Square Enix stung by 'increasingly difficult' console market
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Publisher blames the console market for its ¥5.7 billion ($914 million) loss for the nine months ending December 31, 2012.
Square Enix has called out the "increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market" as a reason for the underperforming sales of its console games. The company last night posted a ¥ 5.7 billion ($914 million) loss for the nine months ending December 31, 2012.
Despite an overall 7 percent increase of net sales, up to ¥102.8 billion ($16.5 billion), Square Enix said the tumultuous console market has left the publisher "struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment."
"During the nine-month period ended December 31, 2012, the Company has not recovered the operating loss posted in the six-month period ended September 30, 2012, primarily due to the increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market, under which the Group is struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment," said Square Enix.
At no point did Square Enix's financial report mention its recent catalogue of Western-developed titles, such as Hitman: Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, Quantum Conundrum and Heroes of Ruin.
The company did take time to say its portfolio of PC and social games were showing "acceptable profit."
Gree-led Final Fantasy Artniks broke in its millionth user over the holiday, joining the likes of Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur, Sengoku Ixa, and Final Fantasy Brigade.
Square Enix also said upcoming MMORPG Dragon Quest X was showing "steady progress."
Square Enix's latest big-budget console adventure, Crystal Dynamics' reboot of the Tomb Raider series, will be released in March. Square Enix's other titles destined to emerge before the end of its financial year in April include Final Fantasy 11: Seekers of Adoulin alongside Japanese-exclusives Kingdom Hearts - HD 1.5 ReMIX and Dragon Quest 7.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
444 comments
I knew this would happen. Japanese always blaming someone else, and unable to take responsibility for there actions.
Bottom line there games suck! FFXIII was the worse game I ever played in my life and you think I am playing another one, let alone another two? You're sick in your head. FF Versus XIII look like garbage, no thanks. And I doubt it will come out at all.
Look what happened to FFXIV. I didn't spend a dime and won't...
It looks like they are moving on with FFXV, or whatever tech demo that was looks like it's going back to FF but we will see.
No Kingdom Hearts which is a money maker and is what everyone wants and is waiting for and they have no design to releasing it or even working on it anytime soon.
Give me a break Enix. You sucked since you added the Enix. You should just close the doors, no one will miss you.
And I was a real fan, who loved the company. You let me down and now I am done with you. There is no hope.
@Babybluedrop Forget FF they still make good games.. see: Just Cause 2.
Rip Squaresoft. Hello Monolith.
No, that is terrible excuse, it is because there games have been awful for a while now.
Final Fantasy 13 was a terrible corridor simulator which is why it did so poorly over here, maybe if they had atleast used a good battle system that game would of done well, I do not know, maybe like their best one, Kingdom Hearts? the one we want to be in versus 13.
As for Tomb Raider, it is just a reboot girl power trip, more action less puzzle solver was just not the way forward for the series. Glad a lot of people still liked it, but most fans of the origonal series liked it for what it was, not a Gears cross Assassin's Creed.
@Yamakoichi And I recall Final Fantasy 13 having childish uninteresting characters that nobody but the most desperate virgin Japanese fanboy could relate to.
1 Like oh, dear loser, where is ff versus 13? what happened to ff agito 13? instead of improving your field, you bought eidos! how stupid! and now blaming the console market. BLAME YOUR OWN DECISIONS FIRST !!! idiot!
they should have continued to make quality jrpgs. they've lost their own track! and by this the whole jrpg genre might be dead! BAD !!!!
1 Like no square enix, its not the market's fault you're not getting good sales. Its your fault for releasing games NO ONE WANTS! I dont want ff13 spinoffs. I dont want ff14 re-release. I dont want KH spinoffs. I want ff Versus 13 and KH3. Thats what everyone wants.
1 Like @raiden-94 SE has published some fantastic titles over the past couple years, and is one of the only companies that gives the investment needed for proper PC ports.
In a sense you're right, they aren't making games that "everyone wants". That's cause they are making games that core gamers want and respect, and that may not necessarily translate well to the casual market.
You can't just look at the mismanagement of one particular franchise and judge an entire company over it.
Sleeping Dogs, Deux Ex: HR, Hitman, Just Cause. All great titles that probably no other publishers would touch.
