Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Foamstars—three major Square Enix releases in the 2023 to 2024 financial year—all failed to meet the company’s expectations.
In a financial call reported by Bloomberg’s Takashi Mochizuki, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu admitted these three games failed to meet expected revenue and profit margins, and contributed heavily to the biggest dip in the company’s operating income in the last 13 years.
Final Fantasy 16, the last mainline entry to Square’s flagship series, debuted in June 2023 with three million launch sales. The initial momentum, however, reportedly didn’t translate to long-term commercial success due to slow sales in the year since. The company has yet to share a follow-up sales number.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second game in the FF7 remake trilogy, launched in February 2024 and performed worse than FF16 in sales. According to Mochizuki, even the launch sales of FF7 Rebirth failed to meet the company’s “internal target.”
Foamstars, Square Enix’s Splatoon-inspired shooter that launched in the same month as FF7 Rebirth, shares the same fate. The live-service game’s profits reportedly fell short of the company’s expectations too.
With all that said, Square Enix remained confident in the financial call about Final Fantasy 16’s sales still achieving its 18-month goal. As for FF7 Rebirth and Foamstars, the Japanese giant thinks their sales numbers “aren’t necessarily bad.”
Dot Esports reported earlier this week that Square Enix plans to aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy including Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. Notably, all three underperforming games launched as exclusive titles for PlayStation. While we know Final Fantasy 16’s PC port is releasing sometime before the end of 2024, we might see FF7 Rebirth and Foamstars arriving on multiple platforms sooner rather than later.
Earlier today, Dot Esports also reported about Square Enix canceling multiple unannounced projects and planning a significant layoff to ensure long-term growth.
As for what lies ahead, Square Enix currently has Kingdom Hearts 4, Dragon Quest 12, and the third game in the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy in development. Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion is also slated for release this June.
