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Square Enix stock falls more than 10% on no profit growth forecast
- Thread starter Exentryk
- Start date
gigantor21
Member
Wasn't it his fault to begin with? LOL
But yeah, seeing how incidental traditional games have become to their earnings is...depressing, to say the least. I have to wonder how much that will change even if FFXV knocks it out of the park.
Repeat of the past:
We're in 03/2009, then, next fiscal year will have both FFXV and DQXI, and sales will spike. Then they'll fall again the follow FY.
Despite their numerous attempts, Square Enix still doesn't have a huge mobile hit (DQM Super Light seems like their best candidate). And MMO no called WoW isn't gonna make that much difference. So, they're still dependent on the traditional mainline releases of DQ and FF (in the same way Capcom is currently dependent on RE and MH).
A warehouse with millions of unsold copies of Lightning Return that they'll sell for $5 bucks.
And a secret European game, since they aim for an increase in the region from 4 million to 4.8 million units.
We're in 03/2009, then, next fiscal year will have both FFXV and DQXI, and sales will spike. Then they'll fall again the follow FY.
Despite their numerous attempts, Square Enix still doesn't have a huge mobile hit (DQM Super Light seems like their best candidate). And MMO no called WoW isn't gonna make that much difference. So, they're still dependent on the traditional mainline releases of DQ and FF (in the same way Capcom is currently dependent on RE and MH).
A warehouse with millions of unsold copies of Lightning Return that they'll sell for $5 bucks.
And a secret European game, since they aim for an increase in the region from 4 million to 4.8 million units.
thelatestmodel
Junior, please.
I know how to fix this:
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on PSN. Right?
on PSN. Right?
Interfectum
Member
They should really be embarrassed by how long it's taking them to put out FF15. So many years in development and players will churn through the game in a weekend.
Yup, the JPN market in a nutshell save for Nintendo.
They made a 5% profit this year. It's next year that they don't expect much growth. I think KH2HD and the new Murdered game are the only noteworthy game coming out in that time?
SatelliteOfLove
Member
We're in that period where all those games abandoned to right the FFXIV ship would be coming out.
Buh buh buh, that's the OLD obsessive, compulsive corporate leadership goal! It's core JRPGs again!!!!11
Buh buh buh, that's the OLD obsessive, compulsive corporate leadership goal! It's core JRPGs again!!!!11
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
SE needs to realise how important their traditional game market is.Where are all the Squeenix games on consoles?
Cloud Strife
Member
It's been almost 8 years since FFXII, all we've gotten since then is XIII, XIII-2, XIII-3. Who would guessed it would turn out this way? After beating FFXII (my first FF), I eagerly played the other titles in anticipation for FFXIII. Now here we are after all those years 
Brackets indicate a loss.
frozencool
Neo Member
Kinda feeling like SE is a strange investment in terms of games at this point. Can see why Sony dropped out. If FF15 is taking so damned long to make then it seems even more and more that SE is still having problems sorting out HD development. I hope FF15 is still good, but it seems like at this point it needs to become the best selling game of all time in order for SE to make back what it's spent over the ten years just developing the thing.
Yes. They went from 13 million loss to 5 million profit. A very good improvement lol. However, they are not expecting any profit growth till next year because they really do not have any big selling games lined up.
Not selling.
Thanks. That sounds...quite obvious now that I think about it
Because the ones they do make are terrible.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Nah it was just LR that bombed.
FFX HD, BD, KH HD were all successful. Lets see how Drakengard does.
GloriousBagel
Banned
Not surprised, they are so focused on mobile that of course their sales would drop.
As long as I get FFXV, they can go full mobile.
As long as I get FFXV, they can go full mobile.
vinnygambini
Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
12 million forecast seems to imply that at least one of their main properties either Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy are to be released in FY15 no? I mean the current line-up is quite barren. Dragon Quest XI 3DS for March judging by the forecast of losses in H1?
LumpOfCole
Member
I'll settle for Bravely Default: Dance and Fashion Collector at this rate
FriedConsole
Banned
Not sure why Square Enix doesn't do more merchandising. JRPG merchandise always sells out and JRPG merchandise is the only stuff that goes up in value on Ebay. A good portion of the JRPG audience likes collecting stuff more than playing the games. You can easily tell if someone is into JRPGs buy just visiting their place and seeing a wall of crap. Square Enix can make $200 figurines and that stuff will sell.
SneakySneaks
Member
And to think all they need to do is create fully-formed ps1 style Breath of Fire 6 for psn and Live and they would make a killing. Too bad they're stupid and turned it into a mobile game that will probably do meh in Japan and dogshit everywhere else (if it's even released). Or just release HD Versions of their classic RPGs, you know instead of just letting people pirate them.
