Forspoken sales lackluster, small and mid-sized titles "did not perform as well as expected"

Square Enix has released the Outline of Results Briefing held on February 3, 2023

[Vits]

What a surprise that a game that had all the makings of a mediocre game, that cost $70 and skipped platforms had lackluster sales. And while we are at that also very surprising that a series of cheap-looking games, released with barely any marketing for anything between $50 and $60 also failed to perform.

No one could see this coming. /s

[-Mika-]

PS5 Exclusivity did nothing. Square needs to learn that constantly excluding a user base hurts the growth of an ip. You are exchanging long term gains for short term profits(In this case, no profit). There is a reason companies like Sega, Capcom, and Namco are growing while Square continues to fall. They better hope and pray FF16 is a success but limiting their biggest IP to one platform is not the right move.

[Obscure_Observer]

"They better hope and pray FF16 is a success but limiting their biggest IP to one platform is not the right move."

Tbh, part of me is happy that Xbox and Nintendo has nothing to do with Square/Enix´s current situation.

[MADGameR]

Delusional. CAPCOM is broke and they throw ALL of their games everywhere. Name 1 game that from CAPCOM that was ever exclusive to PlayStation?

[DarkZane]

As if making this or FF16 multiplatform would make any difference. Xbox gamers don't buy these kinds of games and the ones that do will just say they will wait until it's on gamepass to play it without spending 70$ because xbox gamers don't buy games anymore.

[Chevalier]

Releasing on Xbox would just probably be posted as a loss. Highly doubt they would make back their cost of porting the game over. Xbox gamers just don't buy these type of games.

When you see 80% sales of titles on Playstation on Final Fantasy, DQ, KH titles vs Xbox its pretty apparent that a new IP with even less recognition would just be posted as a loss. With Gamepass cannibalizing sales of games in general then it's even less likely this would pull any money in for Square.

[Lightning77]

It's not Square making these decisions outright it's the negotiations done by Sony and cutting checks with Square.

[AnotherGamer]

Ok let's be real, it wasn't the exclusivity at all as it's on Steam too as well. It was the awful marketing and the dialogue of the game that already set the fate of this game.

[Lightning77]

"Highly doubt they would make back their cost of porting the game over. Xbox gamers just don't buy these type of games."

Really? Wo Long, Monster Hunter, Elden Ring? Of freakin course they play these types of games. Or open world fantasy.

[Nitrowolf2]

Forspoken was doomed to fail

Adding an Xbox probably wouldnt have made a difference, and if anything, add more losses due to production costs.

Nothing against xbox there, but that wouldnt have made any much of a difference other than more spent to make it, thus greater loss

@Lightning, two of those titles are on Game Pass, get back when we have sales.

ER sold the most on PlayStation, it sold very good on xbox though, and also great on PC.

But thats not even comparable, this game flopped on pc and ps5, what makes people think adding xbox, the platform that is time and time again the platform selling the less, somehow, in this case, going to recoup of SE lost? LOL

[Lightning77]

@Nitro

@Lightning, two of those titles are on Game Pass, get back when we have sales.

Doesn't matter if it's on gamepass or not. You tell me how much did Wo Long sell? Monster Hunter on PS5 and X?Elden Ring is not on Gamepass and it sold all across the board and that includes the Xbox version also. That's like saying people don't play Skyrim on Xbox because it's open world fantasy just like Forspoken.

Regardless any game will sell well if it lives up to the hype like Elden Ring. Enough reaching and making excuses. Games that don't live up to expectations don't sell well regardless of platform, simple.

[Nitrowolf2]

"Doesn't matter if it's on gamepass or not."
"
"Xbox gamers just don't BUY these type of games"

You know know i was responding to your OG comment about here right?, abour sales vs players playing?

"Really? Wo Long, Monster Hunter, Elden Ring? Of freakin course they PLAY these types of games. Or open world fantasy."

Also

"Games that don't live up to expectations don't sell well regardless of platform, simple." So basiclaly what i was saying, only adding to the fact that having a xbox port probably would have made them lose even more since salss are overall bad on the top performing platform??

ER sold good because its a good game and reviews reflected it as well as the hype. It lived it to what players expected.

Forspoken? That game had little hype to begin with, despite the vocal miniority on the internet. Reviews didnt help those considering it.

