In a Could 2024 monetary report made public immediately (through Eurogamer), Sq. Enix president Takashi Kiryu stated that Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Last Fantasy 16 have not bought as many copies as the corporate had hoped. “We launched a number of new titles, together with main titles equivalent to ‘Last Fantasy 16’ and ‘Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth,’ however earnings sadly didn’t meet our expectations,” Kiryu stated.
The monetary outcomes had been initially shared on Could 13, 2024, months earlier than yesterday’s PC launch of Last Fantasy 16—which, it is secure to imagine, will give that specific gross sales metric a bump. A PC launch for Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth, in the meantime, nonetheless hasn’t been formally confirmed. Kiryu additionally famous that MMO earnings had been down, however attributed that to “a lull in releases forward of the launch of the ‘Last Fantasy 14: Dawntrail’ enlargement pack,” which was launched the next month in June.
Reporting had already appeared about Sq. Enix’s falling earnings after the monetary outcomes had been delivered to traders in Could, however immediately’s publishing of the monetary report means we are able to see the main points of Kiryu’s statements firsthand.
All through the monetary report, Kiryu attributed decreased profitability of its video games releases to strategic failings at Sq. Enix. Primarily, Sq. Enix’s publishing technique has compelled its new releases to compete for gross sales with its personal video games. “We didn’t handle our title portfolio throughout the corporate in addition to we may have,” Kiryu stated, “which I imagine resulted in alternative losses because of cannibalization between our personal titles.”
Between a three-part Last Fantasy 7 remake, continued Last Fantasy 14 expansions, and Last Fantasy 16, there’s positively a number of big-budget Last Fantasy competing for consideration, and people must compete with all the opposite RPGs Sq. Enix is frequently publishing, like Visions of Mana and remasters just like the upcoming Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes. It isn’t a foul factor for us after we’ve received so many Sq. Enix RPGs to select from, however it’s solely good for Sq. Enix’s backside line if its prospects are shopping for all the things within the catalogue.
The report additionally included Sq. Enix’s “new multiplatform enterprise technique,” which we coated when it was publicized again in Could. That plan, which incorporates “initiatives designed to win over PC customers,” additionally entails downsizing its studio portfolio and workforce. Following its sale of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal to Embracer in 2022, the Could 2024 enterprise technique reveal got here alongside layoffs at US and EU Sq. Enix places of work, contributing to the brutal job losses nonetheless sweeping the video games business.
Sq. Enix can be present process inner restructuring in Japan, Kiryu stated, in an try and counteract what he described because the “siloization” of the corporate’s improvement groups. “A reorganization got here into impact on April 1, 2024 that creates a flat construction aimed toward rising alternatives to find untapped expertise from inside the present worker pool and at selling larger dialogue inside improvement and publishing features, Kiryu stated. Later, in a closing Q&A piece, he provided extra particulars about that reorganization, saying studios will now not “pursue their improvement efforts utterly independently of each other. As a substitute, now we have established a daily discussion board for the heads of the person studios and myself as president to debate the titles that we plan to supply, the standing of ongoing initiatives, human useful resource allocation, and different matters.”
