Square Enix admits in financial report from February bad sales of Forspoken. Outgoing President of the Company Josuke Macuda says the game, released at the end of January, has had a tough test with reviewers. But he also sees the positives that the team took away from the development, and he does not want to predict how big an impact sales will have on Square Enix’s financial results for the fiscal year 2023 (until the end of March this year).
“The game has also received positive feedback for its action side, including parkour and combat capabilities, so it has brought insights that will lead to improvements in the development of other games,” reads the transcript of Macudo’s words.
Although he does not want to predict the final numbers for the current fiscal year, it can be expected that they will not be dizzying, at least in the field of premium PC and console games. In recent years, the company’s profits in a category it refers to as HD Games, are steadily decreasing. Financial failures of games like Marvel’s Avengers or Outriders balances prosperous Final Fantasy XIV.
At the same time, Macuda confirms his repeated words about investments in blockchain, which should not change anything even his planned departure from the company. While the president of Square Enix speaks rather cautiously about the release of key big titles and points out that they will be spread over the following years, we should see several blockchain games already in the next fiscal year (by the end of March 2024).
The failure of Forspoken will also be reflected in Square Enix’s organizational structures. Studio Luminous Productionsbehind the game, will merge with Square Enix’s internal teams, de facto returning to the form it operated in until 2018.
