Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth did not meet sale expectations says Square Enix

[John Elden Ring]

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The comment comes from its financial results briefing held in May and finally made public today.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu shared the results, stating: "In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations."


Source

Square Enix says: "In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as “FINAL FANTASY XVI” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH,” but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations."

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[Luffy123]

 

[arvfab]

Wouldn't the Ff14 Xbox port count too?

Also love the "despite the release of FOAMSTARS"

 

[uyoung1989]

Rebirth is a fine but still bloated game. FF16 is just not good enough. But it’s always convenient to blame PlayStation first.

 

[KvallyX]

Bummer for them. I loved the games.

 

[ghostwriter74]

Now that FF16 is finally on the PC and has obviously sold "millions of copies", SE could perhaps analyze why the titles are not selling.

My guess: FF16 is a good game, but has little to do with what made FF what it was. It is no longer even a JRPG or any RPG elements. It is also quite possible that after FF15, which SE marketed with a movie and other media, SE has scared away even the last FF fan with its combat system and "boy group". FF7 Rebirth is certainly interesting, as the ratings are very high, but I personally found it completely bloated and boring. The combat system was completely chaotic for me and the fights were torture.

I also know players who found FF7 Remake rather weak and didn't give part 2 a chance, and players who liked the remake but are now waiting until part 3 comes out to play the "complete remake". The bottom line, and this is my personal opinion, is that the lack of success has little to do with the fact that the titles were PS5 exclusives, but with years of mismanagement of the series by Square Enix. Already with part 12, the concept was completely overturned in order to reach new buyers, which was taken to the maximum in FF15 and 16. Anyone who grew up with the old FF parts and learned to love the good stories combined with turn-based battles and (for the time) great graphic production will hardly find any of that in the modern titles today. In addition, not only has the western market changed and western RPG developers offer good alternatives, the Japanese market has also changed completely. If a gacha game like Honkai Star Rail can stand up to FF and Persona in terms of combat system, production and graphics, and is free, that says a lot about the state of JRPGs.

To put it briefly: SE tried to reach new buyers through design changes and lost many fans in the process, who are now being served (better) by other games. With FF14, SE also has a game that is still successful and keeps players coming back. Maybe SE should let the whole series rest after FF7 part 3 so that players develop demand again. In my opinion, there has been too much FF in the last 4 years, whether it's the pixel remasters, spin-offs or main parts. Players may also be saturated. The whole story supports my suspicions that SE has not decided to develop more multiplatform games, but that Sony is simply no longer interested in an exclusive deal because FF no longer has the traction to sell systems. Stellar Blade may well be a more successful title for Sony than FF7 Rebirth, which says a lot about the state of FF and SE.

 

[Luffy123]

Square needs to find a new way to market their games

Trying to make Rebirth and shoving Aeriths stupid ass in front of us every 5 minutes is not going to get new players to buy this product. They do not give a fuck about her

 

[Dick Jones]

Taka is such a little bitch. It's embarrassing how much Nintendo and Sony clown the fucker.

He is slightly misleading as well. They are talking in the overall context (all games). It doesn't read that FFXVI was a failure. No game is specifically called a failure. It's in an overall context of the period for the company. They could all be failures or one could be a failure...but SE didn't say one game specifically.

 

[Gediminas]

They are writing nowhere that sales didn't reach their expectations.
They wrote that profits didn't.

Question is, how much profits is enough? Until they are setting standard on it, it just nothing burger. They could easily got 500M profits and still it wouldn't be enough..

Also, isn't Takashi massive Playstation hater? What is even a point use his tweets?

 

[Shadow2027]

Pc may have sold 50-100k copies so that didnt do much. Wonder how many of those were also refunded at an already lower Msrp

Maybe they want to go the visions of mana route. Market with xbox and get shut down on launch day

 

[Johnic]

Misleading title. The actual games themselves were never mentioned by name. Their overall profits were. This guy needs another community strike.

 

[Airbus]

Why the dumbass in here keep quoting takashi mochisuki

Hes a known ps hater

Looking for engagement?

 

[mibu no ookami]

I dreamt of a FF7 remake since the FF7 tech demo on PS3 in 2005.

I bought FF7 Remake but it was not the game I was asking for. Rather a remake of my favorite RPG of all time (maybe my favorite game of all time), they turned it into an bloated slog of an action game with ridiculous re-writes to the story.

The stripped the voice actors from FF7 Advent Children but only in the US. Again, voices I had attached to these characters since 2005 and in some cases 2002.

I would have probably paid 250-300 dollars for the game I wanted, a turn based remake in line with the original game with the voice actors we've become accustomed to.

Square Enix did not deliver.

