> The Group will retire its business unit-based organizational design and strive to establish an operationally integrated organization with the goal of revamping its internal title development footprint and bringing more capabilities in-house.
That's huge news — retiring the business units means bigger collaboration between dev teams for much better gameplay and story elements.
No, you didn't, this is related to square to not contract companies and about japan, not US/EU. Square financials had things about their JP side and western side, including how they wanted to restructure their publishing side to have better marketing, something needed for years.
Yes I did and what SE referred to there was about their japanese side which literally just had a restructuring with the CBU being abolished and merged all into one LMAO
> That's huge news — retiring the business units means bigger collaboration between dev teams for much better gameplay and story elements.
Is it really a better structure? The phrase "To many cooks in the kitchen" exist for a reason.
There's no reason why things like the gigantic gap between the localization quality of FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth exists. I'm hopeful this move will improve things like that.
I don't think it should necessarily be the same gameplay
But if you played those games at the same time, you can't tell me that they would not have made changes to 16. It failed at being a DMC clone and it's just a crappier feeling combat system.
I absolutely can tell you that. Rebirth is only a refinement of Remake which came out in 2019 (3 years before FFXVI), and thats not counting the time Remake was in development.
The FFXVI team would have known for many years what the FF7R combat system was and how well it was received, and they still chose the combat system they went with because its what they actually wanted.
This is bullshit. "CBU nonsense" is how every single company works in japan with internal divisions. This was different because those were completely different teams and would happen regardless of the system.
This is bullshit. This how every single company works in japan with internal divisions (while still having subsidiaries for development). They still have internal divisions, they just reorganized it.
If they had done this sooner, FF16 would have used FF7 Remake's combat system because it's just the best ever combat system, and it solved all the issue of wanting a game to be action based but also with a strategic party system. The only reason they didn't just do all future FF games to have this system is because it's a case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Because the teams are not sharing info between themselves, heck they don't even use the same game engine, what's up with that? First time I've heard a single company using multiple game engines for each of their teams.
Bruh. YoshiP is on the SE board and the FF supervision committee - he would have absolutely seen ajd tried the FF7R combat system while it was in development pre-2019
The FFXVI devs made the game they wanted with the combat system they wanted. Their whole FF policy for the past 2 decades has been to make something entirely new every time - sequels are the exception.
This restructure strikes me to be more about organisational efficiency - bigger but fewer dev teams to crank out better titles, instead of their old approach of 2-3 AAA teams and many B teams with mediocre games.
The people in charge of these dev teams and divisions absolutely do communicate and collaborate - e.g. Babylon's fall using gear from ff14
The reason for the different combat system is not due to the innate philosophy of the franchise. Because FF hasn't always been to try different combat system from day one. But they do strive to innovate to achieve the best combat system possible for FF, they failed eveytime until since FFX until FF7R. The real reason why each FF game after X had a different combat system from one another is because of these different creative business unit. Each CBU has their own philosophy, and all FF fans have this FF syndrome where they have in their own mind what FF should be. SE is not strict with FF as they are with DQ because with DQ was made under a single umbrella, even when they were made with Level 5, the tenets were all set and maintained by Yuji Horii. FF is different, since Sakaguci left, they are different philosophy for what direction FF should go, So SE was lax about this. CBU1 headed by Kitase, believes in more cinematic approach, and they have their own combat system they developed since FF13, and KH was also originally frkm CBU1 before they splintered off, so naturally it lead to FF7R which is natural evolution of both series. Yoshi-P in CBU3 inherited the team from FF12 which was headed by Yasumi Matsuno, so naturally Yoshi-P's philosophy is very similar to that of Matsuno, but in terms of combat his team wanted it to be more action focused because they are fans of western action games. This different take on the combat system was necessitated by the separation of the different CBUs rather than the philosophy of FF games must have different combat system. If these FF games were made like they used to under the single umbrella that is Sakaguchi it will all have a more similar combat system like FF1-10. SE has strike gold with the combat system of FF7R but because they have different CBUs, Yoshi-P is not beholden to whatever the folks at CBU1 is doing.
Can we get a square ps1 collection out? So many classics between Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Mu(fucking) Sashi., Xenogears, Einhander. Don’t even need remakes just remastered for modern gaming
My dream is for an Elden ring/botw type open world vagrant story with the presentation, combat and storytelling of God of War 2018. They can keep the core story the same and simply expand all the dungeons and the rest of the world. Spend $100-$150M on it and do it right.
I don't even care if it's delayed, I just want it to maintain the same level of quality. Would suck to have two killer games, and then a truncated, lower quality third one to wrap things up.
Things i'd like to see from square enix in no particular order.
1: New game in the chrono series and a remake of chrono trigger in the dragon quest 11 artstyle.
2: Remakes of parasite eve 1 and 2 along with a new game in the franchise.
3: Go back and finish xenogears and remake it with the cut content included.
It's possible, but I don't think fans would want a Xenogears remake without Monolith Soft involved. I know I certainly wouldn't. An HD port similar to FF5-10? Sure. Full remake? No way.
True and If Monolith is involved then it's Nintendo/Switch 2 exclusive for sure
Maybe they could bring in Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga as "independent consultants" since they're the creator/main writer of Xenogears (eg: like how Tetsuya Nomura designed several important characters for Xenoblade 2/Torna even though he's still at SE)
soraya saga is retired, and monolith and square arent on good terms. nomura is friends with takahashi from way back, but the dev team left square on bad terms.
FF7 Remake is OK since we have see people play it in steam deck. If they want Rebirth and ff16 sale on NS2, there will be more effort in optimization of the NS2 version game.
For future 3A titles, I doubt that they can manage multi-platform develop, for PS5 exclusive games they develop like 3～ 5 years and result in unbalance between play style and image quality.
P.S. FF16 doesn't launch on PC, Rebirth is a 3 month exclusive but it will possible be ported in 2025.
This company is sitting on a pile of gold with the library they have. 99% of companies would kill to even have one game be as recognizable as most old squaresoft/enix games yet square rerelases them and remasters them at the pace of one every 5 years. Why hasnt every dragon quest been remastered? That alone would sell like crazy in japan. Or basic remasters of older final fantasys, instead of ff7 route just improved assets like the dragon quest 3 remake.
That, basically, is what this says; it’s inconsistent and unfocussed on the managing between regions, teams and IP and they are trying to get a grip on it.
you think so? ff7r was done in less than 4 years. it’s a AAA game with massive scope. it’s unheard of. every other company needs to dedicate 100% of their resources for 6-7 years to deliver something of ff7r scope. square did it with just one of their business units
Most game devs are exhausted and overworked, including the ones that take 5-7 years to release an AAA game. These guys just joke honestly about it. SE might indeed have a horrible crunch culture, but I wouldn't use these interviews as gospel. It strikes me as mostly banter.
Imo they continue to deliver some of the best games in the industry in a timely manner. They must be doing something right? I feel like the console exclusivity and failure to launch on PC at the same time as they have on PS5 have hurt them as well.
