Japan: Square Enix 2008 unit sales down 74%
- Posted December 1st, 2008 at 05:50 EDT by
- 3,221 views
- 52 Comments
ChartGet has come up with some rather disappointing sales data for Japanese giant Square Enix, confirming that the publisher is down 74 per cent on its total units sold through 2008 in comparison to last year.
While some may attribute these results to a lack of overall releases in comparison to 2007, it is interesting to note that the publisher did not release a single title in Japan for the PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3 throughout the entire year thus far, while the Wii managed one.
This begs the question: "Can Square Enix collect on the goods without the Sony and Nintendo brand loyalty?"
Some may argue the statistics and applaud SE for moving towards a multiplatform objective, but at what cost does this come? You can also argue install base and potential buyers within a multiplatform world, but when push comes to shove, the numbers seem to indicate that without the Sony and Ninty faithful, Square Enix sales seem to dwindle.
This will all be put to the test once the company releases one of 2009’s killer games, namely RPG Final Fantasy XIII. Exclusive to PS3 in Japan, the game has the potential to sway a lot of opinions if the sales are successful enough to prove this perspective.
Let us know what you think below.
Comments
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BulletBlader
- 6:00am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 1
Good, now they can finally understand why making games for xbox will only hurt their pockets...
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dj_sup3r1or |
sup3r1or- 6:54am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 5
I hope they enjoy it, they deserved their lesson!
I dont care even if they go bancrupt, MS can save their pockets at the cost of FFvs13 going multiplatform
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Funeralfog |
blksabbath- 7:27am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 7
hah, i hope they get the picture now the idiots
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d3athscyth3 |
natakou- 8:10am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 10
oh square where should i begin with you..you were such a good company..but see what happens when you kick loyal fans in the dragonba!!s lol..tsh tsh..exclusives for MS will get you nowhere well unless it's halo or gears (360 fanboys get off this site you know who u are)..keep feeding us crap about not betraying ps3 (& nintendo) fans alike & see where you'll end up..maybe EA might be interested if you slip too far..like #4 said KARMA b!tch
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markwesker
- 8:56am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 12
Ha shows going multi plat does not work.problem is now ff13 is gotta fit on the 360 this game might not be the all great ,all powerfull game people was hoping for ,in which case sales will suffer.already seen people saying the graphics are looking poor on the newly released screenshots,ermmm wonder why.
should of learned from mgs4 that if u use the power of ps3 ,make a quality game and keep loyal you will have massive sales make massive profits and your reputation goes up in the gaming world n fanboy world..and most probly will end up a classic.
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hush404 |
hush404- 9:47am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 15
Square has been pumping out shotty games for a while - trying to grow their library instead of doing what made them a big name in the first place; namely taking their time on making quality. It use to be, you knew square made quality, not it seems they're looking for the buck and releasing mediocre and or publishing mediocre games under their name and gamers are taking notice. - Sure FF will most likely sell like crazy - cuz they take their sweet time with it and make it great BUT - their tactic of pumping out quantity over quality is really hurting them.
Someone should let them know THEY'RE NOT EA.
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Kairav
- 9:48am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 16
All I request (does not mean you have to, but I sincerely request) is that any additional posters please read the source of this article. From what I see, Dave Wales tweaked and left out some very critical nonbiased information. Information necessary to truly get a more accurate understanding as to why numbers have dropped. As to why he did so, I can only imagine his intentions were to spur more comments and therefore traffic to this website (props to him for keeping PSU alive in the process). Anywho...
Yes the argument still exists that S-E going multiplatform is the cause, but I highly doubt that being the reason based on the statistics given in the source article. Considering S-E has released virtually nothing this year and no heavy hitters for EU and NA, I am not surprised by the numbers. I now see that it appears to be a cyclical routine for S-E (perhaps one that coincides the release of a new console?).
Edit: Dave has pointed out my error of including EU and NA in my comment. The numbers presented in the article are purely Japanese statistics. I will leave my post as is so that others may see and understand the comments afterward.
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Noryl
- 10:05am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 17
Well going multiplat certainly did not help in regards to sales and chances are it still won't help once their heavy hitters drop. Everyone should take note that Ps3 exclusives sale at a faster rate then multiplat games. I think this is a trend that will continue to happen and further hurt S-E with their current business model. They have lost many loyal fans. Including myself. So i guess we will have to wait and see how this turns out.