@saucex4 @raiden-94
Sleeping Dogs, maybe a lot of people are interested, the Deus Game was alright, but the ending was terrible and put off all replayability, Hitman became stagnent a while back, Just Cause was not a great game either.....
They really need to go back to JRPGs and learn the lessons of Skyrim and Kingdom Hearts, a fully customisable Kingdom hearts would be sweet (even if they only thing they take is the battle system, which was by far their best)
@saucex4 @raiden-94 QTF. But even though Sleeping Dogs was awesome, just awesome, but sold only 1.5m units on the consoles (and around 70 thousand on PC). Sales like that explain why publishers are frightened of new IPs.
1 Like The console market? WFT? Just when I was thinking sh!tty games like FFXIV were to blame :P
@karin_2049 Sleeping Dogs was a risk, brilliant, should have sold 5m units and sold 1.5m units. Even the famous Deus Ex HR sold less than 2.5m units.
@Stonedwolfed @karin_2049
Cause the game was done well, but had no multiplayer or replayability with an awful ending that put a lot of people off once they heard about it
1 Like in other news there is massive returns on defective copies of final fantasy xiii 2 , tune in to channel 34 news at 11 pm
1 Like In related news:
Video game companies blaming anyone but themselves for their poor performance: Does it qualify as a meme yet? Film at 11.
2 Like I wish Square Enix would just cut their shit out and start actually worrying about whether their games are good or not, instead of just appealing to western audiences. It's sad when what they're publishing for other companies is miles better than what they're making right now.
2 Like Ohhhh, okay. That's it SquareEnix, blame the console market, when it all reality its your REALLY BAD MARKETING CHOICES -- not only to bring the crap games here to North America, but you ignore us when we ask for the good games, such as Bravely Default, Versus 13, or even a certain older Final Fantasy remake.
Whatever.
It's simple. Your games suck, at least on the Square side of the company.
At least the Enix side is sticking to their guns with the old-school style of Dragon Quest. Thumbs up to Enix, at least.
2 Like Uhhh no...your games just suck, go back to being the squaresoft and stop being a weenix..what ever a weenix is, it sounded good at the moment
3 Like @Bordonaro Bro, you have a character from Final Fantasy XIII as your profile picture.
1 Like Isn't this the company that spent something like 6 months to produce an engine trailer, just to demonstrate what a future Final Fantasy game might look like? Stop wasting money like that guys.
Maybe they could quit being stubborn and (re)release some JRPGs on the PC that don't suck. I feel like with Eidos doing the porting, there could be minimal cost and a HUGE market to tap into.
LOL. So, the PC market turns out to be the more profitable sector eh? Hmm, gee, now I wonder why. [sarcasm] :)
Video game companies are not immune to the effects of the crumbling global economy. There are other reasons why Square-Enix would be experiencing financial difficulties, no doubt --- but it's unwise to ignore the proverbial 900-pound gorilla in the room.
But, yeah: as far as those "other reasons why Square-Enix would be experiencing financial difficulties..... FF-XIII, FF-XIII-2, FF-XIII-3. Having a hot-looking, pink-haired existential nihilist protagonist only takes a game so far. Give us back our character and plot depth, damn you!
2 Like Dear Squeenix, your fans are loyal and vocal. Listen to them and you will start selling more games again. Best, Long-time SE fan. (PS, also fire Yoichi Wada before his "leadership" completely tanks the company. XOXO)
well square enix, if you had finished versus XIII instead of making that pice of shit ff 13-2
none of this would have happened rite?
How about lowering the cost of games. This could increase revenue as it would increase interest from consumers. Just a thought. It's not rocket science, it's Business 101.
@Dark_Magic If the game market is elastic yes, If its inelastic they'll just make less money. That's business 101
1 Like If you had told me during the PS1 era while I was playing FF8 that Square would be in this sort of shape in 10 or so years, I would not have believed you.
this applies to all japanese developers,few of them made strong impact this gen,FROM SOFTWARE made the biggest. This is why Japan and its market has swapped consoles for Handhelds,even the vita outsold the WiiU by 2k ,a new console,from Nintendo.