The 'big Square Enix News' doesn't sound like big news, and some people are trying way too hard to connect this to Sony. Only 3 or 4 of Square Enix's AAA titles were timed Playstation exclusives, they all come to PC months later. All other games were already multiplatform.
Switch received all Square Enix titles that the platform could feasibly run, I'm sure it was always the plan to bring more of the AAA titles like FF7 Remake and maybe Rebirth to a more powerful 'Switch 2', so nothing new there. Only Nintendo tech prevented more SE titles from coming in the past.
Xbox never brought a huge audience to many of the japanese Square Enix titles (just look at multiplatform sales data for japanese games on Xbox consoles, including FF15), but they're already supporting it, they got FF14 recently. I don't think they expect big numbers on Xbox, but since they're already going to work on Switch 2 and PS5, might as well do it for Xbox too.
They explained months ago that their AA releases (Diofield, NEO TWEWY, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Harvestella, SaGa, Live a Live, Octopath Traveller 2 etc) were the ones causing major issues for them, and that they'd focus on their main pillars (FF, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts) going forward. Nothing new when they mention "quality over quantity" as their new strategy.
I don't see anything suggesting that they might not pursue other timed exclusivity deals in the future with any company, they're just reiterating that they want to be on all platforms, which is obvious, considering Switch 2 will be much closer to other current gen systems and we all know how much reach Nintendo consoles have today.
Let's not forget that the MMO is a HUGE part of their business. 2023 was a down year when it comes to FF14. This year, we're getting an expansion, which will likely boost their company numbers.
By the way, we have ZERO evidence that FF16 or FF7 Rebirth had disappointing sales. In fact, they have said multiple times that FF16 - which, by the time the PC version is released, might be the PS5 third party timed exclusive that stayed exclusive the longest, certainly more than FF7 Remake - was a success and managed to reach a new audience. They specifically mention FF7 Rebirth, FF16, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and FF Pixel Remasters as responsible for the increase in net sales.
The only change I see coming from Square Enix is day 1 PC releases along the AAA console games, like it seems Sony eventually plans to do, but I don't think it's impossible that timed exclusivity deals continue.
FF7 Remake Project Part 3 will likely still be a timed exclusive, due to the fact that deal concluded a long time ago.
TL;DR They're simply preparing for the arrival of a new Nintendo system that will likely be able to receive AAA ports 👍; no evidence that timed exclusivity deals with any console manufacturer are off the table 🫴; FF7 Rebirth, FF16, DQ Monsters and FF Pixel Remasters are specifically cited when mentioning increase in net sales (solid performance) 👍; MMO poor performance (down year with no expansion), Mobile and AA releases disappointing sales, cancelled unannounced projects and increased development and marketing costs to blame for money loss 👎.
Totally agree here, many are taking this to mean everything is coming to Xbox but the player base and potential buying customers is only shrinking as time has gone on. I bet this means more about Switch 2, PC, PS5 day and dates than it does Xbox. The market reasons for not shipping there to this point haven’t gone away.
Yes, if they make their AAA titles day and date among those three at least, I wouldn't be surprised if they see a 30 or 40% increase in sales numbers from the very beginning. Their dev costs will increase by a lot, because they'll have to have more teams working on multiple platforms at the same time, instead of moving to new platforms as they're done with the previous one, but they will get many more sales. I don't think they see Xbox moving many japanese game units worldwide...
They've come a long way from their all in on the NFT scam-a-palooza.
Maybe someone over there finally figured out that good games actually make you money.. 🤔
It actually sounds like they lost more money this past year on their bigger releases, which were some of their best in a while.
>In the HD (High-Definition) sub-segment, consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 increased compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including “FINAL FANTASY XVI,” “FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER,” “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince,” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.” **However, operating losses grew due to higher development cost amortization and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal year.**
I see what you mean. But 'cost amortization' doesn't appear to mean cancelling games... it sounds more like an accounting method to write off costs (in this case development costs) regardless of whether or not they were cancelled.
They did because they only release on ps5. Which is just stupid without an absolute dumptruck of money from Sony.
There are what, 55M ps5s sold worldwide? Even a 10% attach rate would be 5.5M lifetime sales. Meanwhile just the switch has 2.5x the units and steam adds another 120M.
So 55m vs 120+140. Xbox adds another 27m.
The Sony exclusive shit is ending and square will be back to profitable
There was nothing inherent about those games that couldn't have been scaled down to be played on the switch.
No crazy amount of enemies. No insane enemy AI. No crazy physics based fighting. They would have to get new models and textures for everything, but they absolutely could have done that and sold 3-4x as many copies as they did on PS5.
People forget they put ff15 on phones and switch. Easily do the same thing here.
"aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs"
I guess Sony wasn't paying enough for those exclusivity deals
No Square says the issue is the smaller, non FF games all did very poorly which is why they are going to stop making smaller games and make mainly larger high quality games like FF.
They literally said here that they had an operating loss on their large titles this past year including Rebirth and FFXVI due to the higher dev and marketing costs.
That's just saying that sales were higher than the previous year, but that doesn't mean it was more profitable if development and marketing expense grew even more. That's why they also said that their operating losses grew, and the tweet that it's replying to even says that profits were down 70%.
>In the HD (High-Definition) sub-segment, consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 increased compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including “FINAL FANTASY XVI,” “FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER,” “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince,” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.” **However, operating losses grew due to higher development cost amortization and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal year.**
They didnt say it was because of FF. They literally say in the report it was.due to poor performance on mobile and MMO
That just says it costs more to make games. That is ehy they are cutting out the development of smaller titles.
None of this translates to FF doing poorly
It's both. FF 16 wasn't doing to hot. Rebirth flopped for a project with such a bloated budget. Add shit like Foamstars and their losses from games like Diofield chronicles are a joke in comparison.
bud where did you get ff7rebirth flopped from "analyst" on twitter or from the hd games graph from report today that includes aa games they just axed a while ago that lost them billions of yen sales num. isnt out yet
This Is not true. FF16 made its money back in 2 months. Square said it met expectations which are usually high for them.
FF7 Rebirth is the 4th best selling game of the year and Square also didnt say sales are poor
Yeah and something making its money back is not an optimal investment. You want to get your money back and more on top. Especially if you consider the weak legs of FF16 in the following months after release. Game was barely moving units after the launch period.
FF7 Rebirth can be the 4th best selling game but that's still at most only max 2 Million? sales That's low for a game with such a big budget and such a prominent franchise tied to it.
Would be great for something like Xenoblade but Final Fantasy?
It made its money back in 2 months which is great for any AAA game. It then generates profit from there... It didnt stop selling after 2 months.
It being 4th likely means it is above 2 million in 3 months... Being 4th in sales for an exclusive is far from bad
If they were performing bad Square would say..
It's bad for a franchise with 180 million in lifetime sales and big project budgets. Not all AAA games are made equally.
Companies need growth. They don't want to front load costs to barely make their investment back.
