Square Enix has revealed that profits from tentpole releases Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which launched last year and earlier this year respectively, "did not meet [its] expectations".
In a financial results outline released earlier today (but pertaining to a presentation from May of this year), Square Enix simply says that profits from both Final Fantasy 16 and Rebirth didn't meet expectations, but CEO Takashi Kiryu doesn't go into any further detail.
He does, however, say later in the outline that Square Enix plans to "establish a development footprint" aimed at "consistently and regularly releasing titles that beat our customers' expectations".
This being a relatively public-facing presentation and outline, Square Enix doesn't state exactly what its expectations were for Final Fantasy 16 and Rebirth, so it's hard to say exactly by how much the two games missed the mark.
The company hasn't publicly disclosed sales for Rebirth, but back in September last year, Square Enix said that Final Fantasy 16 sales were in line with its expectations (a statement issued the month before having apparently been widely misinterpreted).
We also know that Final Fantasy 16 shipments topped three million within the game's first week on sale, so whatever Square Enix's expectations were for the game, they must be pretty high.
It's worth noting, too, that Square Enix doesn't say the two games weren't profitable; not meeting expectations isn't the same as not making a profit, so it's entirely possible that while both games made money for Square Enix, they simply didn't make enough.
It's not just Final Fantasy, either. In the presentation, Kiryu admits that Foamstars, Square Enix's entry into the Splatoon-style family-friendly shooter market, didn't perform quite as well as expected, which is probably why the game is going free-to-play.
To reiterate, this outline pertains to a presentation from a few months ago, but the document was made public today. As such, this doesn't necessarily reflect Square Enix's current standing; Final Fantasy 16 has since launched on PC, although Rebirth remains a PS5 exclusive, at least for now.
We'll have to wait and see what kind of impact this has on Square Enix's strategy when it comes to Final Fantasy. Stay tuned for more.
