To be fair, this was literally a week ago:
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www.gamesindustry.biz
didnt that also come with zero layoffs?To be fair, this was literally a week ago:
Square Enix takes $140 million hit on cancelled games
Square Enix today warned investors that its next earnings report will include a significant hit due to a number of canc…
No one is safe :(
I mean sure, but the restructuring is done internally, games like FF, DQ, KH e.t.c. are the most important titles for SE.To be fair, this was literally a week ago:
Square Enix takes $140 million hit on cancelled games
Square Enix today warned investors that its next earnings report will include a significant hit due to a number of canc…
No one is safe :(
I feel like the whole sales discussion always needs to start from: "long narrative game sequels typically see 30-50% sales declines across iterations due to attrition and other factors." The important caveat is always: that only applies to games that can't be sold as entirely separate iterations like Spiderman/God of War/Mass Effect/etc. or where the audience doesn't deem the overarching narrative as a barrier to entry.
Yeg so far it's a highlight of the game for sure, and the game is fantastic all round.
Most likely we see a PC port at least of the 2nd game before they start selling double packs.
Yeah that's ultimately what it comes down to; structuring each game to provide a payoff. It's almost impossible to pull off with a single story narrative divided up into 3 parts. The first 2 won't provide conclusions to all the hours of investment.
Yep, this is exactly why they aren't going to change the strategy now of trying to maximize Rebirth sales on PC and then 3rd game sales on both PS5-6 and PC before rolling out lower prices and a trilogy pack everywhere.
This is more Square continuing the vision of there current HeadTo be fair, this was literally a week ago:
Square Enix takes $140 million hit on cancelled games
Square Enix today warned investors that its next earnings report will include a significant hit due to a number of canc…
No one is safe :(
part 3 has been in some kind of development since they said so in 2022. full active development probably a few months before Rebirth, yeah
A guy I know and somebody who I used to be friends with (he's also got two FFVII-related tattoos lol) called me unsolicited to rant about the ending to Remake to me. A phone call. We didn't even have an active text thread at the time because we just don't talk anymore. When Rebirth dropped I texted him if he got it and he flatly replied "hell no" and we didn't talk after that. Dude is just one person and this is just an anecdote but it affected a number of people greater than zero. For me it was like 80/20 split between gameplay and story that has me uninterested in picking the Remake trilogy back up.
The thing to keep in mind is that SE is still making lots of money. Like, these last few years they've posted their best results. They just want to make more money.
It's difficult to gauge how well Remake sold, specially since Covid certainly influenced it. Looking at the numbers, it broke the record for most units sold by a PS exclusive at "launch" (first 3 days iirc) but it had the usual JRPG drop. It's legs were kinda bad afterwards, so much so that we got Imran reporting that SE was expecting more out of Remake, even if they still thought it was a success. Critically-wise, Rebirth was acclaimed, so it's difficult to pin down story as that big of a factor
i think since 2021 or 2022 their profits are decreasing, isn't it? no endwalker, their mobile is kinda crashing and their single player games arent making a lot of bank. considering development all around is just increasing and we have some bad economical fluctuations going on, it's not like they just want to make more money. they kinda just want to make close to the same money they once did
if it was a RE4R style, one "part" Remake (with changes or not), it would have, 100%, sold better. SE knew this when they decided to make this a grandiose project. It was/is financially risky, you just don't have enough of a nostalgia/newcomer angle in 2 parts, let alone more. maybe they were counting on something else to keep the hype up, idk
I don't think the number of people who are waiting to play all 3 or don't have interest because it's 3 parts is very high at all to make a measurable impact on sales. Most of the casual audience will have bought FFVII Remake without even realising its divded into parts.
that's not it though. the nostalgia and newcomer angle for one single entry, or the first part, is extremely high and it makes up for some incredible hype. we can argue how much Covid influenced on Remake's launch, but it was remarkable. that's one of the big factors of why there are remakes of extremely popular games, you can draw in the old fans and the newcomers who want to experience an acclaimed title, it's essentially a win-win scenario
I reckon the naming scheme is a big part of the problem. Like with WiiU. Just call it Remake II and Remake III.
I think it would change enough, because without the newly added stuff, the game's narrative would actually flow like the first part of a bigger story rather than the wink-wink shrug-shrug nature of Sephiroth and whispers and Zack showing up to elicit a response from people who already knew the expected beats in the story. If the end was actually just leaving Midgar with some mysteries left unresolved, it would be a cliffhanger like almost every other series in existence. Instead, you get the last 30 minutes of a game that completely break the groundwork laid down in the last 30 hours, and you get no answers. The game sets up these mysteries within like 10 minutes of each other rather than the original story line what wove these threads into the narrative slowly. The getting the bad together and leaving midgar to hunt down a common enemy would have at least closed out one arc in the story. Instead, you're left feeling like the game just ended out of nowhere.
God I hope not. Ideally creating games should be more than just making numbers go higher, it should be a creative process, and the Remake trilogy absolutely delivers on being a bold and risky creative endeavour. We criticize Sony/Microsoft/Ubisoft/etc. for playing it safe and then criticize Square for not doing so...
It's part this and I also feel that people got their 'fix' with Remake and were done with the series. It also didn't help that SE didn't announce it as a trilogy at the time. A lot of pessimism was around SE milking the series and it would be split into 4-5 parts. Heck I think there's still casuals out there that don't know that it's going to be a trilogy.
not sure what this means tbh. you talk as if a RE4R style remake isn't just as much a creative endeavour, and it was a route they could have totally taken and would be considered "safe" compared to the Remake project. also, SE also isn't some charity organization, they have tons of workers they have a duty to pay and as any sensible company they should choose what's best for them, short and medium and long term