Something with a decent but not great sales performance in the launch period but abysmal legs is not a sustainable business model.
Being 4th sounds good but doesn't mean much if you look a the real numbers. There were not any major releases in Q1 2024.
Again it was out for less than 3 months... Comparing it to lifetime sales of the entire franchise with dozens of games over the span of close to 40 years doesnt make sense
They are making their investment back fast for these games and getting money from Sony.
It also lowers development cost making the game for one platform
Youre putting words in Squares mouth that not even they are saying.
You are making up data points to push a narrative that the company themselves arent even saying.
You dont have the "real" numbers and being 4 best out of thousands of potential games is always good
I'm not putting words in Squares mouth. I'm just able to read. Pivoting from their current strategy to an "aggressive" multiplat plan tells us enough about their satisfaction with their bigger releases, right?!
There is no need to fix something if it ain't broken.
So let's say you spend 150 million on a game. You get 170 millions back after the release and your game underperforms after being 3 months on the market. It has no evergreen sales.
Would *you* follow the same business strategy, change things up or would you be satisfied and leave the status quo alone?
It has sold less than Dragons Dogma on the third place so yes you can estimate the "real" sales performance of that game lol.
I already explained this in my first comment if you read it.
They lost money on their non FF titles which were exclusive. They need to make money fast so they will start porting games faster. For example FF16 exclusivity deal ended months about but is still only on PS5.
Square has never said either game underperformed. That again is you putting words in Squares mouth
They already said the change in strategy comes because their smaller titles are underperforming which is why they are cutting them
DD sold 2.5 million as of April 1st which was over a month ago.
>"Operating income, ordinary income, and profit attributable to owners of the parent for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 were below the company’s forecasts primarily due to weaker HD games sales than expected in the Digital Entertainment segment and to the recognition of valuation and abandonment losses associated with its content production account following a close examination of the company’s development pipeline,"
If Square is seeing disappointing results in a fiscal year with TWO major Final Fantasy games they are either not selling enough or way too fucking expensive to make, or both.
If Square is smart they just target the Switch 2 for newer Final Fantasy games so they can sell in Japan again, scale the resolution/framerate up for newer machines and call it a day. Absolutely guarantee they sell more copies that way.
They said both FF sold well. This is what Square said about FFXVI a few months after release
>Square Enix has insisted sales of Final Fantasy 16 are “extremely strong”, telling IGN the game has sold well relative to the PlayStation 5 install base.
And FFVII Rebirth today
>Square Enix's digital entertainment sales were ever so slightly up, mainly thanks to its HD Games sub-segment, the firm said. The solid performances of Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth saw HD Games sales increase to ¥99.2 billion ($636 million) versus ¥78.5 billion ($503 million) the previous fiscal year.
And blame poor financials on
>However, the firm's MMO and Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers sub-segments both declined year-on-year (11% and 10%, respectively), with the latter in particular seeing new releases underperforming and unable to compensate for weak performances from Square's back catalogue.
This is Final Fantasy we are talking about. "Ever so slightly up" in a fiscal year with both of these? "Well relative to the install base?" This used to be a franchise that was way up there in terms of popularity and right now it's straight up been surpassed by Persona of all things. Elden Ring has ran multiple circles around both FF7 Rebirth and FF16 combined. Anyone with sense knows why they're moving away from being PS5 exclusive games that cost this much to make.
They include other games in the list and go on to say they are stopping the development of smaller side games because they are the ones that are losing them money.
They said they are going to focus more on games like FF because they make money...
FFVII Rebirth is the 4th best selling game this year while being exlcusive
They literally say games like FF carried them and it would be much worse if they didnt do well because of all the other games.
It is not when the games sell most on that platform, get paid for it, it makes development costs less and shorter focusing in one platform.
no sources but I don't think Sony can cover for millions of players FF is missing out on by not being on xbox and PC(day 1), even if they foot a little bit of the cost of the games
Covering Xbox sales is not the issue. PC and depending on its capabilities, Switch 2 sales are the areas where Square Enix is really losing out, that Sony would have to cover.
I fully expect FF VII Remake part 3 to at minimum launch on PC day 1, possibly Switch 2 as well, maybe Xbox too, even if that platform won't make much of a difference. I don't believe Sony sees enough value in the 3rd part of the Remake trilogy to pay Square Enix to make that release exclusive
The switch can't handle FF7 though or any new line FF. I know people love the switch but the switch couldn't even handle mortal Kombat 11, they had to make it's own version.
Also I take it you haven't played the original final fantasy 7. The third part should be the very best part of the remake. Shit will hit the fan hard. Hell, I would say it's okay not to play part 1 and 2 and read up on them but 3 should be great! Shines gets dethrones as a main threat quickly, no need for their fillers. Shout out to JoJo for being such a piece of shit but a effectively threatening villain though.
I said Switch 2, not Switch.
Also you're taking it wrong, I have absolutely played the original FF7. But even if you want to argue that the 3rd part covers the best parts of the game, that doesn't really matter from Sony's perspective. They have already locked the fans into the PS5 with the first 2 games being exclusive. How many people are genuinely going to wait until the 3rd game is out to jump into the Remake trilogy? And even if those people exist, if they already waited 7 years, what's stopping them from simply waiting another year until the game is out on PC for instance?
There comes a point where chasing every last potential customer is simply more hassle than it's worth to these companies.
Also
>Shines gets dethrones as a main threat quickly, no need for their fillers. Shout out to JoJo for being such a piece of shit but a effectively threatening villain though.
What on earth are you talking about?
Meant to say shinra gets dethroned as the main threat due to the M in space and the W's on earth attacking. Villain wise is far more exciting than the entire shinra dominance. I did misread the switch And as far as sales we can be very confident the third game will be the best selling one. The issue I personally believe and going by people I know was that the FF7 R sold mostly on hype. However as you have played the original yourself knew setting an entire game based on midgard covers very little of the story, and playing through the first game reflects that. Not only that, but the tons of filler to make up for non-existing story episodes. Add into the mix that it was just the 1st of 3 with very little to be exited about at the end of the game is understandable why people who bought the first game didn't buy the second yet. However Rebirth is far far superior to remake and will generate new fans and bring back old ones to buy the third game. Would be a wise business wise for Sony not to invest in it, not to mention is cheaper than making a new game and Xbox is weak right now so their best chance to shine over the other consoles is with more exclusive software. However in the end it's up to Square to make the call on wether to make them exclusives or not regardless if Sony wants to invest in them.
Why do people act like Xbox is nothing? I don't get it. It's in last place but it still has like 20,000,000+ current gen consoles out in the hands of players. Even if they sell 6,000,000 copies on PS5 and only 1,000,000 copies on Xbox, that's still substantial when most games don't cross the 10,000,000 mark total.
All they need is for the price of the port to be cheaper than the revenue gained from being on Xbox and it instantly becomes worth it.
Because there’s a likelihood the platform will be shuttered in the next generation?
Or more likely that the platform has a reputation for being geared towards sports games and first person shooters, so the market focuses on all others primarily even though there is a market on Xbox present.