Again, an Xbox version would have done shit for square enix, other than cost more to make. If they couldnt recoup cost of the ps5 and pc version, what hope would there be for the xbox then?

Im not debating whether or not it wouldnt have flopped overall, because it clearly did.

And before the whole game pass comes up again, let me remind you that even Microsoft admitted that game pass reduces game sales

https://www.ign.com/article...

[Lightning77]

"Xbox gamers just don't BUY these type of games"

How do you know? What are you basing that from?

"You know know i was responding to your OG comment about here right?, abour sales vs players playing?"

My argument stands. Because look at ER even you mentioned ER Vs the original argument that Chev said that Xbox gamers don't buy those types of games it's plain false. As for Wo Long and others. Allot of ppl are playing those games and enjoying. I don't know what the sales look like no one does on any console yet it's too soon. I say why does it matter if a good number of ppl are playing it and most importantly enjoying it? If people are playing these sort of games they'll most likely buy these types of games.

Look at Crossfire. Your typical western style shooter that's not very good at all the game sucks. It was on gamepass and the game still tanked AND the game is being shut down a year later. Gamepass did nothing for that game because It's a horrible game. People don't play bad games. Again that game is your typical "dude bro" Xbox shooter.

With out gamepass Wo Long and Monster Hunter still would of done well. Again because they're GOOD games. Forspoken would of performed poorly on Xbox because the game underperformed critically. So yes I agree. Wouldn't matter if the game was on GP also it still wouldn't of done well.

Ppl know a good game from a bad game nothing's changed. You play good ones and skipped the bad ones.

[Sarcasm]

The game didn't do well because it sucked, not because of exclusivity. It also released on PC you smooth brain.

And yah'll can't tell me that Xbox gamers are like "wow I wish I got a chance to play that. I can move things with my freaking mind!!! my freaking mind!" -_-

[edeprez]

I don't think the exclusivity hurt it as much as it not being great, and word of mouth.
You really think porting FF16 to xbox and licensing and whatever would be profitable? Time and time again these types of games have failed to sell on Xbox, if it's not on game pass its DOA.

[MadLad]

The game was mediocre. Doesn't matter how many platforms you put it on. People pretty much thought everything they saw from it was crap.
When they put out the demo, it was the nail in the coffin.

Called it well before the release.

[DashMad]

@Chevalier
that's not totally true FF XV sold 20% on Xbox, FF XV sold 10 million that mean around two million copies sold on xbox no way that count as a loss as if port cost more than 120 million dollar lmao. what probably happen was Sony moneyhat offer offset the revenue of not porting to Xbox plain simple.

[Shane Kim]

This game wouldn't sell despite it being on xbox. As this articles states, almost 80% of FFXV sales was on PS4.

https://www.gamereactor.eu/...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

No, your kidding yourself -Mika- if you think Xbox could have saved this game, and there's several reasons for that:
-Xbox players generally don't buy this type of game (it could have even been a loss looking at the cost of porting VS the sales it would earn).
-It wasn't a good game overall.
-Square-Enix probably set their sales expectation too high... again.
-Lack of marketing?

The game had the biggest platforms/markets available to it, Steam and PS5, it had a big enough player base to sell to. Xbox would have been a drop in the bucket, there's no one it would have made a big enough difference to salvage it.

@Madlad,
Yeah, I called it too, it's fate was pretty obvious, especially after that demo.

[Ashunderfire86]

I’m surprised that this game was a 2 year console exclusive for PS5 and it flopped real bad yikes 😬

[Lightning77]

Edit: wrong reply

[SierraGuy]

Damn, for a second I thought you were talking about hi fi rush.

[Abracadabra]

Square should ask Sony for more money.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Also, Square-Enix probably set stupid sales expectations for some of their games including Forspoken. Personally, looking at that release list, at least half the games in that list wasn't particularly good games, the best games were probably Harvestella, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Dragon Quest Treasures and Crisis Core Reunion. And I don't expect Harvestella or Tactics Ogre to have overly high sales despite being a decent budget game and a remake of an old game.

[hotnickles]

Lol sarcasm is thicc

[-Foxtrot]

Gee what a surprise

You make an average game with sloppy writing and it doesn’t do well

[CrimsonWing69]

Dude look, I know the writing is divisive, but it’s so far from being the worst thing ever in a recent game.

