Square Enix Stock Tanks After Final Fantasy 16 Didn't Meet Their 'High End' Sales Expectations

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[YongYea]

- Unfortunately good sales numbers doesn't always translate to meeting corporate "sales expectations", especially when a company like Square Enix has a tendency to set unreasonably lofty expectations for some of their big game releases.


TOP PATRONS

[CIPHER]
- Waning Zane


[BIG BOSS]
- Devon B

- Jonathan Ball

[BOSS]
- Gerardo Andrade

- Michael Redmond

- Peter Vrba


[LEGENDARY]

- BattleBladeWar

[NumberSuperD]

At this point I am convinced that the entire world could buy a Square Enix game and it still wouldn't meet their sales expectations

[missalice]

If I had a dollar every time Square Enix said a game did not meet sale expectations, I would probably have enough money to meet their sales expectations.

[NibelungJ]

Remember ten years ago, when the Tomb Raider Remake was simultaneously the (then) best selling Tomb Raider game ever, AND didn't met shareholders expectations?

Just a quick reminder that corporations don't want just "a lot of money". They want ALL the money.

[Origon]

Square Enix always does this. The game sold well. They specifically were trying to offset their poor business decisions with the game’s sales. That’s ridiculous. They need new leadership.

[araujorm]

The funniest part is that when they release it on PC they'll most likely do it on epic store as a timed exclusive. Then they'll keep wondering why it still isn't selling well.

[DarkSageWalker]

Square Enix: "Our latest game sold almost 33 billion units thanks to a surprise sales drive from the Deep Space Galactic Council and their communities finding the game to be a lovely homage to the history of their home worlds!"

Also Square Enix: "This game did not meet sales expectations."

[SamsarasArt]

Square Enix's obsession with NFTs didn't help anything. Their reputation has declined quite a bit because of it

[emeldy]

I think they were hoping FF16 would not only make its own sales but also make up for Forspokens lack of sales as well.

[tat]

Problem is companies haven't figured it out yet scrapping exclusives would make them more money instead of locking into one system

[blademaster]

If you're familiar with Square Enix...this isn't a surprise at all.

[dabbingtoast]

You know what really helps sales figures? Not making your game an exclusive.

[GodEmperorOfShorts]

Investors "You need to take the Sony exclusivity deal to boost share prices"
Also Investors "How dare you blow the the sales expectations by limiting the amount of consumers who can purchase the product!"

[Skehrcros]

When you expect the impossible, every success will be deemed a failure. This is so typical from Square and other big companies like them, a product that sells well isn't enough, it needs to earn every cent imaginable.

[scarletcroc]

This is exactly what I was expecting: it doesn’t matter how many units were sold in relation to PS5s, Square Enix will never be satisfied

[Leo]

The problem was not FF selling poorly. The problem was Square having Avengers and Forspoken selling abysmally, and having the need to recover from that

[Voltaic_Fire]

If 3, 000, 000 sales can't turn a profit then it's a major problem with the company and not the product.

[feastildur]

It's especially frustrating to see them complain about the sales in Japan when they JUST SAID they were trying to appeal more to western audiences. Seems you get a different answer about SE's marketing strategies depending on whoever at the company is speaking.

[Pimpgamer]

One thing you didn’t really touch on is that there is a culture in the Japanese Business world that really only ever cares about Japanese sales. No matter how well something sells worldwide, if it didn’t do well in Japan it was a failure.

[conor]

When was the last time Square-Enix said that a AAA game met their sales expectations? Did they expect every PS5 owner to buy FFXVI? Some companies are still really stuck in the early 2010's attitude that if a game doesn't make CoD numbers then it's a failure