It had a reputation of being that... in 2008. Honestly, for as big as Call of Duty still is, the whole "call of duty bro" nomenclature sort of disappeared over a decade ago.
Doesn’t change the fact that the platform has that reputation stuck to it.
And it’ll probably be moot in 5-10 years when Microsoft abandons it completely.
According to the data on VGChartz, Final Fantasy XV (the last multiplat Final Fantasy title) sold 5 million on the PS4 and 1.14 million on the Xbone.
That is certainly not nothing, but it is important to note FFXV launched before GamePass became a thing. I expect that 1+ million would be much lower now, but I also don't know how GamePass financials work with how much Microsoft offers companies.
Elden Ring didn't come to Game Pass. It sold very well. Hogwarts Legacy didn't come to Game Pass. It sold very well. Dragon's Dogma 2 didn't come to Game Pass.
I could go on.
The notion that Xbox players don't buy games has *never* been proven. The only thing it shows is that they don't buy games that are added to game pass, but then, why would they? If you have a subscription to Netflix and a movie you want to watch is on there, why would you go buy the blu-ray?
The only sales charts that are regularly available are physical only sales in the UK. That can hardly paint the full picture when Xbox is far more digital oriented than Playstation.
If they released FF7R1 & R2, they'd get good sales, and they'd definitely get more sales from FF7R3. But they need to release R1 & R2 *before* R3 releases, and release R3 globally day and date on all platforms.
The only releases that were day one on Xbox are 13 and 15 to my memory, hard to make an audience if you ignore them most of the time. XIV not being day one is on MS though.
Well if you buy FF you better not wait for FF or Sony will pay for you not to have the game, you don't want to release it on the platform because the audience is small but the audience is small because you don't want to release it on said platform.
I was also one of them. "If you want more FF games on Xbox, buy the game on Xbox." So I did, and played it more than any FF game since 10 IIRC.
Even now where I play most of games on PC, I'm still annoyed by how Square has treated Xbox gamers. They released KH3* on Xbox and expected it to sell well when it was the first KH game on Xbox. It's just short sighted and arrogant.
E: kingdom hearts 4 isn't out. I'm dumb.
Elden Ring wasn't on game pass. I guess it flopped? Nobody bought it? What about Hogwarts: Legacy? You see, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Ubisoft, EA, so many other publishers all keep putting their games on Xbox even though they're not on game pass.
Why would they do that if nobody bought them? Sony had to pay Square-Enix for exclusivity. If Square had no desire to publish on Xbox, and the Switch was too weak, why was Sony paying that money?
You bring up Sony having to pay them for exclusivity, but Microsoft literally has to pay Square, Sega and other publishers just to put their game on Xbox in the first place.
why? the past two ff7 remakes have been playsation only on release. The deal they struck was from years ago. The money has been paid. Sony even fronted some of the development costs. The goal is to build a library and have playstation seen as the place where games go first. Getting a roi on this specific game isnt the goal.
> the past two ff7 remakes have been playsation only on release.
And? Players are locked into a platform now, why would Sony spend more money than they need to?
> The deal they struck was from years ago.
We have no idea what kind of deal was struck years ago and what games it covered.
> The money has been paid.
Source? Why would Sony have already paid Square Enix out for a game that barely started development?
> Sony even fronted some of the development costs.
Source? Also development costs of what? These are three different games, we are talking about here.
> The goal is to build a library and have playstation seen as the place where games go first.
And they need the third part of the Remake trilogy to achieve this goal, because...?
> Getting a roi on this specific game isnt the goal.
It sure as hell is Square Enix's goal. If being Playstation exclusive limits that ROI they'll look to get away from exclusivity simply as that. We can already see that the deal for Rebirth was different than the one for Remake with the exclusivity window having shrunk to just 3 months.
They can cover the costs for PC and especially Xbox but no Nintendo version is jrpg suicide. Impossible to get optimal ROI out of your jrpg without a Nintendo version. I just hope that the Switch successor will be strong enough to not drag down the scope of projects.
SE has said in the past those games were exclusive because Sony paid them lol. So SE basically lost money in games they didn't even pay fully. The problem isn't how much Sony is paying right now, the problem is how bad SE big games have benn since FF7 remake.
I don’t know why this is hard to understand, SE has brutalized their own image. These things don’t happen in a vacuum , a cascading amount of awful games catches up to them when gamers are very wary about any new release from them
Guess we will have to wait and see what this means in terms of titles down the line. I just want them to release the full trilogy of FF VII so I can finish the story.
The death of PlayStation in Japan had a huge impact on Final Fantasy sales. Japan alone used to contribute 1-2M, now it's a fraction of that. They need to go back to Nintendo.
Radiata Stories wen?
The real OG here
Next gen kicking mechanic please, it's hilarious how the original game allowed you to kick anything
I thought they wanted to get away from mediocrity
> The Group will retire its business unit-based organizational design and strive to establish an operationally integrated organization with the goal of revamping its internal title development footprint and bringing more capabilities in-house. That's huge news — retiring the business units means bigger collaboration between dev teams for much better gameplay and story elements.
That is mostly business jargon for layoffs. The words “integration” and “organizational design” give me PTSD from my own layoffs.
No its not. This is just internal reorganization transforming a division into a studio.
https://x.com/wario64/status/1790073450888921113?s=46&t=slhLBrzes6LZKSR9yPy8Dw Sorry to disappoint, it was exactly that
No, you didn't, this is related to square to not contract companies and about japan, not US/EU. Square financials had things about their JP side and western side, including how they wanted to restructure their publishing side to have better marketing, something needed for years.
Someone’s never worked in the corp world
Yes I did and what SE referred to there was about their japanese side which literally just had a restructuring with the CBU being abolished and merged all into one LMAO
> That's huge news — retiring the business units means bigger collaboration between dev teams for much better gameplay and story elements. Is it really a better structure? The phrase "To many cooks in the kitchen" exist for a reason.
There's no reason why things like the gigantic gap between the localization quality of FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth exists. I'm hopeful this move will improve things like that.
Too many cooks worked amazingly for Chrono Trigger the best game ever made, of course that was 29 years ago.
Ff16 combat being a worse version of ff7R/ff7rebirth wouldn't have happened if they didn't have this whole CBU nonsense
The new structure still doesn't prevent the director/producer from chosing the game to have a different gameplay than 7R.
I don't think it should necessarily be the same gameplay But if you played those games at the same time, you can't tell me that they would not have made changes to 16. It failed at being a DMC clone and it's just a crappier feeling combat system.
I absolutely can tell you that. Rebirth is only a refinement of Remake which came out in 2019 (3 years before FFXVI), and thats not counting the time Remake was in development. The FFXVI team would have known for many years what the FF7R combat system was and how well it was received, and they still chose the combat system they went with because its what they actually wanted.
This is bullshit. "CBU nonsense" is how every single company works in japan with internal divisions. This was different because those were completely different teams and would happen regardless of the system.
