Final Fantasy Flops: Square Enix’s Latest Releases Fall Short, But a Hidden Gem Saves the Day
Square Enix Confirms FF16 and FF7 Rebirth Did Not Meet Expectations
In May, Square Enix announced that “FF16″ and ”FF7 Rebirth” did not meet expectations, leading to an internal reorganization. This news was reported by participating media, and the company has now officially released its performance report for the shareholders meeting.
According to the report, the high-definition game segment, which includes “FF16” and “FF7 Rebirth”, did not meet expectations in terms of profits. The company also reported lower revenue from online games, mobile games, and PC web games compared to the previous fiscal year.
The net sales of the high-definition game division were 99.2 billion yen, an increase of 20.7 billion yen year-on-year, but the operating loss was 8.1 billion yen, a loss of 4.5 billion yen year-on-year. Despite the initial sales of “FOAMSTARS” and “FF7 Rebirth”, the cost of other projects in development resulted in the final operating loss.
The online game division posted net sales of 47.3 billion yen, a year-on-year decline of 6 billion yen, and operating profit of 19.3 billion yen, a year-on-year decline of 9.8 billion yen. The mobile games and PC web games division reported net sales of 101.5 billion yen, a decline of 12.1 billion yen year-on-year, and operating profit of 14.2 billion yen, a decline of 2 billion yen year-on-year.
A total of 26.32 million games were sold in the entire digital game division, an increase of 3.88 million year-on-year, and global downloads increased. Square Enix believes this is a very good situation and will continue to strengthen new games in the future.
The publishing department reported net sales of 31 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 billion yen, and operating profit of 11.9 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 billion yen. Comic book sales increased mainly due to the animation “The Medicine Girl Monologue”, which will be broadcast from October 2023 to March 2024.
IP-based products such as “FF16” and “FF7 Rebirth” sold very well, with net sales of 18.9 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 billion yen, and operating profit of 5.6 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 billion yen.