Square Enix may be pleased with Final Fantasy 16‘s initial sales, but the PS5 exclusive couldn’t prevent the company from losing billions. A new report reveals that Square Enix has lost nearly $2 billion of its value since Final Fantasy 16’s release.
Final Fantasy 16 sales didn’t meet the “high end” of Square Enix’s expectations
Bloomberg reports that analysts are concerned about Square Enix’s historical reliance on its Final Fantasy franchise to make up for a series of lackluster releases. This is partly why despite selling millions at launch, Final Fantasy 16 sales weren’t the saving grace that the company was hoping for. Square Enix previously said that the PS5 exclusive’s sales didn’t meet the “high end” of its expectations.
“Flooding the market with unfinished, bad or untested games is a bad move,” Tokyo-based developer Michael Prefontaine told Bloomberg. He specifically listed Marvel’s Avengers, Forspoken, and The DioField Chronicle as examples of such games. Elsewhere, Macquarie Capital Securities Japan analyst Yijia Zhai wrote in a note to investors that the company has concerns about Square Enix’s “game development structure and game quality control, which could limit the longer term performance.”
Other analysts have echoed these sentiments, adding that Square Enix continues to release average, forgettable games.
