Wonder what exactly is changing then. Sounds like business as usual except with some projects that got cut.
Especially if the Switch 2 versions sold better than the PS/Xbox versions.
Does SE want to follow the strategy of maximum graphics fidelity or do they want to sell video games? What's the plan here?
Now is a great time for SE to consider giving up on maximizing fidelity with the Switch 2 pulling up around PS4 Pro specs.
Nintendo realized this more than a decade ago with much lesser hardware, just focus on gameplay and story and maximize graphics on the hardware that you have. And the software/hardware sales speak for themselves. With the Switch 2, it's only a slight step back on fidelity (relative to PS5/Xbox X), and we're way beyond the point of diminishing returns on generational graphics leap. The PS4 is closer to the PS5 than any prior generation was to its successor. How much better is a PS6 going to be than a PS5?
And then we have to look at Japan, a market where 3rd party Switch ports outsell PS5 ports at least 2:1 regularly. That ratio will only become more steep once Switch 2 comes out...
So again, does SE care about selling video games or are they just here to develop games that maximize technology? They can continue to develop games for the PS5/6 or whatever the best console specs are, but they should also make their games available on Switch 2 and its successors because that's where a giant portion of gamers are going to be. If they have to divert some budget to ensuring that the ports are as good as possible on Switch 2 as close to the initial launch as possible, then that's what they should do.
FF17 day 1 everywhere would give it the best chance to succeed.
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My hope is better budgets, quality control, less releases each year, and an actual release date strategy. Given the wording, I think the release strategy will at least happen.
welp, better to turn the ship now than never, i dont think is 'too late' but they would definetly need to have a great schedule of games for this strategy to work at full capacity
Sunk costs are a reality here and there's always the potential of FF7 Trilogy packs to sell far more than just the 3rd game standalone.
At this point, SE has to finish the job just to get to the point of having FF7 Trilogy in the library for decades of sales (including remasters) on future consoles/PC.
There is 38.8 billion YEN content production account write-downs/extraordinary losses. This is why SQUARE ENIX has lower profit and HD Games has operating loss this year. Not related to FF VII Rebirth and FF 16.
If it's a priority they'll get it to run. This won't be a situation where they build the game for PS5 or PS6 and try to figure out how to port it elsewhere later, they will make sure all platforms are taken into account during development.
Honestly if this results in them scaling back visuals and world size a bit that could even end up being a benefit. Every publisher is coming out and admitting our current development budget race isn't sustainable.
More people being able to play a video game on whatever machine they want to is always a good thing.
Likewise this is the first time Ive ever seen a Yakuza game referred to as AAA. Its got tons of asset reuse, parts which arent even voiced, animations recycled from not only PS2 games, but old AM2 arcade games, and so on... The series has always been insanely budget despite appearances (aka getting Japanese actors for certain parts). Keep in mind for a good portion of the series, they were selling less than 1mil units per game, if that's AAA, then that's sure as heck AAA on a budget! I dont doubt 8 probably has a higher budget than earlier games, but even then its recycling quite a bit, and will no doubt benefit from having its content recycled in upcoming sequels and remakes (aka Kiwami 3).
Weren't these games already????
What's interesting to me is that I feel Square hasn't been "exclusive" since the PS2 days, when they would make games for only PS2 or a game only for GameCube or one only for GBA. Since the PS3 days, Final Fantasy, Hitman (when they owned that), Star Ocean, Dragon Quest, Octopath, Kingdom Hearts, etc., have appeared on multiple platforms.
I felt as if the past four years with Forspoken, the FF7 Remake games, and FF16 have been an exception, rather than the rule for them. And I guess the first Octopath, which was Switch for whatever reason, but it came to Xbox and PC later.
I guess the AAA exclusives just won't be a thing anymore, but overall, it's doesn't feel as big a shift for me.
I don't think it's a dying market. Nothing is selling as well as FF, but that has always been the case. A lot of other series are seeing growth. Persona 5 might have only done around roughly 3.5M, but I don't think Persona 4's original release even reached 1M. What we're seeing is a decline of single player FF and that's because of SE rather than a lack of interest from the player.
Interesting. I can't imagine Sony not wanting to keep their stuff exclusive or at least first on Playstation. Curious who else follows.
