Although it is not a big boss like Rockstar Games, Ubisoft or EA, Square Enix has left many iconic series in the lap of us players. The company, whose best-known series is Final Fantasy, has lost a large amount of value since the last game of the series was released.
Square Enix lost nearly $2 billion in value in the stock market
Shares of Square Enix, producer of the Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Yakuza and Final Fantasy series, fell 30% from this year’s peak, causing the company to lose almost $2 billion in market value.
The Japanese publisher’s share price reached its highest point this year in the days before Final Fantasy 16’s release in June, but closed at its lowest level since May 2022 on Wednesday.
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The drop came after sales of Final Fantasy 16 reportedly failed to meet the upper end of the company’s expectations.
According to the company, the decline is due to the disappointing performance of other big-budget releases like 2020’s live service flop Marvel’s Avengers, whose support ends this month, and Forspoken, the first game from Square Enix’s Luminous Productions studio, which launched to “lackluster” sales.
Analyzing Square Enix’s recent decline, an analyst wrote in an article that unnamed employees and contractors claimed the company was suffering from problems with its game development structure and quality control, while other analysts also expressed concerns about the company’s long-term prospects.
“Flooding the market with unfinished, bad or untested games is a bad move,” said Tokyo-based developer and gamer Michael Prefontaine, citing Marvel’s Avengers, Forspoken and The DioField Chronicle. “The company has compromised too many games without proper oversight,” he commented.
Current and former Square Enix employees have claimed that one of the causes of such problems is Square Enix’s decision to give individual producers too much control over the scope and direction of projects. They also said that the games suffered from inadequate documentation and team structure.
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“We remain concerned about the company’s game development structure and game quality control, which could limit long-term performance,” said Macquarie Capital Securities Japan analyst Yijia Zhai.
Therefore, there is a high probability that we will not see big budget games from the company in the near future. What are you thinking? Please don’t forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments.