Koei Tecmo Revises Forecast After Rise Of The Ronin & Other Game Sales Underperform

Koei Tecmo has revised its financial forecast for the current fiscal year after Rise of the Ronin and other games sales underperformed.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Sales projections have been dropped by 11% and operating income by 28%. Software sales are missing the intended target by the equivalent of $70 million. Ouch!

[Obscure_Observer]

Going exclusive with Playstation turn out to be yet another bad decision in this case.

It´s not the PS4 era anymore and the new PS Plus is clearly taking its tool on games sales on PS5 too.

Not nearly as harsh as Gamepass on Xbox mind you, but clearly strong enough to have a negative impact on gaming companies perception on exclusivity with one platform going forward. Especially regarding AAA games.

[purple101]

When you say “ yet another bad decision in this case”

Doesn’t that mean there’s. Whole host of other bad decisions to be able to say “yet another”

Which others are terrible I’m a ps fan, but still want to hear

[shaenoide]

Or maybe the game isn't as good as it should be to be released on this timeframe

[CPTN MITCHELL]

Another bad decision 😂the game is trash and if you think that releasing on the Xbox platform would help them you're out of your damn mind. Xbots don't buy games gameass is the welfare of gaming

[Eonjay]

This is incorrect. The title says its Rise of Ronin but the press release doesn't say that. They could (and seem to be) referring to multiple titles. Also, if sales were down, it wasn't because of PlayStation exclusivity but rather average scores.

[Obscure_Observer]

@purple101

"Which others are terrible I’m a ps fan, but still want to hear"

According to reports:

Babylon´s Fall, Forspoken, Foamstars, FF: XVI and lastly FF: Rebirth and Rise of Ronin, all of those games underperformed in some level despite the technical quality and critical acclaim.

[savedsynner]

Rise of the Ronin also released the same day as the bigger profile Dragon's Dogma 2...plus, it was a solid game but not a hit.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

"Babylon´s Fall, Forspoken, Foamstars, FF: XVI and lastly FF: Rebirth and Rise of Ronin, all of those games underperformed in some level despite the technical quality and critical acclaim."

Babylon's Fall literally has a 41 on Metacritic. lol. What are you talking about?
Forspoken: 59/64
Foamstars: 57

FF16 and FF7R still sold a lot.

SquareEnix once claimed that Tomb Raider (2013) was a financial failure despite being a massive hit.

"Underperform" is their catchphrase. Their expectations over the last few console generations have been a bit absurd. Some other examples I found: https://www.neogaf.com/thre...

The association you're trying to create doesn't actually make sense. This stuff was going in for many years before GamePass or a PS Plus catalog. They sold off all of their non-Japanese studios too.

Anyone can create a narrative when you exclude context. For example, Final Fantasy 13 sold 1 million on PS3 and X360 in its opening week while FF16 sold 3 million on PS5 in the same timeframe.

Rise Of The Tomb Raider is genuinely the only SquareEnix game where the sales completely imploded by being exclusive to one console.

[X-23]

Why are you comparing Gamepass with PS Plus?
The problem with AAA Games has become in most cases the Quality, which is a issue brought about by the Publishers wanting sky high profit numbers while delivering lackluster products. The entry fee for games nowadays is damn near 100 bucks and we're just not getting the respect and the polish we deserve for our money.

[Cacabunga]

Imagine if they went xbox exclusive.. they would have sold 50 copies at best.
The kind of games like Rise of Ronin sells on the long run.

[InUrFoxHole]

True

[InUrFoxHole]

@Purple101
Since you're asking and I'm assuming you're being genuine... Now keep in mind I like the 3 main consoles Nin, Sony, Ms so I'm not delusional that I don't think they all make mistakes but I can name a few off the top of my head.
1. Move to Gaas
2. Relying on pc to support the psvr2
3. Ps5 pro when we haven't even scrapped the ps5 potential
4. Playstation portable
5. Price increase for psn
6. Lack of 1st party
7. Wasting time trying to prevent ms from getting cod

[ricksears]

The game is terrible and not nearly as player-friendly as Ghosts. I played 3 time and completely lost Interest. Waste of money.

[TrueRican69]

It was a good game plp and game reviews don't matter the plp how buy it enjoyed it so did I and who care if it not on Xbox gamepass plp who own that are only renting the game.

[TheEroica]

Looking forward to playing this game on Xbox so Koei Tecmo can recoup their losses on PS5....

[TheEroica]

It's OK Microsoft gamers will get it soon. Pc too... Maybe switch! The other install bases will save Sony from their blunders...

[Sonic1881]

Rise of the Ronin hasn't even been out a month yet?

[koga88]

Ronin picked a really bad time to release. It arrived a week before Dragon's Dogma 2 and was blown out of the water in pretty much every way.

[Eonjay]

They probably aren't talking about Rise of Ronin. They article makes it look like they are. But that isn't disclosed in the release.

[Eonjay]

PSA: Don't reply to ALT troll accounts created 5 minutes ago. I say stuff all the time that people don't agree with or don't like but when I say it, you know its me. Its not that deep for you to be a coward about. The same person created two different ALT accounts to respond to me. Pathetic; weak; always hiding from the light.

[Ironmike]

Ronin is good

[CrimsonWing69]

Game sales are strongest at launch week. They taper down after that. It’s like movies. Opening night/week is the strongest for sales.

[Lexreborn2]

I fully plan to get rise of the ronin, but not until after I finish FF7R. I’m also not getting Stellar blade right away either, I’m just not rushing to buy games and/or finish them fast.

I have been enjoying taking my time lately in games versus rushing to say I played the latest release.

[LoveSpuds]

I am in a similar spot squire, I picked up Dragons Dogma 2 and want to put that to bed before picking up Ronin.

Can't help but think that this is another example of reviewers being out of touch with gamers, as every person I know who' have played it loved it.

[Lexreborn2]

Reviewers are always looking for the next HYPE game trend because it generates revenue for their sites. The problem is not every game has ever been that, so they tend to use negative articles to catch people attention and pick up steam.

It’s like tabloid news and the aliens that abducted farmer jack and fused him with his wife. Gaming news is more then not, trash

[LoveSpuds]

What bothers me about much of the games media is that they are all personal friends or there is almost cross pollination between companies, so they all talk to each other and I feel like thar invites an opportunity to influence each other.

[Ironmike]

I love ronin it stop me playing rebirth well that and chadley lol

[ravens52]

Fckn Chadley. Lol.

[Lexreborn2]

What’s wrong with chadley? Bro gives me good boss hunt content lol

[Demetrius]

I agree I been finishing up my backlog it's been fun af lol, even started back on my playthrough of hulk ultimate destruction on ps2

[GoodGuy09]

The game should've came out multiplatform. And it came out in the middle of many other games like rebirth, granblue, persona 3, and the upcoming stellar blade. Not to mention reviews were also a bit underwhelming. There was just way too many games for the first few months of this year which is good but also bad for everyones wallet and time lol.

[Asterphoenix]

Yeah it was a bad time to release it and they could of waited until at least May and there's just so many games that are coming out. If anything I'm struggling to keep up with finishing Rebirth, P3 Reload and Granblue let alone all the others I want to play.

[anast]

The 4 extra people on Xbox won't matter. Maybe a PC release in the future, though.

[bRuud83]

It looks like people are not buying games anymore. Just too many releases in a short time.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Inflation, cost of living, work-life time, layoffs, backlog, $70/£70/€80/CA$100/AU$120 , is it really surprising?

[ChasterMies]

At an individual game level, too many releases at the same time will hurt a game’s sales.

At the level of all games sales, spending has gone down since the pandemic. However, this isn’t the normal cycle of spending going up and down. The U.S. is the biggest game market and its economy is growing at twice the rate of other G7 economies. So it’s not the economy. (And when the economy is bad, people spend more on games and less on more expensive forms of entertainment.) What’s new this cycle is that gamers have subscription options that divert sales and they spend more time with free-to-play games that divert sales.

[VersusDMC]

"While the report didn’t explicitly mention Rise of the Ronin, it is indeed included in the fiscal year software sales for the year ending March 31, 2024"

Rise of the ronin released March 22. It's 9 days on sale is the reason their fiscal year isn't doing well? And they didn't even say Ronin under performed?

