With
a 64% press rating on Metacritic and an average of 3.5/10 for the opinion of the players), Forspoken is a critical failure, we already knew that. The closure of the Luminous Productions studio (in the form of internal absorption) announced a month after the game’s release also proves that Square Enix has taken drastic decisions to compensate for the shortfall.
In the latest financial results published by the Japanese publisher on February 3, 2023, we learn of the great disappointment of Yosuke Matsuda, CEO of Square Enix (who will leave his post next summer), who admits
“that the critics [de la presse, ndlr] published on January 24, 2023 are difficult to collect. However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it will help improve our development capabilities for other games in the future. That said, its sales have been disappointing, and while the performance of other games releasing in February and March will be the point of comparison, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings.”This financial report also allows us to learn that Forspoken is not the only title in the publisher’s catalog to disappoint. The DioField Chronicle, Star Ocean The Divine Force, Harvestella, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Dragon Quest Treasures, Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion, and Valkyrie Elysium all posted disappointing results, which should arguably give Square Enix some perspective with respect to its strategy. For the publisher, the year 2022/2023 was a year rich in releases, perhaps too limited, which undoubtedly contributed to drowning its games in the strategic release periods of the video game. The publisher took the opportunity to maintain its support for NFTs by stating that it expects “blockchain-enabled securities for the current fiscal year 2024/3 and beyond”. Probably the declaration of too many…
