Could Microsoft be buying Square Enix next? Bloomberg (alternate link) has shared a new report that discusses how the Final Fantasy maker hasn’t been doing good at all lately, having lost as much as $2 billion of its market value since the release of its latest big-budget game, FINAL FANTASY XVI, which launched exclusively for PS5 on June 22, 2023. Despite receiving what appears to be generally favorable reviews and being one of the most popular RPG franchises ever, FFXVI failed to meet Square Enix’s (and, apparently, others’) sales expectations.
“Flooding the market with unfinished, bad or untested games is a bad move,” Tokyo-based developer and gamer Michael Prefontaine said, listing Marvel’s Avengers, Forspoken and The DioField Chronicle as examples of poorly-thought-out games. “The company has overstretched itself on too many titles without proper oversight.”
The Tokyo-based firm has long relied on its feted franchise to supercharge growth — a formula that lifted its value five-fold in the decade leading to the launch of the latest Final Fantasy in June. But the game’s sales underwhelmed, and things got worse in August after the company reported a sharp profit decline. Shares plummeted by double digits, a dozen analysts tracking the stock cut their price target and long-term investor Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Co. slashed its holdings in the game company.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Is it wrong that I didn't even know Final Fantasy XVI came out?
S/E has just turned into a dumpster fire the last few years.
16 wasn’t a bad game - but it needed an absolutely colossal / impossible release it was never going to be able to get being PS5 exclusive to make up for all the mistakes they’ve made with Forspoken and Marvel and other big budget AAA titles lately.
They are making strange moves riding the back of FFXIV.
Yes, exactly. 14 is a ATM machine with a huge player base. The 7 remakes are massive movers and while that fan base is somewhat fickle - they will buy almost everything released in that 7 series.
Combine that with the sale of TR and DE and other very valuable IP, and the company doubling down on NFTs and other questionable tactics …
S/E had an impossibly strong hand and has managed to piss almost all of it away.
The execs that approved all of this should be fired and possibly have legal action taken against them. I know that's completely unrealistic but those strategies are pure cash grabs along with selling the farm and the employees are footing the bill and who ultimately will be laid off. Also, I'm sure those execs have some nice parachute exit packages in place so when it finally comes to an end they won't be hurting for money while everyone else is left in the wreckage they created.
They are Japan based, so we can only hope that their shame drives them to consider seppuku.