Square Enix blames bad year on FFXIV

By Robert Purchese Published 13 May, 2011

And a "weak" console performance.

Square Enix is blaming a bad year on a "weak" console performance; the "continued delay in billing" for embattled MMO Final Fantasy XIV Online; the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan; and the write-off of goodwill - i.e. companies bought by the publisher now not being worth as much.

Square Enix lost ¥12 billion ($148 million/£90.6 million) during the year ending 31st March 2011. Sales were down 35 per cent on financial year 2010.

The gaming high points were Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, which each sold one million units.

"Our Group experienced significantly lower sales and profit during the fiscal year mainly due to weak performance of console game titles released during the year as well as the impact of a continued delay in billing for a key online title, which was newly launched during the year," commented Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada.

Final Fantasy XIV Online has been beset by difficulties since its September 2010 launch, causing Square Enix to waive the subscription fee while the game is fixed. Square Enix is hopeful the game can recover, but whether a competitive MMO market will be sympathetic remains to be seen.

Eurogamer awarded Final Fantasy XIV Online 5/10, and tracked down the game's makers months later to find out what went wrong.

Nevertheless, there's promise on the Square Enix horizon, mostly due to Eidos' strong catalogue of IP. This includes Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Tomb Raider, Thief 4 and Hitman: Absolution.

Square Enix also has Final Fantasy XIII-2 for PS3 and Xbox 360 posed for release this year. There's the the imminent reveal of Dragon Quest X on Wii to look forward to, too.

Final Fantasy XIV Online.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Goodfella #1 1 year ago

    ...and last years FFXIII being shit as well.

  • RandomTerrain #2 1 year ago

    Bad news, Square make some of the best games out there, some absolutely amazing stuff, but they also make huge mistakes from time to time, which loses them a stupid amount of money.

    I think most of us remember the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within situation.

  • sfp_noodle #3 1 year ago

    Square's best stuff over the last few years has come out on the PSP and I no longer own one. Regret it a little as I'd love to play 3rd Birthday and Tactics Ogre. Square only have themselves to blame though.I can't help but feel they've slacked off since merging with their competition at the time Enix. Since the merger, there's only been 2 good home console Square games in Dragon Quest 7 and Final Fantasy 12, the latter of which which some people still resent.

    Instead of giving the fans what they really want, such as proper full blown re-makes of their best work (FF6, 7 & 8, Chrono Cross), we're gettng sequels to quite possibly their worst attempt at a Final Fantasy game ever. Why? It sold well beause of the name, but a lot of fans, especially back home in Japan strongly criticised the game for lacking pretty much everything the series was known for. As long as Square continue to be ignorant to what their audience want and expect, these losses will continue to come.

    Edit - Spelling
    Edited by sfp_noodle at 13/05/11 @ 10:58

  • RandomTerrain #4 1 year ago

    @Goodfella
    I think calling FFXIII shit is harsh.
    But I will admit, it is my least favourite Final Fantasy to date.

  • Goodfella #5 1 year ago

    Perhaps 'shit' was a bit too harsh.

    Worst ever FF game then.

  • gav082 #6 1 year ago

    Mario Sports Mix was terrible, don't let square near any more Nintendo characters

  • Graveland #7 1 year ago

    Even worse than the total bollocks that is FFX?

  • Goodfella #8 1 year ago

    Easily.

  • Graveland #9 1 year ago

    Christ, it must be bad. I love FF, but I found X so utterly disappointing.

  • FortysixterUK #10 1 year ago

    Odd.. I just thought FF14 sucked as it was unfinished ?

    At least FF13 was excellent...but that had more dev time I think. Certainly more than the 2 weeks they spent on FF14.

  • telboy007 #11 1 year ago

    I really liked FF X... possibly my favourite FF. Still not quite sure what is so bad about it? Can someone enlighten me please. :)

  • Wheatley #12 1 year ago

    'The gaming high points were Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days...'

    ...

  • menage #13 1 year ago

    @RandonTerra

    SE did make some awesome games. That ended with the PS2 though (I would even say PS1 for me). The garbage they put out now is all fancy looking, but the game at it's core doesn't get enough attention anymore with the fashion designers at SE. Pretty pictures and stupid convoluted storylines don't make a good game.

    The only thing they're good at is handhelds.

    @telboy

    For me it's the incredibly stupid story (wait..... that thing is my DAD?) and the even more incredibly annoying chara's. What a bunch of whiners. I would kick them all aside and just keep Lulu around. That was the only one who actually felt "rounded";D

    You could easely regocnize the guy from VIII and XIII doing the games he made. They all suck in the whining dep.
    Edited by menage at 13/05/11 @ 11:19

  • jbrollse #14 1 year ago

    "The gaming high points were Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days" - first and last time you'll ever see that written down.

  • metalangel #15 1 year ago

    Mindjack 2, please!

