You Have to Do BETTER Than THAT Square Enix!

Approximately a $51.9 million dollar operating loss...c’mon Square Enix, you HAVE to do better than that.

Square Enix’s financial year ended March 31st and they have just released their financial reports and, even with the release of 3 games from their heaviest-hitter franchise (Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster) and the release of their new game Foamstars, they could not pull it together and their profits too a substantial hit in the process.

Therefore, Square Enix had announced their new initiative in what they’re calling “Square Enix Reboots, and Awakens” (you can check out more on this at Wesley Yin-Poole’s article written on IGn.com here), a three-year plan where they will, “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs” as stated by the company. But why would this matter? Let’s find out!

Let’s get the first part of this discussion out of the way before we explore how they can really take this initiative to the next level: platform exclusivity sucks. There, I said it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it either. Now this directly correlates to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the fact

that Square Enix, for all the hype that this game received, did not meet the financial expectations of the company.

...How...How in the world could this happen? You have Sony Interactive Entertainment as your publisher. During the months before the game’s release, you couldn’t even get onto IGN without a banner showing up about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it was absolutely incredible. Sony threw the entire book at this game, utilizing every single omnichannel marketing strategy imaginable to ensure the financial success of the game. They did everything: videos ads, website ads, YouTube ads, physical banners in stores, billboards, they even had the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra play the entire OST from the game ON TOUR. It was literally everywhere and everyone who was interested and HAD A PS5 went out and bought the game.

And herein lies the problem: everyone who had a PS5.

This is what makes me so upset about great games that are locked into an exclusivity contract. You can’t play the game anywhere else other than on that platform. Which leads me into my next point which is that, regardless of how wide your net is in terms of marketing strategy and how omnichannel-focused it is, if you only fish in one pond, you’re limited to the amount of fish you can catch within that pond.

Even indie developers understand that analogy, trust me it’s not that hard to understand. And people wonder why games that are on every platform make more money. If it’s a good game, it’s almost guaranteed that they will make a profit from their game because their marketing efforts are not only limited to the amount of PlayStation users in the market, but every user from every single platform. Simple as that. Therefore, if the game does not do particularly well financially on one platform, they don’t have to solely rely on it to make a profit from their game.

Square Enix, let’s cut to the chase. You blew it.

It’s the truth, the numbers don’t lie. But you can bounce back. You’re an enormous developer with unbelievably talented employees, you have absolutely incredible IPs, and an amazing fanbase, of which I'm a part of. I do believe that this initiative to bolster your long-term growth will do wonders for your company because when you change your strategy to give more gamers an unforgettable experience like playing Final Fantasy XVI for the first time, the hardwork and dedication for your games shine through and, in turn, profits skyrocket.

As I said before, a great game with a solid marketing strategy has the optimal chance of making a solid profit. But if you pigeonhole yourself into one platform, regardless of who the publisher is and how much money they have to reach a greater audience and blah, blah, blah, it doesn’t matter. Yes, SIE is an absolute unit in terms of their marketing capabilities as a publisher, there is

no question about it. But having an omnichannel strategy is not enough to be successful, you have to be on everything. Only then will your strategies go the distance and allow your sales to hit the profit margins you need to be successful.

Also I just want to add, because my co-host would probably never let me live it down if I didn’t, that Square Enix needs to go back to real turn-based combat. No more action JRPGs, the fans are over it. It was interesting with Final Fantasy XV and XVI and the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth combat systems was one-of-a-kind, but let’s get back to some old-fashioned turned-based combat. More on that on this upcoming week’s episode of the Not for Normies Podcast!

That’s it from me! Thank you all once again for checking out this article! If you want to read more, you can check out last week’s article here where I absolutely rip into PlayStation for almost destroying Helldivers 2’s credibility by forcing gamers to create a PSN account to play the game (PlayStation has really been messing up as of late, they need to step it up). As well, if you're interested in more content, you can always check out the Not for Normies Podcast & YouTube Channel where, every week, we talk about all the news you need to know in the video game industry. You won’t want to miss this week’s episode! Have a great rest of your week, play some video games and, as always, don’t be a normie!