Saturday, March 11th 2023
Forspoken is a Sales Flop, Square Enix Cites "Challenging" Critical Reaction, Dev Studio Being Disbanded
According to a Square Enix Outline of Results Briefing from February 2023, Forspoken sales numbers are lower than anticipated. Square Enix company president Yosuke Matsuda stated: "Reviews of "FORSPOKEN," which we released on January 24, 2023, have been challenging. However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future. That said, its sales have been lackluster, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings."
Luminous Productions, the developer of Forspoken, is disbanding and being merged into the larger Square Enix development group. Yosuke Matsuda, president and representative director of Square Enix, is due to step down from his role later in 2023. His replacement has already been lined up. Takashi Kiryu, the general manager for the corporate planning division at Square Enix Holdings, has been named as the eventual successor. Square Enix is restructuring its management team, in reaction to fast changing economic circumstances in the video game industry.
Forspoken follows the journey of Frey, a young New Yorker transported to the beautiful and cruel land of Athia. In search of a way home, Frey must use her newfound magical abilities to traverse sprawling landscapes and battle monstrous creatures. Available now as a timed exclusive for Playstation 5 and PC/Steam platforms.
Source:
square-enix.com Financial Report
Forspoken follows the journey of Frey, a young New Yorker transported to the beautiful and cruel land of Athia. In search of a way home, Frey must use her newfound magical abilities to traverse sprawling landscapes and battle monstrous creatures. Available now as a timed exclusive for Playstation 5 and PC/Steam platforms.
50 Comments on Forspoken is a Sales Flop, Square Enix Cites "Challenging" Critical Reaction, Dev Studio Being Disbanded
not sure why this surprised anybody
the FF series not with standing most of there titles are low buck crap
japanse studios seem to suck in general when it comes to making games that both play good AND Look good
they are stuck in the nintendo/arcade era where apperently you aren't allowed todo both they have been lagging behind the rest of the industry on the technical capablity side for years
Squaresoft had quality games. Square Enix doesn't.
Now, I will blame Enix out of this. Enix has 1 good series - Dragon Quest. The competition to Final Fantasy. But everyone says "But seph, Enix had other good games!" and my only reply is "The 7th Saga" and then I walk away while everyone in the room is clapping and the woman are throwing their undies at me.
True story.
Played both roughly the same amount of time and I actually find Forspoken more enjoyable than Hogwarts.
I can see myself finishing Forspoken and not bothering with Hogwarts.
In Hogwarts so far I have had missions break/get stuck and odd situations where enemies/NPCs are inside walls/floor/rocks etc.
Forspoken has been flawless so far (but I’m sure I’ll run into some issue, just like practically every game ever)
Can’t comment on PC performance or issues unfortunately, haven’t tried either on PC.
That price is beyond arrogance!
Someone there must have lost their grip on reality.
From all the reboots why did they not play it save and make a new supreme commander?
THAT i would have bought without reading ANY review.
- The genre seems to be a mix of action, fantasy and supernatural elements - no clear identity here.
- The gameplay has magic, moving stuff, also exploration, dialogues, maybe a bit of RPG as well? Again, no clear identity.
- The main character ("protagonist" would be an overstatement) is an average young human female who lives in New York, loves cats and swears a lot. Um... who cares?
All in all, based on the trailers and previews, the game doesn't seem to have a clear vision of what it wants to be, or who it wants to appeal to.As the saying goes: if you're desperate to please everyone, you'll end up pleasing no one.
I don't feel sorry for Square Enix, they killed the Sleeping dogs series :(
FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX and FFX came out on a regular cadence (1997,1999,2000,2001) and every game was a legit success its own way.
Xenogears in 1998
Chrono Cross in 1999.
Amongst others.
Each game was also guaranteed to have a kickass OST that you could listen to over and over again.
These were their golden years, and they seemed unstoppable.
Now they can't even produce that level of quality output at all, and everything they make gets either delayed or pushed back.
How the mighty have fallen.