FF16 like FF7R and FF15 is an action game in a franchise that I never asked to be an action game.

I didn't buy FF16 or FF15. I got FF15 for free as part of PS+ Collection and I've never played it.

Square Enix has alienated core fans like me. People who have purchased Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX, FFXII, bought but hated FFXIII, Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy Tactics, Crisis Core FF7, Dirge of Cerberus, Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and 3, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Star Ocean, Star Ocean 2, Star Ocean 3, Brave Fencer Musashi, Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy X HD Remastered, FF7 Remastered, FF8 Remastered, FF9 Remastered, Sword of Mana, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth among others...

 

[On Demand]

Here’s comes another hit piece.

 

[daniel5043]

I feel like neither of those games were evere selling to squares expectations if this is true

 

[Systemshock2023]

FF lost its mojo once graphics got more detailed and characters started having voice acting (around X). Then everyone could see how ridiculous the character designs were and how cringe worthy their dialogue and reactions.

With the older games, your imagination filled in the gaps.

Square has to finish VII trilogy and: port their back catalog to switch 2 mainly. Then design all figure games around switch 2 and have multiplatform releases day one.

And above all, hire better writers.

 

[arvfab]

I dreamt of a FF7 remake since the FF7 tech demo on PS3 in 2005.

I bought FF7 Remake but it was not the game I was asking for. Rather a remake of my favorite RPG of all time (maybe my favorite game of all time), they turned it into an bloated slog of an action game with ridiculous re-writes to the story.

The stripped the voice actors from FF7 Advent Children but only in the US. Again, voices I had attached to these characters since 2005 and in some cases 2002.

I would have probably paid 250-300 dollars for the game I wanted, a turn based remake in line with the original game with the voice actors we've become accustomed to.

Square Enix did not deliver.

FF16 like FF7R and FF15 is an action game in a franchise that I never asked to be an action game.

I didn't buy FF16 or FF15. I got FF15 for free as part of PS+ Collection and I've never played it.

Square Enix has alienated core fans like me. People who have purchased Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX, FFXII, bought but hated FFXIII, Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy Tactics, Crisis Core FF7, Dirge of Cerberus, Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and 3, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Star Ocean, Star Ocean 2, Star Ocean 3, Brave Fencer Musashi, Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy X HD Remastered, FF7 Remastered, FF8 Remastered, FF9 Remastered, Sword of Mana, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth among others...

Maybe the SE CEO did his best to adapt their franchises to modern audiences, I mean, profitability is all that matters, right?

He surely had the charts and the graphs and the numbers indicating that this was the best thing to do.

 

[On Demand]

I dreamt of a FF7 remake since the FF7 tech demo on PS3 in 2005.

I bought FF7 Remake but it was not the game I was asking for. Rather a remake of my favorite RPG of all time (maybe my favorite game of all time), they turned it into an bloated slog of an action game with ridiculous re-writes to the story.

The stripped the voice actors from FF7 Advent Children but only in the US. Again, voices I had attached to these characters since 2005 and in some cases 2002.

I would have probably paid 250-300 dollars for the game I wanted, a turn based remake in line with the original game with the voice actors we've become accustomed to.

Square Enix did not deliver.

FF16 like FF7R and FF15 is an action game in a franchise that I never asked to be an action game.

I didn't buy FF16 or FF15. I got FF15 for free as part of PS+ Collection and I've never played it.

Square Enix has alienated core fans like me. People who have purchased Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX, FFXII, bought but hated FFXIII, Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy Tactics, Crisis Core FF7, Dirge of Cerberus, Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and 3, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Star Ocean, Star Ocean 2, Star Ocean 3, Brave Fencer Musashi, Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy X HD Remastered, FF7 Remastered, FF8 Remastered, FF9 Remastered, Sword of Mana, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth among others...

FF7 remake trilogy would of been boring and not as much fun to play if they made it 1:1 faithful to the original with just better graphics.

I like the changes they made to the story in Remake and so far with Rebirth. It’s adds to enjoyment of playing the game. The game is more of a sequel really than a direct remake. I’m happy they made that decision.

People who want to play the same original game can still do so.

 

[On Demand]

Of course resetera is having a field day with this misinformation.

I never seen a group of people so happy to want a game to fail. It’s always with PS games.

 

[Yurinka]

What he shared is a transcription published by SE today of the presentation made back in May about the fiscal year numbers of the previous fiscal year (period that ended in March 2024). So reming they aren't talking here about sales in recent months.

They mention there:

• The profit (not game unit sales) of the segment/subsegment (so not these two specific games) of the fiscal year (which ended in March) didn't meet their expectations despite sales being up YoY thanks to the releases of FFXVI and FFVIIR in that period.
• Initial sales of Foamstars and FFVIIR weren't as strong as they expected