You're misreading it. There was an extraordinary loss that affected that affected consolidated profits AND there was a bigger loss in HD games because of amortization costs driving costs that game sales failed to make up for. Extraordinary losses don't have anything to do with HD's losses, they're accounted for separately, that's all down to development costs game performance.
SD means Smart Devices here, not Standard Defintion.
Only 22 billion is extraordinary loss. Another part of the 38.8 billion is content valuation losses which is about 16 billion.
Content valuation losses also contribute to operating loss of HD Games.
However, content valuation losses is 16 billion.
Almost all SE Switch games are already on PC except maybe 1 or 2.
I want Chocobo GP to thrive.
Also they need to bring Theathrythm to PC.
And release Kingdom Hearts from EGS jail. Please don't ban me for saying this itt.
To be clear the game not being a success is on the game direction itself.
A straight MK clone with no microtransactions woudl have done wonders.
Extraordinary loss (because of canceled projects) has absolutely nothing to do with HD games operating income. You can use that same link, and others to see it's an entirely different section.
You see it right, 248,109 and 25,468 revenue and profit for digital entertainment and the 32,558 consolidated total?
Content disposal loss:
Extraordinary losses aren't part of segment operating income.
This is great news overall, glad to see SE embrace the multiplatform strategy. I firmly believe that, at bare minimum, a PC release along side a console would do wonders.
If the Switch 2 has the power of a PS4 then we possibly can see decent ports, it would be great as well.
Interested to see Xbox numbers considering it looks like they will be all digital soon, plus I highly doubt we will see a GamePass release till much, much later.
I'm sure the PlayStation exclusivity did what it needed to accomplish, establish that link between Final Fantasy and Sony, while also getting that money hat. That hat ain't big enough to offset potential sales on other hardware. Just hoping to hear that more people, in particular PC, can play mainline AAA Square Enix games without waiting.
If the Switch 2 has the power of a PS4 then we possibly can see decent ports, it would be great as well.
Interested to see Xbox numbers considering it looks like they will be all digital soon, plus I highly doubt we will see a GamePass release till much, much later.
I'm sure the PlayStation exclusivity did what it needed to accomplish, establish that link between Final Fantasy and Sony, while also getting that money hat. That hat ain't big enough to offset potential sales on other hardware. Just hoping to hear that more people, in particular PC, can play mainline AAA Square Enix games without waiting.
Yeah, I don't buy it. To think Square is going to tell the team to design up from the Switch 2 to other platforms for FF17 is highly doubtful. Realistically some games will be on switch and some probably won't/will just at a later time. But hey maybe FF17 will take the more linear FF10 approach in scope/size where all you have to do is remove some visual features and lower the resolution to port it. Then again surely it will be a PS6 title so that would be quite disappointing.
In the fiscal year where SE released two AAA games from their biggest series and got an even bigger loss out of the HD division for their troubles, I don't think there's much room to laugh off the idea of the Switch as an important pillar in SE's future development plans.
You're correct and that's why the past 5 years attempt to resurrect exclusivity (with PS5/Epic) was actually the shift; moving away from that is a return to the norm of the prior 10-15 years.
That prior 10-15 years (pre-2020) is really when the FF fanbase grew across all platforms. Square and Sony tried to unwind that but it obviously has flopped completely at this point. FF fans are where they are; if you own a bunch of mainline 1-12 on Switch or 1-15 on Xbox or Steam, you're not going to suddenly go buy a PS5 just to play 16 or 7 Rebirth. You'll just wait and maybe not buy it at all because delayed ports never have the same momentum that the initial release had.
You can't sort of make a franchise exclusive without turning away prior fans that bought copies on other platforms. That's just not a problem that the 1st party exclusives have because their fanbases exist entirely within the 1st party ecosystem (i.e. GoW/Spiderman/Uncharted/Last of Us on PS or Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/Animal Crossing/Splatoon on Switch). But FF hasn't been like that since the PS2 days. The FF fanbase is everywhere now and SE needs to be releasing to them everywhere.
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I wonder if Square isn't seeing Sega's performance on PC/Xbox with RGG and Persona and thinking maybe there's a market now for Japanese RPGs that wasn't there before, a market they should capitalize upon. There's not. There's a market for RGG and Persona, not Final Fantasy. RGG and Persona built their markets and maintained a constant and consistent release strategy; FF is going to arrive on the scene and burst through the door like a dad that went out for cigarettes seven years ago and comes back trying to play it off like he just got very, very lost and hopes nobody calls him out on his shit.