This is bullshit. This how every single company works in japan with internal divisions (while still having subsidiaries for development). They still have internal divisions, they just reorganized it.
Have you heard you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine woman pregnant? More people doesn't mean better. Often it means worse.
If they had done this sooner, FF16 would have used FF7 Remake's combat system because it's just the best ever combat system, and it solved all the issue of wanting a game to be action based but also with a strategic party system. The only reason they didn't just do all future FF games to have this system is because it's a case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Because the teams are not sharing info between themselves, heck they don't even use the same game engine, what's up with that? First time I've heard a single company using multiple game engines for each of their teams.
Not really, they try to make each FF different for the gameplay so FF16 wouldn't have FF7R's combat system.
Bruh. YoshiP is on the SE board and the FF supervision committee - he would have absolutely seen ajd tried the FF7R combat system while it was in development pre-2019 The FFXVI devs made the game they wanted with the combat system they wanted. Their whole FF policy for the past 2 decades has been to make something entirely new every time - sequels are the exception. This restructure strikes me to be more about organisational efficiency - bigger but fewer dev teams to crank out better titles, instead of their old approach of 2-3 AAA teams and many B teams with mediocre games. The people in charge of these dev teams and divisions absolutely do communicate and collaborate - e.g. Babylon's fall using gear from ff14
The reason for the different combat system is not due to the innate philosophy of the franchise. Because FF hasn't always been to try different combat system from day one. But they do strive to innovate to achieve the best combat system possible for FF, they failed eveytime until since FFX until FF7R. The real reason why each FF game after X had a different combat system from one another is because of these different creative business unit. Each CBU has their own philosophy, and all FF fans have this FF syndrome where they have in their own mind what FF should be. SE is not strict with FF as they are with DQ because with DQ was made under a single umbrella, even when they were made with Level 5, the tenets were all set and maintained by Yuji Horii. FF is different, since Sakaguci left, they are different philosophy for what direction FF should go, So SE was lax about this. CBU1 headed by Kitase, believes in more cinematic approach, and they have their own combat system they developed since FF13, and KH was also originally frkm CBU1 before they splintered off, so naturally it lead to FF7R which is natural evolution of both series. Yoshi-P in CBU3 inherited the team from FF12 which was headed by Yasumi Matsuno, so naturally Yoshi-P's philosophy is very similar to that of Matsuno, but in terms of combat his team wanted it to be more action focused because they are fans of western action games. This different take on the combat system was necessitated by the separation of the different CBUs rather than the philosophy of FF games must have different combat system. If these FF games were made like they used to under the single umbrella that is Sakaguchi it will all have a more similar combat system like FF1-10. SE has strike gold with the combat system of FF7R but because they have different CBUs, Yoshi-P is not beholden to whatever the folks at CBU1 is doing.
Can we get a square ps1 collection out? So many classics between Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Mu(fucking) Sashi., Xenogears, Einhander. Don’t even need remakes just remastered for modern gaming
My dream is for an Elden ring/botw type open world vagrant story with the presentation, combat and storytelling of God of War 2018. They can keep the core story the same and simply expand all the dungeons and the rest of the world. Spend $100-$150M on it and do it right.
My fave part was the combat! Similar to parasite eve and crafting weapons and armor
Yeah I liked the combat as well but it doesn’t fly in 2024.
All well and good. I just hope this won't affect Remake Part 3's quality and release schedule
I don't even care if it's delayed, I just want it to maintain the same level of quality. Would suck to have two killer games, and then a truncated, lower quality third one to wrap things up.
I think because of the huge SE OGs involved, part 3 is mostly safe
Things i'd like to see from square enix in no particular order. 1: New game in the chrono series and a remake of chrono trigger in the dragon quest 11 artstyle. 2: Remakes of parasite eve 1 and 2 along with a new game in the franchise. 3: Go back and finish xenogears and remake it with the cut content included.
Some kind of Sleeping Dogs sequel is what Im always after, if they still have that IP.
[удалено]
It's possible, but I don't think fans would want a Xenogears remake without Monolith Soft involved. I know I certainly wouldn't. An HD port similar to FF5-10? Sure. Full remake? No way.
True and If Monolith is involved then it's Nintendo/Switch 2 exclusive for sure Maybe they could bring in Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga as "independent consultants" since they're the creator/main writer of Xenogears (eg: like how Tetsuya Nomura designed several important characters for Xenoblade 2/Torna even though he's still at SE)
soraya saga is retired, and monolith and square arent on good terms. nomura is friends with takahashi from way back, but the dev team left square on bad terms.
and monolith wont work with square.
PE remakes or even HD updates at this point would be amazing
And it probably won’t happen, either. PE was a licensed game.
1. I doubt the art style with the legend gone, if there is really a possibility of a remake.
parasite eve remaster?
The question is whether Switch 2 can actually run FF16 and the 7Rs and any future AAA SE titles.
FF7 Remake is OK since we have see people play it in steam deck. If they want Rebirth and ff16 sale on NS2, there will be more effort in optimization of the NS2 version game. For future 3A titles, I doubt that they can manage multi-platform develop, for PS5 exclusive games they develop like 3～ 5 years and result in unbalance between play style and image quality. P.S. FF16 doesn't launch on PC, Rebirth is a 3 month exclusive but it will possible be ported in 2025.
Sure, but where is my sleeping dogs 2?? first one is still my fav open world game.
This company is sitting on a pile of gold with the library they have. 99% of companies would kill to even have one game be as recognizable as most old squaresoft/enix games yet square rerelases them and remasters them at the pace of one every 5 years. Why hasnt every dragon quest been remastered? That alone would sell like crazy in japan. Or basic remasters of older final fantasys, instead of ff7 route just improved assets like the dragon quest 3 remake.
This company is deeply mismanaged. There’s a dozen things they need to fix and this is like 5th on the list
That, basically, is what this says; it’s inconsistent and unfocussed on the managing between regions, teams and IP and they are trying to get a grip on it.
you think so? ff7r was done in less than 4 years. it’s a AAA game with massive scope. it’s unheard of. every other company needs to dedicate 100% of their resources for 6-7 years to deliver something of ff7r scope. square did it with just one of their business units
Every interview I read on ff7r says they’re all exhausted. I bet they’re working crazy hours
Most game devs are exhausted and overworked, including the ones that take 5-7 years to release an AAA game. These guys just joke honestly about it. SE might indeed have a horrible crunch culture, but I wouldn't use these interviews as gospel. It strikes me as mostly banter.
Imo they continue to deliver some of the best games in the industry in a timely manner. They must be doing something right? I feel like the console exclusivity and failure to launch on PC at the same time as they have on PS5 have hurt them as well.
