5 Reasons Square Enix Is Facing Financial Ruin

Posted on Thursday, May 26 @ 10:27:49 Eastern by Heath_Hindman

I used to work for an English school in Japan that wanted to publish its own book series. The teaching staff reviewed it and took note of its countless errors, nonsensical lessons, and even instances of Oxford Press plagiarism. "Miyuki," we urged the owner in a meeting, "We have to delay publishing until next semester so that we can fix this." These books were beyond awful. The lady, seeing only visions of dancing money, sent the books to be published in their current form, allowing no teacher intervention. It didn't take long for customers to notice how bad they were and begin complaining, fulfilling the prophecies of the teachers.

Sadly, Square Enix has been demonstrating this same stubbornness and disregard for quality assurance lately, and this year, it's going to end up costing them $150 million in losses. For every The World Ends With You, there's a Last Remnant or an Infinite Undiscovery. Let's take a look at the main reasons for this.

Financial Fantasy Bore-teen

Final Fantasy XIV was, as admitted by the company's numerous public apologies, a rush job. Hang on. This is a serious business crime in my book. I'll let a company slide on cutting some corners once in a while -- it's a human thing to do, and every single person in the world does it at work, at some point. Don't lie, this includes me and you.

But me not putting a cover sheet on my TPS Report can't compare to the failings of Final Fantasy XIV. These were not just corners that were cut; they were slashes right down the middle, veritable axe chops to the chest of what could have and should have been a solid MMO. Yeah, yeah, haters gonna hate Final Fantasy XI, but heck, as someone who used to play MMORPGs as a job, it was one I actually enjoyed and came back to once in a while. I even might be playing it right now if I weren't so busy bitching about other games online.

FFXIV spent months being unplayable and is still operating for free due to the overwhelming amount of ass packed into Eorzea. I'm not alone when I declare that my anaconda don't want none unless you got fun, hon'. Right now, most people are not sprung on FFXIV, for good reason.

Now, where that comes into play here is that people are not as mindless as Square Enix apparently expected them to be. I can see how, in that position, executives might have wanted to launch in September regardless of how obviously incomplete it was, fully confident that the Final Fantasy name would sell itself. They're right - the franchise has had a way of selling itself this last decade or so, but not when there's a subscription fee involved. People bailed out on the game and reviewers slaughtered it, leading not only to sales below expectations, but the PS3 version also got indefinitely delayed, and they lost that precious, precious subscription money that is vital to the success of all large-scale MMORPGs. Running a full-fledged MMO for nine months costs a ton of money, and when you're not getting the subscription fees you were banking on, well, here comes trouble.

Bored of Arcana

But the rabite hole goes deeper than Final Fantasy XIV. Remember Lord of Arcana? Me neither. Monster Hunter has been enjoying phenomenal success, and Square Enix wanted a piece of Capcom's pie. But Lord of Arcana was an unoriginal, unpolished, un-fun experience. Why? Well, like a certain Square Enix property would urge us, let's look upon the heart.

The Monster Hunter team is getting stuff done and letting their creative juices flow, of course wanting to make some bank but also wanting to deliver an awesome game. Lord of Arcana, however, was made by some people wanting to do whatever Monster Hunter was doing, because they crunched some numbers and figured out someone was gettin' rich off it. A Monster Hunter clone can be made with success; Namco Bandai did it with God Eater, which has tremendous Japanese sales and ended up getting comic and action figure spinoffs.

Namco Bandai saw what Capcom was doing and tried to do it better (whether they did is purely subjective, but hey), and for that, they got rewarded with a successful and well-liked franchise. Namco Bandai saw a great game and said, "I'll bet we could make something people would love." Square Enix, however, saw that game and said, "I'll bet we could make something people would buy." That kind of business gets noticed.

< Previous Page
1 2
Next Page >

Tags: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix

Comments

Doc_Holliday
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 10:59 am
"What other business knows the overwhelming majority of its customers wants a certain thing and then just sits idly by?"

I love this question. It reflects the sheer madness that currently exists within many top Japanese game developers.

When a company is sitting as comfortably as SE, why would you rush your next massive product? I'd like to see their entire executive staff hanged in effigy.

0 1

zero_traveler
Joined: Mar 2012

Posted: Mar 4th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Not just sits idly by, but outright refuses to give the people what they really want?

FFVII remake? One of the higherups needed to do such a thing basically said he doesn't feel like it.

Kingdom Hearts? Theres a few things they could do there... how about...oh, Maybe bringing the Final Mixes out of Japan? Seriously? ALL of the final mix versions of the KH games have ADDITIONAL SCENES AND KEY STORYLINE INFORMATION THAT ISN'T ANYWHERE ELSE.

Kingdom hearts again: Just putting the games on the PSN would be great.

For the last several years, I've been convinced they just don't like making money. For some strange reason.

0 1

213EDD
Joined: Sep 2007

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
The way i see it Square-Enix is trying to do whatever it can to keep its stocks from going down or laying of any employees and given their current situation i believe is having a hard time doing so.

0 0

Odbarc
Joined: Apr 2007

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Final Fantasy 6 rules!

1 0

Ranim
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 6:21 pm
I wonder why Square became such a shitty company after the merger.

0 0

MrrClean
Joined: Aug 2010

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
@ Ranim: Its that last word in your sentence, dude.

0 0

SweetHat
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I Lost interest after 10, in my opinion 7 was thier best. why fix something that wasen't broke

0 0

sandineyes
Joined: May 2008

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Who is this Heath Hindman person?

0 0

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 26th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
@sadineyes
Some loser.

0 0

Kese_Arcade
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 1:25 am
WOW, hmm. Yea there isn't enough space here for me to say what I want to. Now's as good a time as any to start that blog. But Doc_Holiday is right, a lot of this is the odd state the japanese industry is in right now. Square in particular. I guess I'll get on that blog.

0 0

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 2:29 am
@sadineyes
Some loser.

0 0

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 2:30 am
Wait why the heck did it double post that like 4 hours apart?
Man I really am a loser.

0 0

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Also: cost of giant sword production and hair gel.

0 1

SweetHat
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
lol im grown my hair long specifically so i can get the hairdoo and costume together to go as cloud to a con this year or next.

0 0

quiknkold
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Squenix could revitalize their finances if they pulled a new line cinema and pulled almost all their money in one product.
New Line did it with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, a gigantic gamble that paid off big time.
but Squenix dosent have to gamble. they know what we want, and they know if they did it, we would buy it. I'm talking about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake!

0 0

quiknkold
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
and to make the FF7 remake even more enticing, have it come with HD Remixs of Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and a copy of Advent Children

0 0

Sammo
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Seems this isn't such a popular opinion, but I thought FF13 sucked. I've been a huge square RPG patron since FF7 and the incredible Mario RPG, but after my shity ff13 experience I have no more interest in squeenix games.

I was so frustrated with FFXIII that I wrote a blog about it but then I never put it up because I felt like too much of a dork.

0 2

Klandathu
Joined: Apr 2008

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
@Dan: Not to mention all the crack they have to buy and smoke in order to keep their eyes so big and dilated all the time.

0 0

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
@Sammo
That IS a popular opinion. Lots of people hated that one, and it's only serving to shake up confidence in the Square Enix name.

0 0

cyberjim2000
Joined: Feb 2010

Posted: May 28th, 2011 at 1:49 am
I remembered reading somewhere that SquareEnix's president or CEO or whatever said that they're not going to risk doing new IPs like The World Ends with You and focus more on known IPs like Final Fantasy and Dragon's Quest. That's when I knew the company's going to hit rock bottom sooner or later.

0 0

Rinnon
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 28th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Sammo: Nope, that's popular opinion. That's probably because they gutted the whole damn thing. What is it that you remember when you think back to a Final Fantasy? You remember big sprawling towns like Midgar, or Alexandria, and item shops, and mini games and secrets! Final Fantasy XIII had none of that. And if it did, it was after the first like 30 hours and I never managed to get there.

The thing is, I don't know about you guys, but I bought it. Which to Squenix is all they wanted. I don't think they cared if I finished it, as long as I bought it. But I won't be making that mistake again. And I suspect a lot of people feel that way. XIII-2 isn't getting a day 1 buy. It's getting a "read the reviews" + "Wait for it used" treatment. And that's only IF it's an actual improvement over XIII and not just "Oh well, people bought XIII so they must like it! Let's just make the same general game, with a new story."

0 0

WickedLiquid
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: May 30th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Man, FF14 was just embarrassing. It's sad when a company like SquareEnix assumes their fans are retarded. It would be like Nintendo remaking Mario is Missing and then expect fans to just blindly buy it because they love Mario.

