stagnation. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 being one of Square Enix's more important recent releases is the most blatant examples of this.
Looking into the future, this does not seem very likely to change. Though Final Fantasy XV feels like it will be released sooner rather than later, what we actually have dates for include HD versions of Type-0, Theatrhythm Dragon Quest, and Bravely Second.
Looking at even their success on the PSP, maybe Square Enix could have achieved a more successful future had they abstained from HD development, instead focusing on the Wii and maybe even handhelds a bit more. But then where would all the cutscenes fit?