The total lack of the words "Lightning Returns" in any of these slides is damning. What an awful, expensive misstep.
Not quite. Their games business had an operating margin of 11%. Basically a profit margin. That includes console, mmo, pc, and mobile; retail and DD.
Games made up 61% of their sales and 102% of their profit (ie their games profit exceeded their total profit).
Digital distributions (ie games) makes up only 11% of their operating margin
Not quite. Their games business had an operating margin of 11%. Basically a profit margin. That includes console, mmo, pc, and mobile; retail and DD.
Games made up 61% of their sales and 102% of their profit (ie their games profit exceeded their total profit).
Tigersuperman
Banned
I don't see the correlation everyone else is getting with this and FFXV.
Ah, thank you for the clarification.
fvng
Member
These are all problems that would have been resolved if they paid more respect to their IPs. They have an incredible backlog of amazing franchises and they are sitting on them. They only need to give fans what they want. People want an FF7 of Chrono Trigger remake? Give it to them. People demanded a localization of Bravely Default and they didn't listen. A painful lesson for them to listen to fans. Why not remake some games like Bahamut Lagoon that never got a domestic release?
And how about retaining talent in your in house talent? Akihiko Yoshida gone? That boggles my mind. How many third party dev studios spun off from square-enix? Monolith, Brownie Brown? I'm losing track already.
And how about retaining talent in your in house talent? Akihiko Yoshida gone? That boggles my mind. How many third party dev studios spun off from square-enix? Monolith, Brownie Brown? I'm losing track already.
Cloud Strife
Member
I skipped "growth" somehow in that post, but you get the point.
SE is late to the party with mobile market, and they don't have any particularly strong title in that market. If they can't make a sure foothold until early 2015, they'll just continuing shoot.
Capcom is also on mobile craze, but they at least have strong IPs on traditional gaming that could sustain them during their "transition" to mobile market. SE doesn't have MH that sell fuckton of copy and then sell another fuckton next year.
Console gaming is still their bread and butter.
A smart SE would say "We should expand our mobile offerings, while remaining committed to console gaming like we did back in the 90s", but the attitude of current SE is more like "We should expand our mobile offerings at the expense of console gaming", even if they say otherwise.
Paracelsus
Member
Triple-HA pretty much crippled all the major Japanese gaming companies, and it's a shame, but not because of their major entries, but because they ended up losing all their middle tier series in the process.
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
square should really stop making AAA games. I know people want their graphical showcase rpgs with cool cutscenes but I don't think there are enough people buying their games to support that anymore.
Get back to making cheaper rpg's that don't take 3-5 years to make.
TheCowboyPoet
Member
I understand mobile gaming is all the rage in Japan, but it's strange Japanese companies like Square or Capcom don't look beyond their country and see that console/PC gaming is still very popular in the rest of the world. At this point, it's probably not wise to spend the time/money developing a game that would only be sold in Japan or a game that could only be financially successful in Japan.
Noble Neckbeard
Banned
I will never understand this company. They seem to exist in a vacuum of self-absorbed, lackadaisical, stagnant sluggishness.
TheBaronOfNA
Banned
Thats was always the case. Even when they claim to do thing for the western market they seem to take the weirdest route (outsource to a cheap developer or change everything you love of that game) that makes me thing the higher ups has really no idea of what the western marked wants. Maybe why thats why they currently so trigger happy with Asia and China as they are "eastern" enough.
Japanese companies, especially the bigger they are, are very conservative. So, first and foremost their market aim will be Japan, no matter how big their presence on the west, especially when compared to other Japanese developer/publisher.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
How long did Duke Nukem Forever stay in development for?
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
People always say the acquisition of Edios was a good move and from a game perspective I agree but finacially it was a huge risk and far from a safe bet.
Middle tier budget games are dead and so far it doesn't seem like their IPs/brand recognition is strong enough to support AAA budgets.
Maybe for the health of S-E as a whole it will only worsen it as it could spread them thin rather than focus all finances on what Japan produces.
Middle tier budget games are dead and so far it doesn't seem like their IPs/brand recognition is strong enough to support AAA budgets.
Maybe for the health of S-E as a whole it will only worsen it as it could spread them thin rather than focus all finances on what Japan produces.
Devilinthiscity
Member
Get ready for another trailer at either E3 or TGS. Probably E3 since TGS is full of nothing but mobile stuff right?
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Whens the last time SE made a console rpg that was not FF or KH. The few they made were 360/PC exclusive -____- . I hope your happy SE.