Square Enix just shot themselves in the foot
/s
But aren't most of their games multiplat already at launch? The last major FF games aren't (and Forspoken I guess) which is glaring, but besides that?
Anyway hopefully the Switch 2 is as powerful as it sounds it'll be and that improves the available market for their bigger games.
/s
But aren't most of their games multiplat already at launch? The last major FF games aren't (and Forspoken I guess) which is glaring, but besides that?
Anyway hopefully the Switch 2 is as powerful as it sounds it'll be and that improves the available market for their bigger games.
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Maybe it will make more sense to look at it as the market that S-E needs for FF as it is now, is a dying (or dead) market. I mean it's good and all that cheaper and more sustainable JRPG titles continue to find success and grow, but that means very little for S-E's FF brand at the moment. Given how they envision FF - as mega production value single player RPGs with cinematics, linear storytelling and progression, different iterations of adapting the Japanese style RPGs of yesteryear into big AAA experiences of today.... I would say that from 2009 until 2024, it has largely been a failure. Even FFXV which was the highest selling title in the franchise ever, can hardly be called a profitable success when we take into account the completely disproportional marketing and crossmedia budget S-E poured into it to ensure the positive sales numbers.
All of this effort S-E puts into create this "super AAA JRPG" experience that is Final Fantasy, is no longer sustainable and probably has not been sustainable by sales for a long time now. The costs of the series has grown in a way where the genre actually holds potential growth back because the audience is not big enough to support the cost of their vision.
Even before their own profits took the hit, it felt like there was some suggestion that this was the wiser move for the future. Not saying they were completely wrong to wait this long, but I feel like their own sales and reception to some of their riskier ventures was already signaling a need for change for quite some time now. As far back as the environment that led to them shedding all of their Western IP and studios.
They seem to have been over optimistic about alternative outcomes for a few more years.
They seem to have been over optimistic about alternative outcomes for a few more years.
You are playing but I read a meltdown on Reddit that was pathetic. It compared PS5 gamers and SE AAA going multiplatform to black people in the US in 1939.
MF are super dumb behind this shit.
Lol WTF...I hope that's a troll (satirical?) post.
Multiplatform games are oppression I tell ya!
The more I think about it the more I love the idea of all publishers base targeting the switch 2. I think it would be healthier for the industry and lead to more/better games. As an Xbox owner I'd be fine if Microsoft went in this direction as well.
The only Square Enix games stuck on the Epic Games Store are the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Everything else has made it to Steam.
The KINGDOM HEARTS series on PC | Square Enix Blog
Multiple KINGDOM HEARTS games are now on the Epic Games Store, including KINGDOM HEARTS 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and KINGDOM HEARTS III. Get the details here
1939 is a weird year to pick in the context of black American civil rights. nothing changed as far as I know then; they were awful in 1938 and they were awful in 1940. the analogy doesn't even make sense to the SE change once you get beyond how insensitive and hyperbolic it is.
are they getting confused with the start of ww2?
are they getting confused with the start of ww2?
Put those games on steam and I also hope EGS exclusivity is over permanently.The only Square Enix games stuck on the Epic Games Store are the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Everything else has made it to Steam.
The KINGDOM HEARTS series on PC | Square Enix Blog
Multiple KINGDOM HEARTS games are now on the Epic Games Store, including KINGDOM HEARTS 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and KINGDOM HEARTS III. Get the details herewww.square-enix-games.com
Playstation has the best Kh exclusive… the all-in-one version … which was $20!! At one point.The only Square Enix games stuck on the Epic Games Store are the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Everything else has made it to Steam.
The KINGDOM HEARTS series on PC | Square Enix Blog
Multiple KINGDOM HEARTS games are now on the Epic Games Store, including KINGDOM HEARTS 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and KINGDOM HEARTS III. Get the details here
Buying everything on sale will still set you back like $100 on xbox rn
Square pls…. All in one… $60….
According to what we know, yes. We won't know for sure until we see clock speeds, but it's got 12 Gb of RAM in the CPU, a custom Nvidia GPU with Tensor cores for DLSS and Raytracing cores for...raytracing. Best estimates place docked mode a bit under Series in terms of raw horsepower, not factoring in the more modern architecture and DLSS
