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Square is losing money hand over fist, but they have a plan to recover it

Square Enix lost $140 million last year alone on games that were abandoned halfway through, in what they’ve termed “extraordinary losses.” But don’t worry, they already know what they’re going to do.

One assumes, almost like a mantra, that a gigantic video game company with titles like ‘Final Fantasy’ or ‘Dragon Quest’ is impossible to lose money. That it always wins, always goes up, and at most one year will have less profits. And yet, reality comes to hit in the face: Square Enix lost 140 million dollars last year alone in games that were abandoned halfway, in what they have called “extraordinary losses”. But don’t worry: they already know what they are going to do.

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They are grid-like

Basically, the studio has promised investors, that entity that now decides the future of video games more than any creative, that they will make better decisions on which titles to invest money in from now on. In other words: more ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ and fewer experiments. It’s not an exaggeration: everything seems to indicate that to recover the money in a safe value, Square is going to focus on making remakes non-stop. Of course.

According to rumors, we will see in the coming years Final Fantasy IX, ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’ and ‘Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake’ in what is becoming a trend that can easily catch on. To add even more fuel to the fire, the person in charge of the ‘Dragon Quest’ franchise left his position tired of the delays and not being able to make a game properly.

It should be added that this year’s games, apart from a couple of exceptions, have sold worse than expected, starting with ‘Final Fantasy XVI’ and continuing with ‘Forspoken’, although this is largely due to the slow adoption of PS5 by players (who, by now, will be caught by PS6). What a future we have in the gaming world: Back to the past.

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Square Enix is going through the worst moment in its history (and it could end very badly)

Does a successful game compensate if behind it there are dozens of projects that were left half-finished and others that did not recover the investment?

While it may sound like an urban legend, the name “Final Fantasy” was created due to two situations happening at the same time. On one hand, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the game, had given it this name as his last chance to succeed in the industry before returning to university. On the other hand, Square, the company itself, was on the brink of bankruptcy if the game didn’t succeed. Ironically, 36 years later, we find ourselves in somewhat similar circumstances.

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The real Final Fantasy

And you might be thinking, “But how, when every ‘Final Fantasy‘ has been a success?” The answer lies in the fact that success is relative. Does the success of one game compensate for dozens of projects that were left unfinished and others that didn’t recoup their investment? The overall concept of the brand has been somewhat impoverished, and the failure of the sixteenth installment of the series hasn’t helped calm the waters, to say the least.

Since the release of ‘Final Fantasy XVI‘ until now, the company has lost 2 billion in value, but we shouldn’t look at that game as the sole reason for concern: the proliferation of mobile games filled with microtransactions is mixed with the absolute failure of games like ‘Forspoken’ or ‘Marvel’s Avengers.’

In fact, after updating for a while, the superhero game is closing its online version without much complaint from the gaming community. Square Enix‘s idea to address these setbacks is to reduce the number of small titles and focus on big-budget ones that can improve their profits. Or, though it’s not explicitly stated, to potentially sink them into misery for good.

The company’s failure, it is argued, lies in its own conception: at Square, games are placed under the command of a single producer who chooses absolutely everything about them. It’s one person’s vision, and that leads to what appears to be a concerning lack of organization. Perhaps after so many final fantasies, it’s time to put an end to the fantasy.

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Saying Goodbye to Tradition: ‘Final Fantasy XVI’ Marks the Possible Conclusion of the Iconic Series

Naoki Yoshida, the director of 'Final Fantasy XVI', is open to doing something that would spell the end of the franchise as we know it.

It is curious that ‘Final Fantasy’ was, literally, the last game that Squaresoft was to launch before closing its doors and saved them to this day. The saga has seen more than 35 years of history through its 16 main installments (and countless spin-offs, revisitations and remakes). Now, Naoki Yoshida, the director of ‘Final Fantasy XVI‘, is open to doing something that would mean the end of the franchise as we know it.

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A new Final Fantasy main game

The numbers don’t add up

And it has to do with the numbers that accompany each title. Just like the movies get rid of them after a certain installment (‘Halloween,’ ‘Evil Doll,’ ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’), Yoshida believes there are more cons than pros to continuing to number the games in the series: “A lot of gamers are going to go in and look at it like a comic book where you have to read from the beginning to know what’s going on now. It’s hard for marketing because every numbered title we release in the series we have to say, ‘Okay, you don’t have to play the rest.'” Mind you, ‘Final Fantasy VI’ you do have to play it. Not for continuity, but because it’s really good.

Ready to take all the blame and not foreseeing how protective fans are of his stuff, Yoshida continues, “Removing the numbers is something we’ve discussed. Maybe it’s time. For example, you have Final Fantasy XIV. You have a new player who comes in and says, ‘Wait a minute, why am I going to play Final Fantasy XIV if XVI just came out?’ Why don’t we just call it Final Fantasy Online and remove the title altogether? It’ll be easier to understand.” He’s not wrong, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want to be eighty years old and enjoy the kids trying to order ‘Final Fantasy XLVIII’ in the stores.

Yoshida directed the fourteenth part and has produced this one: although his career is mostly focused on making video games, he has also released three installments of his autobiography ‘Yoshida Uncensored’ and refuses to keep his opinions to himself because, after all, he’s past fifty and horribly doubts he’ll ever touch a single title in the franchise again: “Whether Final Fantasy XVII or XVIII would have to have a number or not, that’s going to be the problem of whoever develops it and whoever is in charge of the brand. That’s their problem, not ours!”. That’s called having charisma by doing evil.

By the way, ‘Final Fantasy XVI’ is coming out on June 22 so we hope you’re ready for the new game of the year of the week after ‘Tears of the Kingdom‘ and before ‘GTA VI’. These are tough years for our gamers’ wallet.