And I agree about remaking the classics. There's a whole new generation of kids out there who never got to experience the golden era of gaming in the 90's. Although considering the shocking decline in quality from SquareEnix, I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow managed to screw it up and Squall's voice actor was a 10 yr old boy.

0 0

DaVillain
Joined: Apr 2011

Posted: May 31st, 2011 at 2:02 pm
"my anaconda don't want none unless you got fun, hon'." LMAO!! Nice reference to Sir Mix-a-lot Heath. Well played.

0 0

DaVillain
Joined: Apr 2011

Posted: May 31st, 2011 at 2:14 pm
@SweetHat- I agree. 7 was the best final fantasy and 10 was a close runner up. After that, I no longer had the same interest becuse the games just didnt look that appealing to me.

0 0

Krenseru
Joined: Nov 2011

Posted: Nov 10th, 2011 at 10:24 am
They deserve this. after playing final fantasy 13 for 5 hours I took the game out of my PS3, threw it in the trash and said to myself "Square is dead to me"

I honestly hope this company does crumble.

0 0

wvtn
Joined: Nov 2011

Posted: Nov 27th, 2011 at 2:45 am
To be honest, I personally didn't mind FF13. Yes it did drag on a bit in the middle, but for all of you people saying it wasn't great, did you actually bother to finish it? Once you hit Gran Pulse and onwards the game WILL pick up again. I had a phasing out period for about two months, but when I finally got up to finish it, I didn't regret it. The story was intriguing and the characters(for the most part) were well developed. The Linear story line didn't really bother me as much as it did others (Try playing Eternal Sonata).

That being said, I have played the older Final Fantasy games, I've finished 1,2,7,8,9,10,10-2,13, and tactics. 7 is still my favorite, but I don't think some of you are giving 13 as much credit as it deserves.

0 0

meap
Joined: Dec 2011

Posted: Dec 8th, 2011 at 5:55 am
FFXIII wasn't great, but it did get alot more hate than it deserves.
That aside, it somewhat fails as an FF game.

0 0

Tristam
Joined: Dec 2011

Posted: Dec 4th, 2011 at 8:43 am
I know that this is only tangentially related to anything you said in the article, but the line from Advent Children that you quoted was one of the most annoying things about the movie to me. In the original Japanese, what Tifa says in that scene is not 'dilly dally shilly shally', but rather the japanese onomatopoeia for a bee buzzing, which both fits the scene and your article a WHOLE lot better.

0 0

Yukipon
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Jan 25th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
>But the finance end of things has sadly become this company's only focus, rather than just its primary one

Sadly that's what you get what you get when you have a former securities salesman in the hot seat.
I guess he's trying to drive down the sales of the SE shares to the ground so that the Chinese may find it attractive to buy it out (and continue the development of FFXIV)

0 0

CaptainGame
Joined: Jul 2012

Posted: Jul 12th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
"I won't spend a lot of time on this point because it's one of the most obvious; but seriously, how many phone calls, emails, press conference questions, and open letters does Square Enix need to receive before someone makes Kingdom Hearts III or HD remakes of Final Fantasy V through IX? Who does that? What other business knows the overwhelming majority of its customers wants a certain thing and then just sits idly by? Businesses that are losing 150 million dollars this year, that's who."

Capcom would be another one. They seem to utterly refuse to deliver what their customers want.

0 0

Peteguy777
Joined: Jan 2013

Posted: Jan 17th, 2013 at 11:11 am
They've just continued to decline in quality since FFX. As mentioned above XIII was the absolute worst, no VII remake or Kingdom Hearts III, but also no Tactics II (the Game Boy ones were meh & don't count in my opinion). Wasn't there a Tactics II rumour floating around back in July/Aug 2012?? & then I hear about this FF Dimensions that's ONLY on iOS... really?! you didn't feel like getting that to the PSN or some other format better known for playing RPG's, at $30 for the game you'd think they'd release it to more platforms?! Oh well, guess we'll never get to explore Midgar in HD or Continue the story of Ramza... but don't worry Lightning's not going anywhere!

Also yes that is also True about Capcom, which is sad since I grew up loving MegaMan as well.

0 0

nick_olsen
Joined: Apr 2013

Posted: Apr 22nd, 2013 at 2:21 pm
What a shame; FFXII is one of my favorite games. It had a great story and excellent game play mechanics. This recent string of releases has really been a disappointment.

0 0