I think the huge faults is more in just how the game is boring. So much busy work in lifeless vast areas. The story itself isn’t as compelling as it wants to be. Combat is fun, spell effects are cool, but after so many hours it’s just… I don’t know, it’s not bad, I just find it extremely boring.

But it’s so annoying to literally hear people say the dialogue is so atrocious when I’m playing amazing games like Fire Emblem Engage that has even worse cringy dialogue and performances and also Wo Long, like play that and tell me it’s not exceptionally horrid with dialogue and yet they’re all excellent games and nobody is having a prolapse over the dialogue.

Forspoken’s dialogue is fine. The overtly cussing can be graining, but have you ever watched the Castlevania Netflix animated show? It does the exact same thing. It’s like, for whatever reason writers think dropping countless f-bombs is hip and edgy. Yea, it’s annoying but it’s not like ZOMG this game/show is absolute trash because of that.

Forspoken, is just a boring game, in my opinion with little compelling content to keep me pushing through. Dialogue was fine, like I said there’s far worse in better games I’ve played and nobody has once given those games the same grief as Forspoken over it.

[-Foxtrot]

“ but it’s so far from being the worst thing ever in a recent game.”

Is the game the worst ever? No

Is it the worst writing? No

Was it hyped up to be a huge “hit”? Yes

Did those other games which were worse than this hype their game up, especially as a new AAA IP? Most of them, no

That’s the difference here, it’s generating the hate because Square Enix really thought they had this massive hit on their hands and even when those early criticisms of the barren looking world, writing and average combat came to light they didn’t do anything.

They don’t take criticism on board, they don’t learn from past mistakes and then are disappointed at low sales and bad reviews.

Look at Capcom, we criticised f****** rain in RE4 and they fixed it. We moaned about RE3 being a letdown and they took RE4 off that team and gave it to the main team.

[Nitrowolf2]

Why is that someone says they have an issue with writing, the response is always "its not the worse thing ever" or "theres worse" as if that somehow makes it better.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Nitrowolf2
I don't really get that either, it's like saying "You should all buy this $115 game with crappy writing and mediocre gameplay/world and enjoy it".

I find crappy writing is becoming a standard for Square-Enix games lately, at least people stopped pushing the racism angle now that the game is out.

[jambola]

The gameplay was the closest thing to keeping a lot of people curious / interested
it was the dialogue that started to turn people away
it's the reason i see most people complaining

you need to learn that your subjective distaste for fire emblem dialogue doesn't match with other people

[CrimsonWing69]

@jumbola

“you need to learn that your subjective distaste for fire emblem dialogue doesn't match with other people.”

Geezus, all this criticism is subjective, Einstein. You need to learn that. Seriously, you’re going to tell me objectively Fire Emblem doesn’t have terrible dialogue and delivery?

My point with all of this was to put light that there’s a number of games with far worse dialogue that gets critical praise and nobody is making a big stink about the dialogue.

The dialogue in this game is NOT bad. What, are you going to quote me the whole, “I do magic!? Yep that’s something I do now,” line?

Is the writing great, no. But we’ve all been playing games with not the most stellar dialogue and nobody jumped down the throat of a game over it like I’ve seen with Forspoken.

Btw, I like Fire Emblem Engage, but I use that as an example because it came out during the same time Forspoken did and not once have I seen it called out over the dialogue, which is absolutely cringe to the max. To the point where Forspoken looks like academy award written and acted dialogue.

Like. does any of this make sense or is the hate boner for Forspoken just difficult to allow for any sort of comparisons?

[CrimsonWing69]

“Was it hyped up to be a huge “hit”? Yes

Did those other games which were worse than this hype their game up, especially as a new AAA IP? Most of them, no”

See, I don’t think that’s fair. There’s definitely hype for a new Fire Emblem and I saw plenty of people hyped about Wo Long.

Forspoken, was a swing and miss from Square. It happens. Also, they did delay the game twice, so for all we know they did take things into account, but they flopped with piling it off in the final release.

You’re always going to have vocal complaining on things. Look at Final Fantasy 16 and how there’s a massive vocal complaint to make the battles turn-based. Devs have to stick to their guns at some point and hope consumers see the vision. There’s quite a bit of people who like Forspoken.

I just think the game is downright boring and incredibly derivative with just making a large open area with a bajillion chests, challenges, puzzles, temples, etc. to check off the box for an open-world game and it lacks anything else to kind of incentivize me to go on.

Yea, I get that whining enough you can get your way with changes, but the dialogue was not anything worth needing to spend tons of money to fix and people overreacted sooooooo hard over it. Speaking of RE4, I find a lot of RE4’s dialogue to be cringey in the original game, but because the game is excellent it’s fine and I get that it’s supposed to not take itself seriously… I think.

I feel like you’re speaking in terms of Square not learning their mistakes from, I guess FF15? Which I think Forspoken is far worse than that. The truth is I think the dev studio just didn’t have a clear vision of what the game should be and had to get a product out the door.

I’m kind of glad they dissolved the studio. Nothing from them has been particularly excellent. FF15 I did enjoy until you realize they rushed it in the last few chapters and the story was told in a way that is beyond atrocious (although the story they had come up with was actually pretty fantastic).

It’s just one of those things where I think the director dropped the ball, I heard story revisions happened a lot, like where there was no Frey in the beginning. Mixture of different ideas and things just didn’t come together and the game feels pretty rushed in some sense. I know they worked on it for 4 years, but look at FF16 to this (both I believe had a 4 year dev cycle).

[senorfartcushion]

Hyped up is the fault of the person falling for the marketing.

[CrimsonWing69]

I actually 100% agree with you.

That’s why I find fault in saying that the issue was due to “hype” vs issues with the other examples. You can’t say people weren’t hyped about those other games and give things a free pass. If we’re going to stone this game then I want unscrupulous criticism to every game that has bad dialogue.

I’m not defending this game. I think it has problems, like even glaring problems, but it’s irked me that there was this tumultuous downpour of hatred over the dialogue, when I scratched my head thinking, “what’s the issue with it?” Yes, there’s cringe swearing, yes there’s some NPCs that have terrible delivery, but my god… the overall sum of all dialogue is not bad, like I’d say it’s fine. I think her trying to be quippy and the bracelet’s sarcasm just made people roll their eyes.

[Christopher]

Let alone the game was pretty heavily criticized from the first trailer being shown.

[DOMination-]

"Let alone the game was pretty heavily criticized from the first trailer being shown."

Was it? Not on N4G from what I recall - I specifically remember (and people can easily go through and find it) when the first gameplay trailer was shown making an artistic comparison to The Witcher 3, a nearly ten year old game and saying aesthetically and mechanically, it looked considerably worse from the evidence we had. Appreciating that they were different games and that TW3 was one of the games of the last generation but a AAA PS5 exclusive should be exceeding that. Lets just say politely that the response to those comments were rather hostile.

Its easy for everyone to be saying it looked average back then with hindsight, but the fact that it was a precious PS5 exclusive meant that the majority of people (in this community anyway) were actually (blindly) full of praise for it. The article I'm talking about above is full of people saying it looks like a 9/10 game, goty contender, etc.

[Christopher]

***Was it? Not on N4G from what I recall***

It absolutely was. It's been dragged through the mud for its writing since day 1 of that trailer.

***but the fact that it was a precious PS5 exclusive meant that the majority of people (in this community anyway)***

This is blind spot you have. Most people weren't praising the game.

I was, at best, on the fence, and that demo completely unsold me on it until it's a deep price cut. And the only reason I was even on the fence is because I could ignore the bad lines since I'm used to my nieces and nephews.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

When the game is mid and doesn't performed well I'm not surprised tbh.

[RavenWolfx]

I might pick it up on sale for PC at some point, but it would have to be $30 at most.

[Stanjara]

Go to landfills... they are full of thrown copies.

[SierraGuy]

Maybe throw yourself in the landfill while you're at it .

[Stanjara]

Sierra... Why? I didn't throw away my money. I'm good.

[shinoff2183]

Thats about where im at and its not really for whats been said about the game its more its not my usual type of setting for games. Idk how to explain it. Like back in the day id play jrpgs with the type of setting but these days that type of setting is harder for me to get into, meanwhile I can go back to old school games perfectly fine. I have no idea if this will make sense to anyone.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

No, thats me too, despite the old graphics and sometimes clunky gameplay/controls, some of those older JRPGs had a certain charm or magic that's hard to replicate these days. Plus with the hardware limitations they had to get really creative, it also helps that the writing for most of those games was at least acceptable enough to enjoy.

[shinoff2183]

The small to mid size games had barely any advertising. Hell I only knew about tatcics ogre reborn due to being in the loop. Alot of gamers arent in a loop

[blackblades]

Those mid size games was on multiple systems. Ogre, star ocean, valkrie, etc if they didn't do that well it was just the lack of advertising and lack of interest in them. They put a lot effort into there FF games but the rest of there games dont get that treatment. Apparently Namco is the only one doing fine with new rpgs and quality behide them

[Kosic]

Someone gave me their copy from a GPU promotion. I tried it on the steam deck and it ran poorly so uninstalled after 10 mins and haven't gone back. I completely forgot that I own a copy of this game.

[Obscure_Observer]

Well, hopefully Sony will make up for SE for going exclusive with Playstation.

If FFXVI fails perform as expected, SE will be in serious trouble.

[Goosejuice]

As expected? By who? You? Ff16 will sell quite a bit on ps. You can't use forspoken as a marker. Most people didn't have interest in that game from the get go. The demo didn't add anything and may even hurt it. Final fantasy name alone guarantees big sales whether it's good or bad. I believe after the Activision deal happens square will be bought but until it happens sony can't move on that. Just my opinion

[Traecy]

That one is always trying to put a negative spin on anything that has to do with PlayStation.

[DashMad]

FFXV sold 20% on xbox it sold 10 milion LTD which mean 2 million sales on xbox that potential 140 million dollar sales lost. No way SE would decided FF16 to go exclusive without moneyhat to offset potential sales lost unless their board director is incompetent.

[Chevalier]

Weird FF7 broke sales records and the sequel will most likely as well and you think FF16 will fail why?! Lol. FF games have always done well on Playstation even with Xbox gamers not really buying the games despite asking for them. Forspoken literally has ZERO to do with FF16 sales.

If anything its expected to sell well. It's no different than say any 'bad' COD game affecting the next annual release. Which is to say minimal.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Weird FF7 broke sales records and the sequel will most likely as well and you think FF16 will fail why?"

That depends on SE expectations which may vary from game to game.

I mean, how many copies SE can realistic expect to sell for a main FF game only available on PS5? I don´t know, but you apparently do know, so; come on, YOU tell me! How many copies? Just give me the numbers!

I´ll be waiting.

[AnotherGamer]

How exactly FF16 will fail when it's handle by a completely different team?

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

We all know that's not the case, plus FF sells on brand name alone despite how bad the games get, there isn't many FF games that sell badly, even the side games tend to sell alright from just having the brand name attached. SE as a whole just can't get their crap together, that's all it is.

[Elda]

That's a shame because I really enjoyed Forspoken for what it was. I'm holding on to my copy for the story dlc releasing this summer.

[SierraGuy]

The clowns bashing this game are the same clowns that bashed Days Gone ..and we all know how that ended.

[SurgicalMenace]

People that spend their time bashing are often those not buying anything.

[jambola]

any proof ? or baseless speculation?

[blackblades]

They suppose to also fix and improve the problems and overall of the game as well.

[Outlawzz]

Waiting for forspoken at the bargain bin. Good news for me. I probably won't ever buy a 70 dollar game at this rate. The games are dropping in price so quick nowadays, oversaturated market it looks like

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I have a stupidly large library of games on Steam/Nintendo and PS consoles as it is, I'm in no rush, there's always too many games, I just wishlist the more interesting ones and grab them on sale.

[darthv72]

So.... when is the game coming to game pass?

[thesoftware730]

As soon as Sony's ill-bought 2-year exclusive contract is up.

[darthv72]

given this situation... it may be sooner than that.

[on_line_forever]

Square enix need to come back to squaresofte days

[nommers]

Square Enix was never Squaresoft. Square Enix is two different companies merged.

[on_line_forever]

Before they merged it was called squaresoft

Try to play FF10 & 8 or parasite eve and you will see it by yourself

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I miss the PS1 days, those were some good times, and I knew I was getting a good game with that developer attached to a title.

[Inverno]

That's what happens when the media makes a huge fuss over a bit of cringe dialogue. The game may be nothing spectacular but it didn't deserve the amount of hate over one aspect of it.

[thesoftware730]

"That's what happens when the media makes a huge fuss over A LOT of cringe dialogue"

I fixed your first sentence.

I agree that the game doesn't seem terrible(from the demo), just not worth $70.

[Inverno]

Expect 70 dollars for a lot of mediocre games. We got a certain fan base to blame for that.

[GameBoyColor]

one of the rare moments where people actually could see the writing on the wall. For both forspoken and the smaller titles that had 0 marketing lol

[Shadowsteal]

Why is anyone surprised by this? Forspoken was developed by the team that made Final Fantasy XV. FFXV was at most "decent", only because the groundwork was laid out years ago prior to their involvement.

Even when SE restructured this studio not only wasn't aptly named Creative Business Unit X like the other teams but still named Luminous Productions. In addition, they were kept at arms length as subsidiary of SE instead of actually part of it.

Forspoken's reception simply confirmed that Luminous Productions was as talentless as SE thought.

[Chevalier]

Probably why they're being folded back in to Square

[thesoftware730]

Is anyone surprised by this news?

While I did 'nt think the demo was terrible, I knew I was not gonna spend $70 on it.

I would pick it up at $30 or less.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Should have made it multi-plat, put it on GamePass. SE wants that Sony teet though.

[Goosejuice]

Ah yes wants sony teet but in same sentence say to suckle on ms teet by putting it on gamepass. Makes sense

[gangsta_red]

"Should have made it multi-plat, put it on GamePass. SE wants that Sony teet though."

Them getting that Sony check was probably an equivalent of putting it on GP day and date, so I can't blame them. This is why we're seeing Square make more of these deals, they have had a very rough start this gen.

[AnotherGamer]

Exclusivity had nothing to do with it, it was on Steam as well. People just didn't like the character and the dilogue, simple as that.

[gangsta_red]

Dang, two year Sony deal, largest install base, full priced retail and digital game, how could this have happened?

Seriously though, this is bad news for Square, especially with concern for future "mid size, small" games. I can see Square actually dropping anything outside of main FF and main DQ games. If they do anything else it'll be generic western focused games made from a tight focused group algorithm. Which is really a shame if that becomes true.

"Although, to top things off, Square Enix also hopes you "...look forward to the blockchain games we plan to launch in FY2024/3 and thereafter.""

Oof.

[thesoftware730]

So buying SE would only net Sony exclusive DQ and FF series, everything else is meh.

Notice how no Sony-only fans are asking for this acquisition anymore, they have moved on Sony acquiring Take2. Wishful hoping and thinking as if Sony could afford T2.

[gangsta_red]

"So buying SE would only net Sony exclusive DQ and FF series, everything else is meh."

If Sony where to buy Square I think this would give Square a bit more cushion to try new games and keep making their smaller titles...if Sony allows it of course. But then again I noticed that Sony hasn't even been doing this as of late with their own first party studios so, you may be right even if they were purchased.

"...they have moved on Sony acquiring Take2. Wishful hoping and thinking as if Sony could afford T2."

Lol, I've seen this on Twitter and to be fair, only the most hardcore of Sony fanboys are even entertaining that idea.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Only thing it got going for it on PC was direct storage, the game was only a demo for it.

[antikbaka]

what a surprise

[GoodGuy09]

Oh yea?

[senorfartcushion]

Another game with forced-in RPG mechanics and crap MCU dialogue.

No wonder

[HeliosHex]

Lol I saw a video where hundreds and thousands of forspoken games were headed to a landfill. All versions of the game deluxe, collectors edition etc. It's bizarre how this game became this generations E.T.

[Chocoburger]

So I went to look this up, and no, that's misinformation. Its just the steelbook cases of the game, pre-order bonuses, not the actual game itself. It makes no sense to dump the game disc, when you could discount it instead and still make a profit.

[HeliosHex]

@choco. Yeah your right I'd be more convinced if they actually showed the disc.

[Panhandler]

I mean they set this up for failure from jump.

[anast]

The person that green lit this should not have a job in entertainment. It shows that whoever made the final decisions knows next to nothing about the current gaming sphere and what it means to entertain. A complete idiot would have known better.

[thesoftware730]

That could be said of many games as well, Suicide Squad comes to mind lol.

[anast]

For sure. The bar for our extremely expensive hobby has been set too low.

[masterfox]

the first trailer still looks amazing, sadly we didnt received that visually, still combat of the game can be fun, but ultimately what killed the game was its narrative / direction / story , is been a while I wanted to say this but the game has a social agenda behind it and exactly this is what killed the game. When you have a direction to pleased certain demographic instead of creating an original story with an open mind and not afraid to offend someone, your game is destined to fail with the general audience, and this applies to every form of entertainment.

[jznrpg]

It couldn’t overcome the hate campaign against it. It’s better than perceived but most won’t ever know that. I do think it was too short for a 70$ game though . I like RPGs to be longer than 20 hours at minimum.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

It certainly wasn't the hate campaign, look at Hogwarts Legacy, the hate campaign for that is crazy (people are still losing their sh*t) and it's still selling gangbusters.

[Gamer75]

Wonder if Sony are regretting the 2 year exclusivity deal given this news

[P_Bomb]

My guess is yes.

[CPTN MITCHELL]

It only took 30 second from playing the demo to know the game was ass

[ZeekQuattro]

No surprise here. I've been saying it for a while now. As did most of the internet. Nothing says a game bombed hard quite like a publisher announcing a studios closure shortly after a game launch. At least the devs are being transferred to other teams but its still a fail at the end of the day that two divisive games killed a studio. They didn't even advertise it showing a lack of enthusiasm on Square's part. Even on this site the defense of the game all but vanished after it released. As if reality finally hit those folks. Folks that most likely didn't buy the game in the end anyway judging by this news.

[Youngindy21]

Square should have just taken the Game Pass money, instead of the Playstation exclusive money. Probably why their CEO got fired. Take note from Capcom and release your major games on all the platforms.

[Dandalandan117]

I guess all of us will find out how the game really is as it would probably show up on PS Plus sooner than later.

[Pyrofire95]

Well their "mid-sized" games were full price. I would have jumped on Harvestella and Valkyrie Elysium but they were both $60 and I'm not about to drop that on any ol' game.

[MeteorPanda]

what expectation did you have? Like we aren't happy with your shit games cause you're not making them with any heart.

Triangle strategy was the only non ff title worth any money all of 2022. I had to refund diofield chronicle cause it was so insulting. They tried to remake ff tactics but it had absolutely no tactics to it and was utterly boring story wise. Long ass names of X fighting the kingdom of long ass name of Y over some land called Z and you're thrown in the centre of it and expected to care.

no.

[ActualEngineer]

I'm not paying over 10$ on a BIG discount in a sale a year from now, for this garbago game.

[HeliosHex]

Whether this game was exclusive or not its failure was written in stone. It being exclusive may have contributed but it certainly wasn't the cause.

[Terry_B]

Go woke..get broke. #thisreallymatters

[sadraiden]

Square used to be synonymous with quality. They were one of the first AAA studios before that acronym developed a negative connotation. Now look at Square. They've all but murdered FF, they keep saying they're exploring the NFT space, and all of their new IPs are just retreads of varying quality of other more successful titles. I really wanted Forspoken to be good, but we all knew it was going to bomb. I'm not sure how they can hold investors calls and continually talk about failed launches and lacklustre sales. If I was a noteworthy shareholder, I might start calling for a change in executive leadership.

[ocelot07]

The risk of going $70 for new games. I'm not taking risks anymore. Normally I would take a risk and pay full price for a new games that looks good to me. But now with the higher price tag. Nope I rather wait for a sale.

[ClosetRebel]

You mean having a woman of color as the protagonist didn't resonate with the primary player base? I'm shocked! Yeah, I didn't buy Forspoken either.

[jambola]

woman of color is fine
just make her semi likable

[jambola]

yeahh not surprised
I'm glad i didn't have a ps4 for this so I didn't waste money, I may have been tempted if i did

[darkrider]

The game was not good, but the usuals are using this like a weapon to say trash about Playstation... It wouldn't make any diference being on xbox. Microsoft gamers barely buy the good games made by Microsoft much less a game that wasnt good.

Beside the fact that almost all games are selling 70 to 80% on Sony machines. Microsoft changed the paradigma for Microsoft gamers. They mainly get only games on gp. And even so they don't care and don't even defeat the first boss...

[Evan_Beezy]

Dang and look at that probably could’ve had at least 25% better sales by just having a more digestible protagonist alone