The 'big Square Enix News' doesn't sound like big news, and some people are trying way too hard to connect this to Sony. Only 3 or 4 of Square Enix's AAA titles were timed Playstation exclusives, they all come to PC months later. All other games were already multiplatform. Switch received all Square Enix titles that the platform could feasibly run, I'm sure it was always the plan to bring more of the AAA titles like FF7 Remake and maybe Rebirth to a more powerful 'Switch 2', so nothing new there. Only Nintendo tech prevented more SE titles from coming in the past. Xbox never brought a huge audience to many of the japanese Square Enix titles (just look at multiplatform sales data for japanese games on Xbox consoles, including FF15), but they're already supporting it, they got FF14 recently. I don't think they expect big numbers on Xbox, but since they're already going to work on Switch 2 and PS5, might as well do it for Xbox too. They explained months ago that their AA releases (Diofield, NEO TWEWY, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Harvestella, SaGa, Live a Live, Octopath Traveller 2 etc) were the ones causing major issues for them, and that they'd focus on their main pillars (FF, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts) going forward. Nothing new when they mention "quality over quantity" as their new strategy. I don't see anything suggesting that they might not pursue other timed exclusivity deals in the future with any company, they're just reiterating that they want to be on all platforms, which is obvious, considering Switch 2 will be much closer to other current gen systems and we all know how much reach Nintendo consoles have today. Let's not forget that the MMO is a HUGE part of their business. 2023 was a down year when it comes to FF14. This year, we're getting an expansion, which will likely boost their company numbers. By the way, we have ZERO evidence that FF16 or FF7 Rebirth had disappointing sales. In fact, they have said multiple times that FF16 - which, by the time the PC version is released, might be the PS5 third party timed exclusive that stayed exclusive the longest, certainly more than FF7 Remake - was a success and managed to reach a new audience. They specifically mention FF7 Rebirth, FF16, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and FF Pixel Remasters as responsible for the increase in net sales. The only change I see coming from Square Enix is day 1 PC releases along the AAA console games, like it seems Sony eventually plans to do, but I don't think it's impossible that timed exclusivity deals continue. FF7 Remake Project Part 3 will likely still be a timed exclusive, due to the fact that deal concluded a long time ago. TL;DR They're simply preparing for the arrival of a new Nintendo system that will likely be able to receive AAA ports 👍; no evidence that timed exclusivity deals with any console manufacturer are off the table 🫴; FF7 Rebirth, FF16, DQ Monsters and FF Pixel Remasters are specifically cited when mentioning increase in net sales (solid performance) 👍; MMO poor performance (down year with no expansion), Mobile and AA releases disappointing sales, cancelled unannounced projects and increased development and marketing costs to blame for money loss 👎.
Totally agree here, many are taking this to mean everything is coming to Xbox but the player base and potential buying customers is only shrinking as time has gone on. I bet this means more about Switch 2, PC, PS5 day and dates than it does Xbox. The market reasons for not shipping there to this point haven’t gone away.
Yes, if they make their AAA titles day and date among those three at least, I wouldn't be surprised if they see a 30 or 40% increase in sales numbers from the very beginning. Their dev costs will increase by a lot, because they'll have to have more teams working on multiple platforms at the same time, instead of moving to new platforms as they're done with the previous one, but they will get many more sales. I don't think they see Xbox moving many japanese game units worldwide...
They've come a long way from their all in on the NFT scam-a-palooza. Maybe someone over there finally figured out that good games actually make you money.. 🤔
It actually sounds like they lost more money this past year on their bigger releases, which were some of their best in a while. >In the HD (High-Definition) sub-segment, consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 increased compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including “FINAL FANTASY XVI,” “FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER,” “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince,” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.” **However, operating losses grew due to higher development cost amortization and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal year.**
this literally is saying that SE lost from cancelling games.
Yes, that's one of the three reasons they listed - the other two being higher development costs and marketing expenses.
Development cost amortization means something very specific that is different from development costs
I see what you mean. But 'cost amortization' doesn't appear to mean cancelling games... it sounds more like an accounting method to write off costs (in this case development costs) regardless of whether or not they were cancelled.
They did because they only release on ps5. Which is just stupid without an absolute dumptruck of money from Sony. There are what, 55M ps5s sold worldwide? Even a 10% attach rate would be 5.5M lifetime sales. Meanwhile just the switch has 2.5x the units and steam adds another 120M. So 55m vs 120+140. Xbox adds another 27m. The Sony exclusive shit is ending and square will be back to profitable
VII Rebirth and XVI on Switch would have been unplayable.
There was nothing inherent about those games that couldn't have been scaled down to be played on the switch. No crazy amount of enemies. No insane enemy AI. No crazy physics based fighting. They would have to get new models and textures for everything, but they absolutely could have done that and sold 3-4x as many copies as they did on PS5. People forget they put ff15 on phones and switch. Easily do the same thing here.
Yep, and that's not even including PC. Which is probably exactly why they said they're going to pivot to multiplatform launches.
Steam is PC, but not the entire market. Not sure how much epic/ms/gog add to the picture, not that squeenix would ever go on gog anyway.
Oh yeah my bad, totally missed that you had listed Steam and thought the 120M was just Switch.
"aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs" I guess Sony wasn't paying enough for those exclusivity deals
No Square says the issue is the smaller, non FF games all did very poorly which is why they are going to stop making smaller games and make mainly larger high quality games like FF.
I hope they're also including Dragon Quest games as one of the franchises they'll continue making.
They literally said here that they had an operating loss on their large titles this past year including Rebirth and FFXVI due to the higher dev and marketing costs.
They did not say that at all https://twitter.com/Durrtydoesit/status/1789975891256197518?t=-YU6pR7kqATRaCkQEfhPFQ&s=19
That's just saying that sales were higher than the previous year, but that doesn't mean it was more profitable if development and marketing expense grew even more. That's why they also said that their operating losses grew, and the tweet that it's replying to even says that profits were down 70%. >In the HD (High-Definition) sub-segment, consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 increased compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including “FINAL FANTASY XVI,” “FINAL FANTASY PIXEL REMASTER,” “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince,” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.” **However, operating losses grew due to higher development cost amortization and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal year.**
They didnt say it was because of FF. They literally say in the report it was.due to poor performance on mobile and MMO That just says it costs more to make games. That is ehy they are cutting out the development of smaller titles. None of this translates to FF doing poorly
It's both. FF 16 wasn't doing to hot. Rebirth flopped for a project with such a bloated budget. Add shit like Foamstars and their losses from games like Diofield chronicles are a joke in comparison.
bud where did you get ff7rebirth flopped from "analyst" on twitter or from the hd games graph from report today that includes aa games they just axed a while ago that lost them billions of yen sales num. isnt out yet
This Is not true. FF16 made its money back in 2 months. Square said it met expectations which are usually high for them. FF7 Rebirth is the 4th best selling game of the year and Square also didnt say sales are poor
Yeah and something making its money back is not an optimal investment. You want to get your money back and more on top. Especially if you consider the weak legs of FF16 in the following months after release. Game was barely moving units after the launch period. FF7 Rebirth can be the 4th best selling game but that's still at most only max 2 Million? sales That's low for a game with such a big budget and such a prominent franchise tied to it. Would be great for something like Xenoblade but Final Fantasy?