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 10:34am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 19
just cause the 360 has a slightly larger fan base they thought they could make a few million while leaving playstation with nothing but excuses. i hope this was a wake up call to those dumbasses
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Fiddlesworth
- 10:36am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 20
This year's RPG's would have sold at least triple the amount on PS3 in Japan. Square-Enix need to get their act together, kick out Yoichi Wada and concentrate on high quality single platform (PS3/PSP then DS) games again. Unreal Engine III and Xbox 360 were a big mistake for them.
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Staticneuron |
Staticneuron- 10:51am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 21
@Kairav
What are you talking about? He posted the source in his article.
http://chartget.blogspot.com/2008/11/japan-square-enix-2008-unit-sales-down.html
Simply put they are low because of poor selection of titles and dismal sales for each of them.
Its humerous because they just talked big about single platform releases and it seems like they make the most profit off of single platform releases.
As a matter of fact even many othere companies show a clear benefit from a certian platforms install base. The best selling titles on each console are exclusives and even with the MP strategy the majority of MP titles do not reach the success of each respective console. So the whole MP mess is bunk anyway and the numbers show that it can only work with a few companies and even at that most of those companies get thier big bucks by shoveling crap instead of quality. A few gems doesn't make a company like EA shine especially when they are deep in mud.
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d_dogg
- 11:08am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 23
Thats what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you. I hope you will learn your lesson now SE because this is what you deserved for caring more about money then making great games. Developers should know that a great game will always make money even if it cost a lot to develop gamers aren't stupid we know what good games are and will stick to it.
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Kairav
- 11:09am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 24
Dave, that would be a complete oversight on my part. Thanks for pointing that out. I am a disgruntled S-E fan because I have none of the S-E games I love in NA. Also, the rest of this post is me arguing the statistics. You may skip over this part, but I am still typing this for others to read. At the end, I have a question I hope you, or anyone else, could answer.
Even if these numbers are purely Japanese sales, my mention of no heavy hitters (at least titles I perceive has heavy hitters) still has weight. According to the listed games, the majority of heavy hitters last year were NDS games- with the exception of Crisis Core and FFT:WotL. Looking at 2008 releases, the majority of titles are still NDS (only one heavy hitter this year).
If we filter our view to Sony titles only, we only see one Sony title released this year- as noted in the above article. Last year, S-E released nine Sony titles. Is that lack of loyalty to Sony? Or is this loyalty to gamers (not a brand, but you and I) that S-E intends on releasing games when they feel a game is complete? (This could spin off another argument of whether multiplatform is loyalty or not... that's not my objective).
If we filter our view to 360 titles only, we see only one title released this year, albeit a new IP. Last year's two 360 titles were for the dwindling FFXI community (I am a former player). Based on these numbers, the argument of multiplatform is practically mute until concrete data is available. Yes, S-E fans may be disgruntled on multiplatform expectations, but in Japan, the majority of S-E titles appear to remain exclusive (correct me if I am wrong).
Back to the article: With S-E going multiplatform, as Dave states "the numbers seem to indicate that without the Sony and Ninty faithful, Square Enix sales seem to dwindle." I fail to see how the numbers show lack of loyalty to Sony and Ninty. I do not see an increase in 360 games this year over last. I do not see an increase of multiplatform games released this year. I simply do not see a comparable number of games released. How does this show lack of loyalty? Can someone tell me?
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Dave
- 11:51am GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 26
Kairav, how many of those titles released in 2008 were on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3? The answer: 1.
That proves to be very important. Sure, handheld sales are great. But the most beloved RPGs always come out for the home console because RPGs are meant to engulf you within their worlds. It's hard to do that when playing on the subway train, etc... Only releasing console RPGs to the 360 (vastly smaller install base in Japan) while shafting the PlayStation 2 (How big?) , PlayStation 3 (2.5x the size of the 360 install base) and the Nintendo Wii (How huge?) has only lost a TON of overall sales.
How much better do you think these numbers would have been had The Last Remnant AND Infinite Undiscovery both launched on the PlayStation 3 this year? I'd go out on a limb and guess that it could have easily sold around 1 million more copies.
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Anim3Fr33K |
Anim3Fr33K- 3:16pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 30
Serves em right, trying to money grub with M$ paying them off for exclusives and look where it gets them. Hopfully this will force them to make the new star ocean game multi platform.
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mikeghtmare |
mikeghtmare- 3:30pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 31
hahaha, take that. That oughta show them.
