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 Posted: Thu, 28th Mar 2013 07:04 Post subject: Square Enix Forecasts Massive Loss As President Departs |
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The years have not been kind to Square-Enix. Even as its 2009 acquisition of Eidos has yielded commercial and critical hits like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the recently released Tomb Raider, the once powerful Japanese publishing giant has watched its fortunes dwindle. Even as its business on mobile devices like iPhone and in browser games has increased, Square-Enix has still incurred heavy losses due to tepid console game sales, internal game development gridlock, and massive failed releases like the MMO Final Fantasy XIV. With just days to go before the end of Square-Enix’s fiscal year, the company shared projections with its investors on Tuesday morning. In light of an “expected extraordinary loss,” Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada is stepping down from his post after 13 years with the company.
Square released three reports ahead of its full fiscal year report due in April. The first of these was a major revision to its earnings forecast for the full year. Sales compared to fiscal 2012, when the company reported total income of nearly 128 billion yen, around $1.6 billion at the time, are expected to be flat due to current exchange rates, with 145 billion yen projected for fiscal 2013, or more than $1.5 billion. The blow to the gut, however, is the expected loss. In fiscal 2012, Square actually netted income of more than 6 billion yen, around $64 million. It’s modest, but still income. While it was previously expecting to report 3.5 billion yen ($37 million) in income for the year, it’s now projecting an income loss of 13 billion yen (nearly -$138 million.)
“Slow sales of major console games in North American and European markets” is cited as the primary reason for the revised forecast, but poor Hitman: Absolution sales alone aren’t behind the loss. This loss is due not just to disappointing game releases, but massive reorganization of the company. 10 billion yen ($106 million) of its expected losses are due to overhauling the company. “In view of the rapidly changing environment of the game businesses, the company has decided to implement major reforms and restructuring in its development policy, organizational structure, some business models, and others,” reads Square’s statement. Its bracing investors for a huge loss that is “extraordinary” because it doesn’t plan to repeat it in the future.
In fact Square’s full announcement reflects just how far it’s going to guarantee that it won’t see a similar loss in 2014. Yoichi Wada, who joined Squaresoft as executive director in 2000 and became CEO of Square-Enix in 2003 following that merger, will step down from his leadership position. Replacing Wada is Yosuke Matsuda, formerly Square-Enix CFO. Matsuda’s been with the company since 2002, primarily as a business overseer, with his only production credit on the PlayStation 2 RPG Unlimited Saga.
What will happen to Square-Enix in the coming year? Sega’s fiscal 2012 results were much like Square-Enix’s this year, a time that saw the company consolidate by cancelling titles and closing studios around the world. Square has already streamlined its console business to rely heavily on Eidos studios for console game output, and with investments already made in games like Thief, don’t expect I/O Interactive, Crystal Dynamics, or Eidos Montreal to be closed in the wake of the announcement. The greatest restructuring will likely take place in Square’s Japanese development studios, which have been in a state of gridlock since starting work on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2011. In short: The company won’t stop making Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, but the future of other Japanese Square output is in question.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/square-enix-ceo-yoichi-wada-steps-down-as-slow-sales-of-games-like-hitman-absolution-lead-to-massive-company-restructuring/#ixzz2OoO9jfWs
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| Posted: Thu, 28th Mar 2013 11:26 Post subject: |
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How the fuck does a "reorganisation" cost 106 mln $?
LOL @ Japan
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Sin317
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| Posted: Thu, 28th Mar 2013 11:29 Post subject: |
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| JanKowalski82 wrote: | How the fuck does a "reorganisation" cost 106 mln $?
LOL @ Japan |
because you think that's different anywhere else ?
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| Posted: Thu, 28th Mar 2013 11:31 Post subject: |
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| Sin317 wrote: | | JanKowalski82 wrote: | How the fuck does a "reorganisation" cost 106 mln $?
LOL @ Japan |
because you think that's different anywhere else ? |
LOL @ the whole "corporate world"
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JBeckman
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 20:44 Post subject: |
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http://www.shacknews.com/article/78625/square-enix-banked-on-tomb-raider-hitman-and-sleeping-dogs
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In a financial briefing outline [PDF link] released yesterday (via Eurogamer), Square Enix avoids stating its exact estimates, but shares predictions narrow enough to show it was well out.
The company had predicted that Tomb Raider would sell 5-6 million copies in its fiscal year ending March 31, though the game only launched on March 5 so it had 26 days to achieve that. According to Square Enix's own estimates at the end of March, it only sold around 3.4 million.