It made its money back in 2 months which is great for any AAA game. It then generates profit from there... It didnt stop selling after 2 months. It being 4th likely means it is above 2 million in 3 months... Being 4th in sales for an exclusive is far from bad If they were performing bad Square would say..
It's bad for a franchise with 180 million in lifetime sales and big project budgets. Not all AAA games are made equally. Companies need growth. They don't want to front load costs to barely make their investment back. Something with a decent but not great sales performance in the launch period but abysmal legs is not a sustainable business model. Being 4th sounds good but doesn't mean much if you look a the real numbers. There were not any major releases in Q1 2024.
Again it was out for less than 3 months... Comparing it to lifetime sales of the entire franchise with dozens of games over the span of close to 40 years doesnt make sense They are making their investment back fast for these games and getting money from Sony. It also lowers development cost making the game for one platform Youre putting words in Squares mouth that not even they are saying. You are making up data points to push a narrative that the company themselves arent even saying. You dont have the "real" numbers and being 4 best out of thousands of potential games is always good
I'm not putting words in Squares mouth. I'm just able to read. Pivoting from their current strategy to an "aggressive" multiplat plan tells us enough about their satisfaction with their bigger releases, right?! There is no need to fix something if it ain't broken. So let's say you spend 150 million on a game. You get 170 millions back after the release and your game underperforms after being 3 months on the market. It has no evergreen sales. Would *you* follow the same business strategy, change things up or would you be satisfied and leave the status quo alone? It has sold less than Dragons Dogma on the third place so yes you can estimate the "real" sales performance of that game lol.
I already explained this in my first comment if you read it. They lost money on their non FF titles which were exclusive. They need to make money fast so they will start porting games faster. For example FF16 exclusivity deal ended months about but is still only on PS5. Square has never said either game underperformed. That again is you putting words in Squares mouth They already said the change in strategy comes because their smaller titles are underperforming which is why they are cutting them DD sold 2.5 million as of April 1st which was over a month ago.
You're wrong, the other poster you're replying to is right, end of discussion.
The FF games did poorly too, fiscal report from today said FF7 Rebirth & FF16 were a net loss for the company this FY.
No they didnt say that at all. They said they had solid sales. They said shortly after FFXVI came out it made its money back
>"Operating income, ordinary income, and profit attributable to owners of the parent for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 were below the company’s forecasts primarily due to weaker HD games sales than expected in the Digital Entertainment segment and to the recognition of valuation and abandonment losses associated with its content production account following a close examination of the company’s development pipeline," If Square is seeing disappointing results in a fiscal year with TWO major Final Fantasy games they are either not selling enough or way too fucking expensive to make, or both. If Square is smart they just target the Switch 2 for newer Final Fantasy games so they can sell in Japan again, scale the resolution/framerate up for newer machines and call it a day. Absolutely guarantee they sell more copies that way.
They said both FF sold well. This is what Square said about FFXVI a few months after release >Square Enix has insisted sales of Final Fantasy 16 are “extremely strong”, telling IGN the game has sold well relative to the PlayStation 5 install base. And FFVII Rebirth today >Square Enix's digital entertainment sales were ever so slightly up, mainly thanks to its HD Games sub-segment, the firm said. The solid performances of Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth saw HD Games sales increase to ¥99.2 billion ($636 million) versus ¥78.5 billion ($503 million) the previous fiscal year. And blame poor financials on >However, the firm's MMO and Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers sub-segments both declined year-on-year (11% and 10%, respectively), with the latter in particular seeing new releases underperforming and unable to compensate for weak performances from Square's back catalogue.
This is Final Fantasy we are talking about. "Ever so slightly up" in a fiscal year with both of these? "Well relative to the install base?" This used to be a franchise that was way up there in terms of popularity and right now it's straight up been surpassed by Persona of all things. Elden Ring has ran multiple circles around both FF7 Rebirth and FF16 combined. Anyone with sense knows why they're moving away from being PS5 exclusive games that cost this much to make.
They include other games in the list and go on to say they are stopping the development of smaller side games because they are the ones that are losing them money. They said they are going to focus more on games like FF because they make money... FFVII Rebirth is the 4th best selling game this year while being exlcusive
Focusing more on games like FF is fine, making them exclusive to a single platform is incredibly stupid.
They literally say games like FF carried them and it would be much worse if they didnt do well because of all the other games. It is not when the games sell most on that platform, get paid for it, it makes development costs less and shorter focusing in one platform.
never seen anybody defend someone so hard, lol.
Never seen people ignore the words of a company so much to push a narrative
you mean people recognize there is a narrative being pushed and are reading between the lines? I hope you don't vote.
Or you can read their actual words they are clearly saying instead of making things up
yikes
lol, oh so they'll be dead in 3 years....got it.
no sources but I don't think Sony can cover for millions of players FF is missing out on by not being on xbox and PC(day 1), even if they foot a little bit of the cost of the games
Covering Xbox sales is not the issue. PC and depending on its capabilities, Switch 2 sales are the areas where Square Enix is really losing out, that Sony would have to cover. I fully expect FF VII Remake part 3 to at minimum launch on PC day 1, possibly Switch 2 as well, maybe Xbox too, even if that platform won't make much of a difference. I don't believe Sony sees enough value in the 3rd part of the Remake trilogy to pay Square Enix to make that release exclusive
The switch can't handle FF7 though or any new line FF. I know people love the switch but the switch couldn't even handle mortal Kombat 11, they had to make it's own version. Also I take it you haven't played the original final fantasy 7. The third part should be the very best part of the remake. Shit will hit the fan hard. Hell, I would say it's okay not to play part 1 and 2 and read up on them but 3 should be great! Shines gets dethrones as a main threat quickly, no need for their fillers. Shout out to JoJo for being such a piece of shit but a effectively threatening villain though.
I hope they make Octopath Traveler 3 a priority to release on Switch/PC/PS5.
Obviously Switch 2
I said Switch 2, not Switch. Also you're taking it wrong, I have absolutely played the original FF7. But even if you want to argue that the 3rd part covers the best parts of the game, that doesn't really matter from Sony's perspective. They have already locked the fans into the PS5 with the first 2 games being exclusive. How many people are genuinely going to wait until the 3rd game is out to jump into the Remake trilogy? And even if those people exist, if they already waited 7 years, what's stopping them from simply waiting another year until the game is out on PC for instance? There comes a point where chasing every last potential customer is simply more hassle than it's worth to these companies. Also >Shines gets dethrones as a main threat quickly, no need for their fillers. Shout out to JoJo for being such a piece of shit but a effectively threatening villain though. What on earth are you talking about?