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yoboyrob9041226 |
BIGROB904- 4:39pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 36
see square-enix you get what you deserve maybe now you will reconsider not going multiplat on ff13. i know what im talkin about when i say they were backstabbing us.
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zombieking36
- 4:39pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 37
That is what they get for making rushed games for the 360! I highly doubt Star Ocean 4 will be good, and it'll fallow in the footsteps of IU and The Last Remnant!
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Hasassin |
hasassin47- 5:26pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 39
Developers don't understand, how the heck can you say that we are not familiar with the technology PS3 has, if you haven't even tried it. Same thing happened with the PS1, companies like SE rejected Sony's offer of making games for the PSX since it was very expensive to make 3-D games, however, they were proven wrong. History seems to be repeating itself, as we speak...
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The Master
- 6:52pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 40
As long as FFXIII Vurses delivers I couldn't care less. I won't be buying FFXIII, it being multi plat is one of the reasons.
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Link64 |
Link64- 9:51pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 43
nobody cared about JRPG like it used 2 be back in the ps2 era myself included. ps3 games is mostly shooter now & they're are all good MGS4, R2 just to name a few. i used to hates shooter but ever since i played fall Of Man & COD4 i've change from a RPG to FPS.. because SE welling to go to 360 last gen hardware. FFXIII will fail doesn't matter if it release on the ps3 1st but FFXIII versus is still the only SE game still on my radar. 360 owners don't play JRPG all they're playing is Gear2 & COD WaW.
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superbeast1370 |
superbeast2000- 10:21pm GMT - December 1st, 2008
- 45
SE had a pathetic Year. Atlus is going to have a great year.(Persona 4)
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jerocarson
- 12:17am GMT - December 2nd, 2008
- 48
they deserved every bit of it.
you can't actually bit the fingers that feeds you.
SHAME, square
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CSZ002
- 12:38am GMT - December 2nd, 2008
- 49
AHAH I LAUGH AT TITLES LIKE LAST REMNANT and INFINITE UNDISCOVERY, not even AA JRPG TItles ON A CONSOLE THAT ISNT REALLY FRIENDLY FOR JRPGS! AHAHA , SQUARE ENIX DOESNT KNOW THEYRE LOSING BECAUSE XBOX IS FULL OF HARDCORE SHOOTER FANS, NOT RPG! ok ill calm down now....but ATLUS and LEVEL 5 FTW!
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Kairav
- 11:25am GMT - December 2nd, 2008
- 50
Number of home console games released in 2007: 6 out of 18 (33%)
Sale numbers of home console games in 2007: 958,298 out of 4,492,284 (21.33%)
Number of home console games released in 2008: 2 out of 10 (20%)
Sale numbers of home console games in 2008: 104,395 out of 1,685,172 (6.19%)
Now I do not have the statistics for the years before, but from these numbers I dont see a lack of loyalty- just a decline in product release. Yes, if more console games were released, the likelihood of more sales increases, but that's true even if the game were a handheld game. On the main sources page, if you click the historical data link (graph by analysis section) you will also see that on average, handheld games sell more units on Ninty and console games sell more units on Sony.
In the history of the company, the majority of games have been PS2 and therefore the majority of their revenue came from that section. But I believe (emphasis on the word believe because I have no data to back this up) that the majority of the PS2 games accounted for in the overall history of S-E sales were post merger of Squaresoft and Enix, when the combined company power increased title output (backed by the graph on title output per year after 2002). Back then, the largest install base was Sony and Sony was the safest investment. How did Ninty gamers feel about the lack of love?
Yes, RPG's are meant to engulf you in their respective world, but that doesn't mean it can't occur on a train. Playing an RPG, in my opinion, is somewhat like reading a book. Some stories will engage and engulf you no matter where you are when lost in that world. And yes, had any RPG from S-E launched on PS3 this year, I can easily imagine it selling over a million units, but that didnt happen and it's not because of disloyalty in my eyes. (Please someone open my eyes to evidence that shows true disloyalty with these numbers.)
Based on these statistics, I see an increase in handheld titles due to the increasing market and the respectively cheaper investment to create new IP. In comparison, console games, I believe (once again emphasis on believe- not know) are becoming increasingly more expensive ventures, from a resource perspective as well as monetary.
Once again, can someone point out logically that these numbers show disloyalty and that due to that disloyalty, S-E is feeling the pain?
Edit: I will cut the post at that for now. More to say going on in my mind...disorganized, but in my mind.
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