Let's at least say maybe it isn't doing well and not name it in the headline with no proof?

Wo long launched to 47k last year in japan on PS4 and 5. And ronin launched to 64k only on PS5.
Selling more than their last game in Japan but let's assume it's not selling in the US?

[mastershredder]

Gee what did you expect. They should have read the room. Reception was like, " again?" okay. Koei Tecmo did not need to do yet another Samurai game. Feudal era Japan only has so much staying power and I really Wish Tecmo grow into new territory.

[Demetrius]

Even tho this type of stuff happen with certain games I still would like if most devs don't abandon em, it would be dope for them to make their titles look better, play smoother, add content, go sorta like the no man's sky route but I know that's not likely smh

[DarXyde]

We are coming off a pretty turbulent start to 2024. While I did buy Ronin, I haven't finished any games this year that I've bought (probably because most are lengthy RPGs and I'm a busy person).

I guess it didn't perform to their expectations at least within the fiscal year window...? It didn't really have much time to stretch its legs and it is a new IP. With everything else and the fact that games are pricey, it wouldn't surprise me if it was still having trouble with more time within the fiscal year with less competition.

Maybe people are waiting for it to grace Plus? I'd like to see research on game sales performance relative to the establishment of sub services on the platforms.

[RhinoGamer88]

Also, it is smart to wait to buy a game, especially a V1 of a series. Too many V1 games launch a mess.

[Ironmike]

I think personally they releasing to many games in a short time frame and for some ppl monets tight so they are more selective now

[JusttJD0099]

It's simply not a very good game.
Nothing to do with exclusivity like some Kid on this website thinks.

There are only 2 reasons why a game doesn't sell well on Playstation.
1. The game is bad.
2. The Release window is poorly chosen.

Forspoken is an example of the first one.
Final Fantasy Rebirth is an example of the second one.
Rise of the Ronin is an example of both.

[fsfsxii]

The game was ass so not surprising at all.

[CrimsonWing69]

This industry is going to take a shift to worse due to all this. Rebirth sales are poor, this is poor, but then you have Helldivers 2 selling a crazy amount… you know how this will play out now.

[WolfSeed]

Bring Itagaki back.

[Melankolis]

Some (older) people might be playing retrogames (PS1/PS2/DC/GC, etc) than newer games right now occupying their time, just like me.
My list right now and later :
1. The Last Story
2. Suikoden
3. Baten Kaitos
4. Several SEGA 90's/2000's racing games
5. RE Zero
Oh yeah, i want to revisit Final Fantasy IX too...
Too many retrogames i haven't finished, don't really care about newer games.

[Tzuno]

When you start releasing mediocre games and put the stamp of exclusive on them, well... serves them well.

[SpacedDuck]

Wait, people didn't want to play a game that at times was sub 30FPS on a "next gen console super powerful".

How strange.

[TiredGamer]

I feel like the writing is on the wall. The never-ending growth cycle of AAA game development and astronomical expectations are coming to an end. Konami and Microsoft saw it coming in that the risk/reward of increasing scope and budgets was a dead-end road. Why spend $100M on a three year game development project that has equal chances of tanking and losing money as it does barely squeezing a profit? Why not, as a company, just invest in something like pachinko machines that have a far greater risk/reward profile (as in Konami).

Being on the cutting edge of hardware is a double edged sword. Yes, you have the glitz of all that power and potential, but the reality is that the barrier of entry for development increases lockstep with that power. Consumers expect that the new 12 TF machine will provide 12 TF of “value” in content, and that has increasingly translated into “more graphics!” and “more content!” and to provide that requires more staff and development time, which means more money and time invested.

Nintendo has things dialed in in such a way that consumer expectations are tempered by the limited hardware. They can release solid AA and A titles, with a fraction of the development cost. It’s no wonder that they have not been in any rush to chase the technical side of hardware.

In the end, I think we are reaching the end of the road for the AAA game development paradigm we are on. Gamers will start to see fewer titles of that scope, and far less risk taken in genres than already exists. Developers may start to pivot, collectively, to smaller scope titles built with smaller staffs….. or some may disappear completely.

I believe we are in the beginning of a reinvention to the industry, and some of us won’t like where it’s headed.