Hitman: Absolution was predicted to sell 4.5-5 million copies, yet Squeenix estimates it only shifted 3.8m. Sleeping Dogs was expected to sell 2-2.5m, but only managed an estimated 1.75m.
Squeenix points out that its financial forecasts don't count on the games selling as well as they predict, counting on 80-90% of those numbers, but they still fell short for the year.
This was the first year the company had tried banking on releasing "hallmark Western titles" without a "blockbuster title in Japan" to back them up, it says. Evidently Squeenix and its folks responsible for predicting sales were out of touch with the Western market.
The briefing says "considerable" effort was put into polishing the games and they received "extremely high" Metacritic scores, so it was "very disappointed to see that the high scores did not translate to actual sales performance."
That's a bit contentious, as Metacritic scores of 86% for Tomb Raider, 79% for Hitman, and 81% for Sleeping Dogs are actually only middling on the absurdly inflated scale of video game review scoring.
Mistakes were made, and hopefully lessons will be learned. Square Enix had predicted a net profit of $37 million for the year, but revised that to a whopping $138m loss, with $105m going towards the restructuring already underway. Square Enix's Los Angeles office had a round of layoffs last week, with more reportedly to come.
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tonizito
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 20:47 Post subject: |
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Absolutely insane predictions, hope they get their shit together.
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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JBeckman
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 20:55 Post subject: |
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Yeah it sounds like they could do with a bit of restructuring or at least that seems to be what is happening with the recent layoffs, betting those three games would all do several million sales and extremely high (metacritic) review scores in a short amount of time seems a bit crazy to me.
(But all things considered all three games did pretty good in sales and those review scores, just that Square had even higher expectations.)
EDIT: Or in short they had two reboots and one new and franchise, none of which is a certain bet.
(Or at least that's what I see, rebooting a franchise is pretty risky isn't it?)
Last edited by JBeckman on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 21:01; edited 2 times in total
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 20:55 Post subject: |
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They expected Absolution to sell that much? Did they try their own game and evaluated its quality?
And how the hell did Absolution get a 79/100 score on Metacritic? Sleeping Dogs is a way better game.
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 21:00 Post subject: |
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| JBeckman wrote: | Yeah it sounds like they could do with a bit of restructuring or at least that seems to be what is happening with the recent layoffs, betting those three games would all do several million sales and extremely high (metacritic) review scores in a short amount of time seems a bit crazy to me.
(But all things considered all three games did pretty good in sales and those review scores, just that Square had even higher expectations.) |
I still haven't figured out where these insane expectations came from.
I guess it's partly because they needed to sell those numbers to turn a profit with those games (which in itself is a sign das development budgets got out of hand in general) and the other part is. I don't know. They expected those games to pick up the money that they dropped with stuff like FF XIV?
It's been said before, I'll say it again. An industry where a game that sells over 3 million copies in as short a time as Tomb Raider did, is still considered not satisfactory/ a failure is so inherently flawed that it would take people much much smarter than any of us to put back on track.
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 21:36 Post subject: |
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Imagine how much cash they'd pull in if Just Cause 3 had great mod tools and multiplayer...
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prudislav
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| Posted: Tue, 9th Apr 2013 21:44 Post subject: |
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Those predictions are just funny -
Tomb raider sold better than all previous game in series.
Sleeping Dogs sold very well for new IP which was once cancelled by Activision
not sure about hitman
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 14:33 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 15:09 Post subject: |
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Mmm... SquEnix shares are at a 12 month high, and Sony haven't really gotten much out of being a shareholder. Long gone are the days when FF and DQ were system-exclusives, and could shift consoles all on their lonesomes. Makes sense for Sony to cash out now, and use the money to continue reconfiguring their corporate structure/plug losses.
With luck, whatever influence Sony had will now evaporate, and we'll see more striking changes in SquEnix (maybe more new IP, or less reliance on FFs of old).