  • Machetazo #16 1 year ago

    3 wrote: "Why? It sold well beause of the name, but a lot of fans, especially back home in Japan strongly criticised the game for lacking pretty much everything the series was known for. As long as Square continue to be ignorant to what their audience want and expect, these losses will continue to come. "

    They did not, I believe criticise the game entirely. It's characters for instance, Lightning (Snow, Vanille and others), has become quite popular. So, this sequel appears very much focused on Lightning. Square say that each main FF is its own game. They made a new one, and they made some mistakes. Through the sequel, they get to continue the narrative and give the game world and design direction another try. We HAVE to have and allow tries. Where something is well intentioned, the time and care's been put in but comes off wrong we should recognise that, why deny and talk down a chance to address the concerns that have been expressed, particularly where you state categorically, your belief that fans feel that Square Enix doesn't listen to their feedback, or understand what they're looking for - I think that's true of some aspects of XII, but it still turned out to be a superb game.

    I'm very much looking forward to ongoing discussion and reveals concerning XIII-2, and VXIII. I don't think you can categorise XIII as "shit", either. The quality is just too high for that sort of reaction.
    Edited by Machetazo at 13/05/11 @ 11:29

  • andywilkie35 #17 1 year ago

    This is what happens when you pump a load of your resources into making a game that no one wanted, and should have left it as a single player game. Final Fantasy XIV, you are a festering turd.

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #18 1 year ago

    X was ok i only really enjoyed blitzball though and that was limeted. 13 i havnt completed because i have more fun playing Neir to be honest and thats not as good as others. when i get back star ocean ill bust that, the last remnant one after the other. good times.

  • dingo75 #19 1 year ago

    So the main money maker and highest potential future hits come from Eidos.
    Seems buying them was a very clever decision!
    I'm happy because I always liked Eidos games and will probably buy all of the mentioned ones (I have Deus Ex on pre-order already).

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 1 year ago

    Weak consoles performances due to weak consoles games developments is the truth!

  • SClaw #21 1 year ago

    FFXIV was a stupid vanity project. Now they've gotten a new lead things might be improving, but I no longer care enough to go find out. Shame because graphically it was lovely and it had a nice art style. Just... *everything* else sucked.

    SE need to work on quality control. Once they get that sorted they'll be fine again.

  • Poontash #22 1 year ago

    Redo Xenogears? And maybe make a game starring adults and not children. Might be a good place to start.

  • MadDave123 #23 1 year ago

    You know it's been a bad year when... "The gaming high points were Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days"

    >_

  • God_Octo #24 1 year ago

    I still think SE's big problem is that it take them years to make a game. The company must be huge, and yet it still look like 5 years to make XIII and versus is nowhere near ready. If the highlight of your year was Kane and Lynch, you have a problem.

    Infact, I think its hilarious. Eidos, a company almost totally reliant on Tomb Raider to keep them afloat is now propping SE up with all its other IPs, as Se seems almost entirely reliant on FF.
    Edited by God_Octo at 13/05/11 @ 13:15

  • spekkeh #25 1 year ago

    I don't think you can categorise XIII as "shit", either. The quality is just too high for that sort of reaction.

    It was a high quality piece of shit.

    Maybe it would even have been better if it was low quality, because the battle system wears out after a couple of hours and there's nothing else in terms of gameplay to sustain the forty additional hours worth of art assets that they had to put in there.

  • FenderMaster #26 1 year ago

    isn't SE also publishing Batman Arkham City? That will surely sell a few million...

  • Graveland #27 1 year ago

    "I really liked FF X... possibly my favourite FF. Still not quite sure what is so bad about it? Can someone enlighten me please. :)"

    I found it absolutely infuriating that for every 5 minutes of game play there seemed to be 10 minutes of cut scenes.

  • Bigglesworth #28 1 year ago

    Say what you like about FF XIII, it was the most successful game of the series released to date.

    You know, I have to smile at the various self-professed 'Final Fantasy fans' who spend most of their time telling people how much they hated each game. I used to say that I too was a fan of final Fantasy, but I don't any more: I actually like the games.

  • Bigglesworth #29 1 year ago

    @Poontash: Redo Xenogears?

    They tried. It failed =(

  • 32768Colours #30 1 year ago

    Blaming weak performance of your games is passing the buck a little. Surely the games performed poorly because the games were poor-to-average at best.

    I'm sure the tsunami in Japan has had an impact, but they shouldn't llet that obscure the fact that their games have been decidedly average of late. Sure external factors play a part, but they should interpret their market feedback more honestly, and start asking what part they play in all this and what they can do to address it.

  • BradlayLaw #31 1 year ago

    What they need to do is release FFXII on 3DS.

  • Stepharneo #32 1 year ago

    Front mission compilation for PS3...you know you want to Square...

  • Climhazzard #33 1 year ago

    FFXIII isn't the worst FF game of all time. Remember FFX-2? Awful. At least Lightning looked cool as well as hot and she kicked ass!

  • addugg #34 1 year ago

    I remember these guys! They made a good game in the '90s.

  • Code_R #35 1 year ago

    I miss Squaresoft.