Recently, Square Enix announced its goals for the coming year and some announcements will excite many. There will be something new for the studio!
Like every quarter, many companies publish their financial reports for the last three months, but also their goals for the following months. These official documents provide an opportunity to learn interesting information about the future of certain games and studios. At the beginning of February we therefore have some good news, first from Ubisoft, which has expressed its desire to release XDefiant before the end of March 2024. But that’s not all, and Square Enix also has some nice surprises in store in its own report.
Square Enix wants to change things!
The final certificate for Square Enix is not the most prosperous they have ever experienced. It’s not catastrophic at all, but many numbers are declining. However, the Japanese company is vigilant and is planning to remedy the situation! In its press release, the studio reveals that it wants to improve the quality of its games. To do this, they will reduce the proportion of games developed externally and increase the proportion of games developed internally. The goal is to achieve true AAAs over which they have complete control. Higher quality games, created from A to Z at home, have the advantage of increasing margins while driving more sales. These changes will occur next spring.
What explains these changes?
In this press release, we note that several game categories from Square Enix are not generating the expected profits. First, mobile game sales are declining every year, despite the release of Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis in 2023, a software from the studio’s flagship license. The numbers are also declining in the MMO category. Fortunately, Final Fantasy 14, the most profitable game in the saga, will soon receive a new expansion in 2024: Dawntrail. It is Final Fantasy that achieves the best results at Square Enix, as the numbers in the “HD games” segment are increasing thanks to Final Fantasy 16 (3 million copies sold in a week), but also the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Series.
Thanks to this strong brand, we cannot say that the results are alarming. Especially since the company appears to be rather stable, as the figures are similar to those from last November. Overall, sales and profits fell by 2.6% from April 2023 to December 2023. It is expected that Square Enix will make up for these losses with the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