Pixieking
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 15:13 Post subject: |
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YOU HAVE TO SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE ... Sony is slowly bankrupting itself all thanks to its SONY stores , Movie, TV devision and PC laptops
so what they did is " television operations [terminated] and sell the Vaio PC division [Sony no longer will make laptops after its 2012-2013 exploding battery disaster ,only consoles , mobiles and TVs]as part of its effort to return to profitability, eliminating 5000 jobs and (hopefully) saving the company a little under $1 billion in "
they also sold both its U.S. and Tokyo office properties $2.3 billion dollars in 2013
so 2015 will be less SONY movies , NO Sony TV shows , no LAPTOPS from them , less and less Sony Stores
as for Square Enix the blame goes to three things :
the longest production cycle for FF VERSUS that from ps3 jumped to ps4
FF MMO
FF XII + FF XII 2 + FF XII 3 lighting returns
so FF just fucked them over
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Saner
Posts: 6877
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 15:16 Post subject: |
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Maybe had they made FF games and not, well lets be kind, complete fucking shite with Final Fantasy put on the cover, they would still be one of the few developers people said
"They have a new FF game, fuck that must buy"
instead of
"Hey Square, you have a new FF game, what are you gonna fuck up this time"
| ragnarus wrote: |
I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ? |
Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa!
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kumkss
Posts: 4834
Location: Chile
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 17:58 Post subject: |
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| Hfric wrote: | YOU HAVE TO SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE ... Sony is slowly bankrupting itself all thanks to its SONY stores , Movie, TV devision and PC laptops
so what they did is " television operations [terminated] and sell the Vaio PC division [Sony no longer will make laptops after its 2012-2013 exploding battery disaster ,only consoles , mobiles and TVs]as part of its effort to return to profitability, eliminating 5000 jobs and (hopefully) saving the company a little under $1 billion in "
they also sold both its U.S. and Tokyo office properties $2.3 billion dollars in 2013
so 2015 will be less SONY movies , NO Sony TV shows , no LAPTOPS from them , less and less Sony Stores
as for Square Enix the blame goes to three things :
the longest production cycle for FF VERSUS that from ps3 jumped to ps4
FF MMO
FF XII + FF XII 2 + FF XII 3 lighting returns
so FF just fucked them over |
I didn't knew that Sony performed THAT bad lately.
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 18:55 Post subject: |
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sony also just sold their square enix shares....
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 19:07 Post subject: |
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The President GTFO is one thing , Sony selling it's SE share is another.
A storm is clearly brewing at Square Enix. I expect some layoffs announcement pretty soon
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 19:35 Post subject: |
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I think it has more to do with Sony than SE. Sony sold off VAIO, basically ceasing PC activities. They also "resructured" their TV division,. which basically means a drastic downgrade. Maybe they need the money to support their PS4 division?
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 19:53 Post subject: |
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| evlncrn8 wrote: | | sony also just sold their square enix shares.... |
Pssst...
Anyway, my opinion is that it's a mix of both. SE have been doing terrible over the last year and Sony have been looking at a way of becoming profitable again so they've been doing a lot of downsizing.
Last edited by sabin1981 on Thu, 17th Apr 2014 19:54; edited 1 time in total
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tonizito
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 19:54 Post subject: |
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FF Versus 13 
I still remember the PS3 fanbois madly clinging on to that game for... what, 5-6 years? 
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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Morphineus
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 20:40 Post subject: |
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| tonizito wrote: | FF Versus 13
I still remember the PS3 fanbois madly clinging on to that game for... what, 5-6 years? |
Shut it, I even bought a PS3 for that one (well and for GTA IV,FF and Valkyria Chronicles). Valkyria was only worth it out of them all xD |
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tonizito
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Location: Portugal, the shithole of Europe.
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| Posted: Thu, 17th Apr 2014 20:48 Post subject: |
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| MORPHINEUS wrote: | | tonizito wrote: | FF Versus 13
I still remember the PS3 fanbois madly clinging on to that game for... what, 5-6 years? |
Shut it, I even bought a PS3 for that one (well and for GTA IV,FF and Valkyria Chronicles). Valkyria was only worth it out of them all xD |
Busted 
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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| Posted: Fri, 18th Apr 2014 03:29 Post subject: |
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but never FEAR ...Square Enix just released Drakengard 3 a sequel to Nier ... it will be out for US and Europe on 21th May but only in digital form
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| Posted: Fri, 18th Apr 2014 06:01 Post subject: |
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It's a shame PC has so little traction in Japan. With Sony no longer a shareholder, you'd think there would be little reason they couldn't put out future FF and KH releases on PC, especially with the Xbone and PS4 basically being underpowered PCs now. Can't see it happening though.
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xDBS
Posts: 1937
Location: USA / Japan
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| Posted: Fri, 18th Apr 2014 06:35 Post subject: |
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PC gaming is pretty big in Japan.... really no difference. They get on IRC just like us, have PC gaming forums with PC gaming elitist. For example, A lot of JRPGs were released on PC only in Japan.. such as Lunar: Silver Star Story etc.
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Tweaked to play Frogger, Lemmings & GTA4
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