 Things are not looking good at Square Enix, as Final Fantasy 16 disappoints and they become an increasingly easier target for acquisition. Despite a big marketing push by Sony and Square Enix, it seems Final Fantasy 16 hasn't been the sales juggernaut they hoped it would be. There were already rumours of Square Enix being worried about low pre-order numbers and although the company was apparently 'delighted' with the game's three million sales in its first week, that trailed behind previous entries in the series. Square Enix has yet to share updated sales figures, and a PC version is still on the way, but it's reported that the company has lost nearly $2 billion (around £1.6 billion) since the game's launch. As such, it's been suggested by both investors and employees that Square Enix is allowing producers too much power, leading to poor project management and budgetary control. Final Fantasy 16 isn't just a one-off; a number of Square Enix projects have proven financial disappointment recently. Prime examples include its live service Avengers game (which is ending support and being delisted later this month, after just three years) and Forspoken back in January, which fell out of the UK sales charts after its first week. Square Enix's new CEO Takashi Kiryu has already said to improve profitability, he plans to bolster development for big budget games, meaning there'll be less focus on smaller projects, since resources are 'being spread too thin.' However, it sounds like some aren't confident that this strategy will improve things. Anonymous current and former Square Enix employees told Bloomberg that the real problem is it allowing games to become a producer's personal fiefdom. With these producers having full reign over a project's development, there's less of a team structure and proper documentation. Contractors add that project goal){kind=link}
Things are not looking good at Square Enix, as Final Fantasy 16 disappoints and they become an increasingly easier target for acquisition.
Despite a big marketing push by Sony and Square Enix, it seems Final Fantasy 16 hasn’t been the sales juggernaut they hoped it would be.
There were already rumours of Square Enix being worried about low pre-order numbers and although the company was apparently ‘delighted’ with the game’s three million sales in its first week, that trailed behind previous entries in the series.
Square Enix has yet to share updated sales figures, and a PC version is still on the way, but it’s reported that the company has lost nearly $2 billion (around £1.6 billion) since the game’s launch. As such, it’s been suggested by both investors and employees that Square Enix is allowing producers too much power, leading to poor project management and budgetary control.
Final Fantasy 16 isn’t just a one-off; a number of Square Enix projects have proven financial disappointment recently. Prime examples include its live service Avengers game (which is ending support and being delisted later this month, after just three years) and Forspoken back in January, which fell out of the UK sales charts after its first week.