The figures for SQUARE ENIX’s last fiscal year have just come in, and they aren’t pretty. The company posted a loss of over six billion yen, which is around sixty million U.S. Dollars. SQUARE ENIX was expecting high sales for titles such as Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman: Absolution, but didn’t quite hit their marks. Some may argue their expectations were too high, hoping for routine releases that break the five million mark.
Square blames their current financial situation on the “underperformance of major titles for consumer game consoles in North America and Europe.” In short, western gamers simply don’t understand what good games are. That being said, Square has been doing their best to appeal to a western audience for a very long time now. Their titles have lost the JRPG aesthetic that SQUARE games were known for. Instead, they’ve tried to copy the grittiness that Activision and EA instill in their titles—to poor effect. All of this is pretty ironic when you consider that fans simply want them to get back to what they were doing best all along: fantasy.
How will SQUARE ENIX be fixing this issue? By redoubling their efforts in the mobile sector. While that may serve to bring in cash, it certainly won’t give SQUARE fans the breakthrough JRPG they have all been waiting for.
Source: Square-Enix Earnings Reports