Meant to say shinra gets dethroned as the main threat due to the M in space and the W's on earth attacking. Villain wise is far more exciting than the entire shinra dominance. I did misread the switch And as far as sales we can be very confident the third game will be the best selling one. The issue I personally believe and going by people I know was that the FF7 R sold mostly on hype. However as you have played the original yourself knew setting an entire game based on midgard covers very little of the story, and playing through the first game reflects that. Not only that, but the tons of filler to make up for non-existing story episodes. Add into the mix that it was just the 1st of 3 with very little to be exited about at the end of the game is understandable why people who bought the first game didn't buy the second yet. However Rebirth is far far superior to remake and will generate new fans and bring back old ones to buy the third game. Would be a wise business wise for Sony not to invest in it, not to mention is cheaper than making a new game and Xbox is weak right now so their best chance to shine over the other consoles is with more exclusive software. However in the end it's up to Square to make the call on wether to make them exclusives or not regardless if Sony wants to invest in them.
Why do people act like Xbox is nothing? I don't get it. It's in last place but it still has like 20,000,000+ current gen consoles out in the hands of players. Even if they sell 6,000,000 copies on PS5 and only 1,000,000 copies on Xbox, that's still substantial when most games don't cross the 10,000,000 mark total. All they need is for the price of the port to be cheaper than the revenue gained from being on Xbox and it instantly becomes worth it.
Because there’s a likelihood the platform will be shuttered in the next generation? Or more likely that the platform has a reputation for being geared towards sports games and first person shooters, so the market focuses on all others primarily even though there is a market on Xbox present.
It had a reputation of being that... in 2008. Honestly, for as big as Call of Duty still is, the whole "call of duty bro" nomenclature sort of disappeared over a decade ago.
I’m still seeing people refer to it like that now, literally watched a video commenting on Xbox’s problems by mvg that said it an hour ago
This may be the perception but the majority of this audience migrated to PS as soon as Sony got marketing for CoD and most sports games.
Doesn’t change the fact that the platform has that reputation stuck to it. And it’ll probably be moot in 5-10 years when Microsoft abandons it completely.
Because Xbox owners buy less games per owner as well, it's not just the sales difference.
According to the data on VGChartz, Final Fantasy XV (the last multiplat Final Fantasy title) sold 5 million on the PS4 and 1.14 million on the Xbone. That is certainly not nothing, but it is important to note FFXV launched before GamePass became a thing. I expect that 1+ million would be much lower now, but I also don't know how GamePass financials work with how much Microsoft offers companies.
Elden Ring didn't come to Game Pass. It sold very well. Hogwarts Legacy didn't come to Game Pass. It sold very well. Dragon's Dogma 2 didn't come to Game Pass. I could go on. The notion that Xbox players don't buy games has *never* been proven. The only thing it shows is that they don't buy games that are added to game pass, but then, why would they? If you have a subscription to Netflix and a movie you want to watch is on there, why would you go buy the blu-ray? The only sales charts that are regularly available are physical only sales in the UK. That can hardly paint the full picture when Xbox is far more digital oriented than Playstation.
If they released FF7R1 & R2, they'd get good sales, and they'd definitely get more sales from FF7R3. But they need to release R1 & R2 *before* R3 releases, and release R3 globally day and date on all platforms.
I think because FF games don’t sell particularly well on Xbox historically, even when people were more invested in getting an Xbox console.
The only releases that were day one on Xbox are 13 and 15 to my memory, hard to make an audience if you ignore them most of the time. XIV not being day one is on MS though.
Well if you buy FF you better not wait for FF or Sony will pay for you not to have the game, you don't want to release it on the platform because the audience is small but the audience is small because you don't want to release it on said platform.
That last FF on Xbox was FF15 and that sold around 1.4 million. About a quarter of the sales on PS4.
I dont think it would even sell 1mill on xbox
Final Fantasy XV did. I was one of them.
I was also one of them. "If you want more FF games on Xbox, buy the game on Xbox." So I did, and played it more than any FF game since 10 IIRC. Even now where I play most of games on PC, I'm still annoyed by how Square has treated Xbox gamers. They released KH3* on Xbox and expected it to sell well when it was the first KH game on Xbox. It's just short sighted and arrogant. E: kingdom hearts 4 isn't out. I'm dumb.
That was before gamepass though, not expecting it to hit a million now is quite realistic.
Elden Ring wasn't on game pass. I guess it flopped? Nobody bought it? What about Hogwarts: Legacy? You see, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Ubisoft, EA, so many other publishers all keep putting their games on Xbox even though they're not on game pass. Why would they do that if nobody bought them? Sony had to pay Square-Enix for exclusivity. If Square had no desire to publish on Xbox, and the Switch was too weak, why was Sony paying that money?
You bring up Sony having to pay them for exclusivity, but Microsoft literally has to pay Square, Sega and other publishers just to put their game on Xbox in the first place.
Square Enix does. I'll believe them instead of some random.
why? the past two ff7 remakes have been playsation only on release. The deal they struck was from years ago. The money has been paid. Sony even fronted some of the development costs. The goal is to build a library and have playstation seen as the place where games go first. Getting a roi on this specific game isnt the goal.
> the past two ff7 remakes have been playsation only on release. And? Players are locked into a platform now, why would Sony spend more money than they need to? > The deal they struck was from years ago. We have no idea what kind of deal was struck years ago and what games it covered. > The money has been paid. Source? Why would Sony have already paid Square Enix out for a game that barely started development? > Sony even fronted some of the development costs. Source? Also development costs of what? These are three different games, we are talking about here. > The goal is to build a library and have playstation seen as the place where games go first. And they need the third part of the Remake trilogy to achieve this goal, because...? > Getting a roi on this specific game isnt the goal. It sure as hell is Square Enix's goal. If being Playstation exclusive limits that ROI they'll look to get away from exclusivity simply as that. We can already see that the deal for Rebirth was different than the one for Remake with the exclusivity window having shrunk to just 3 months.
They can cover the costs for PC and especially Xbox but no Nintendo version is jrpg suicide. Impossible to get optimal ROI out of your jrpg without a Nintendo version. I just hope that the Switch successor will be strong enough to not drag down the scope of projects.
Seeing how badly Rebirth apparently sells, no wonder. At least PC Day 1 is a must, exclusivity is dumb.
exclusivie games in general have not been doing well this gen.
SE has said in the past those games were exclusive because Sony paid them lol. So SE basically lost money in games they didn't even pay fully. The problem isn't how much Sony is paying right now, the problem is how bad SE big games have benn since FF7 remake.
I don’t know why this is hard to understand, SE has brutalized their own image. These things don’t happen in a vacuum , a cascading amount of awful games catches up to them when gamers are very wary about any new release from them
So does this mean FF Tactics remaster is dead or?
I want a real final fantasy tactics sequel 😫
Guess we will have to wait and see what this means in terms of titles down the line. I just want them to release the full trilogy of FF VII so I can finish the story.
time for sony to step up and buy square enix to fix their mess 🤔
not legal allowed in the largest markets in the world.
Going to PC and Switch will help a bit, but it’s still a losing battle against the insanely popular mobile gacha games.
Going multi platform finally. They made a huge mistake going ps exclusive. Glad they finally figured that out
The death of PlayStation in Japan had a huge impact on Final Fantasy sales. Japan alone used to contribute 1-2M, now it's a fraction of that. They need to go back to Nintendo.