@Ratchet_Fan8 Japanese devs focus on handheld consoles because they're ENOURMOUSLY popular here. You wouldn't believe how many DS's, 3DS's, PSP's and Vitas there are over here--on trains, in restaurants, playgrounds. Handheld is king in Japan.
Stop making playable movies!!
Stop putting action scenes on autopilot!
Stop making save areas AFTER 15 minute long cut-scenes!
Square Enix need to get their heads out of the sack and get their act together. They need to improve on quality and better story line that consumer will enjoy playing.
2 Like Square sounds like a 5 year old trying to put the blame on someone else when they got caught red handed....
And it's funny that pretty much all the comments I skimmed through say the same thing.... Go back to your roots Square... Remember, before you swallowed up Enix and made good games? Oh, and maybe not make it really hard to buy the FF7 PC version that was just released... I know you know about Steam, Square. Why not put FF7 on it?
I'm guessing I'm the only one that wants a FF8 remake MORE than FF7. :P :P :P
I have a different explanation for the money loss of Square Enix: Maybe, I say maybe, some consumers have assosiated this firm with questionable sequels, remakes and milking of the Final Fantasy brand name, rather than an innovator in this business. Manipulating for 15 years the Final Fantasy VII fans won't get you anywhere in the long run.
Square Enix fell off because they pointlessly tried to change all their games into 'modern' versions - completely dissing and abandoning the fan base that made them a force in the game world in the first place. I'd rather play Final Fantasy 7 or 10 before I play anything square has made since. Nobody wants to play their games anyore because all you do is watch .. might as well rent a cartoon. if they stopped trying to impress five year olds and made games like they used to - with awesome stories and involved gameplay - and yes - turn based battles ... then maybe people would actually return to the fold.. but until that day square has not only lost their touch - they've lost their fans. For those of you who miss the goold ol' days of playing FF games - get Ni No Kuni !
@skateordie26 I saw this game and I'm following it - looks very cool. I will have to give this a shot as well as The Last Story
3 Like The real reason Square-Enix isn't doing well is their games are poor. If they would do a modern graphics version of Final Fantasy 6 or 7, they could reclaim those profits handily. But no, everything they do tastes like Final Fantasy X-2, the dress up game!
Conversation powered by Livefyre
Content you might like…
-
E3 2013 Photo Gallery
GameSpot's out in full force at this year's E3 where we'll be getting our hands on the next generation of consoles and the latest games. Check out our photo gallery for all the latest from the show.
- Jun 9, 2013
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Hot Stories
Newsmakers
-
Preowned games on Xbox One decided by publisher
Microsoft confirms that it won't charge any fees for any titles eligible for resale. Full Story
- Posted Jun 7, 2013 9:00 am AEST
-
Microsoft confirms required 24-hour check-in for Xbox One
Playing Xbox One games on somebody else's console will also require a check-in every hour. Full Story
- Posted Jun 7, 2013 8:41 am AEST
Featured Stories
-
PlayStation 4 will cost $399
Sony confirms a $399/€399/£349 price for the PlayStation 4 hardware, $100 cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One. Full Story
- Posted Jun 11, 2013 4:19 pm AEST
-
New Halo coming to Xbox One; runs at 60fps
Will be coming in 2014. Full Story
- Posted Jun 11, 2013 4:11 am AEST
-
Del Toro calls BioShock Infinite a 'mindf*ck'
Pan's Labyrinth director praises Ken Levine and Irrational Games for latest BioShock, says he would consider large-scale Pacific Rim game "God willing." Full Story
- Posted Jun 14, 2013 1:53 am AEST
-
Microsoft: Xbox One will be leading product people love and embrace
Xbox boss Don Mattrick believes concerns over connectivity are overblown, recommends Xbox 360 for those without an Internet connection. Full Story
- Posted Jun 12, 2013 10:52 am AEST
-
New Mirror's Edge is open-world
EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau describes new project as "open-world action adventure game." Full Story
- Posted Jun 13, 2013 3:45 am AEST
Submit News
Related Game
Tomb Raider
- Publisher(s): Square Enix
- Developer(s): Crystal Dynamics
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- Classification Board: MA
Related Games
Recent News
-
Sony on why it won't hinder PS4 used games--flexibility creates value
PlayStation boss Jack Tretton says ability to freely resell games creates value in the initial purchase; PS4 won't require online check-in because many...
