On March 10, Square Enix Holdings released an overview of its financial results briefing for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2023. The financial results briefing will be held on February 3, 2019. The document that was released this time is a summary of the contents. Among them”FORSPOKENwas told about the tough situation immediately after the release of “.
Yosuke Matsuda, President and Representative Director, and Atsushi Matsuda, Chief Accounting Officer, will serve as presenters at this financial results briefing. First, Mr. Matsuda, the Chief Accounting Officer, reported on the company’s performance. Cumulative sales for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 were 255.6 billion yen, down 18.0 billion yen year-on-year, and digital entertainment business sales were in a difficult situation, down 27.3 billion yen year-on-year. was reported. On the other hand, it is also reported that quarterly profit attributable to owners of the parent company increased by 6.5 billion yen compared to the same period of the previous year. The consumer game field seems to be in a tough situation.
After talking about these achievements, the baton was handed over to Mr. Yosuke Matsuda, the president and representative director. According to him, the year-on-year decline in sales and profits in the digital entertainment business is due to the fallback from the release of major titles last year, and the fact that many of the small and medium-sized titles released this term fell short of expectations. Also, unlike the previous year, there was no sales of expansion packages for MMOs such as “Final Fantasy XIV” this term, which was also the reason for the decline in sales and profits.
President Matsuda also gave an overview of other businesses, and eventually the topic turned to the outlook for the fourth quarter and the next fiscal year. So “Forcepoken” became a hot topic. President Matsuda clearly stated that both reviews and sales conditions for this work were severe (materialPDF）。
“Force Spoken” is an action RPG created by Luminous Productions, which was established mainly by the development staff of “Final Fantasy XV”. The main character, Frey Holland, who lives in the present age, wanders into a different world where magic called Asia exists, and adventures with Cuff, a bracelet that has a will, in order to find a way to return to the original world. This work uses the in-house developed Luminous Engine as a game engine, and was expected to be a next-generation blockbuster ARPG.
However, after its release on January 24 (January 25 for the PC version), the game received mixed reviews. While parkour and battle action received a certain amount of praise, performance issues and content density were also unpopular. The current user review on Steam is a “pro and cons” status, with 59% of 3280 reviews being positive.
President Matsuda also mentioned at the financial results briefing that while this work is struggling in terms of both evaluation and sales, it has also received high praise for its action. It is said that it has obtained a suitable result that will lead to future game development. However, depending on the progress of the new work scheduled to be released in February and March, he said, “There may be a corresponding downside risk to this term’s performance.”
However, President Matsuda also talks about bright prospects. First of all, from the next fiscal year onwards, they have a very strong lineup, including unannounced titles. Also, during the Q&A session, President Matsuda was asked, “What is the impact of ‘Force Spoken’ on the fourth quarter results?” emphasized.
It is reported that Luminous Productions, the developer of this work, will be merged with Square Enix on May 1st of this year (related article). When announcing the merger, Luminous Productions emphasized its willingness to work on updating and improving the game while heading toward a merger with Square Enix. On March 10th, an update with various fixes and performance improvements was delivered, and DLC is scheduled to be released in the summer (related article). It is a work that is said to have some bright spots, and if efforts to improve it continue, the harsh evaluation that President Matsuda talked about will be reviewed, and there is a possibility that it will lead to sales.
In addition, President Matsuda has been attracting attention by saying at the briefing this time, “I would like you to look forward to the blockchain game that will be launched from next year onwards,” and at the beginning of this month, he announced his policy to retire as president. . Mr. Takashi Kiryu will be appointed as the new president, and the transfer date is expected to be officially decided in May and June this year (related article). I would like to pay attention to the future trends of Square Enix as a whole.
