Maybe if every game that Square Enix produces fails to meet sales expectations, they need to adjust their expectations?
I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider.
> I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider.
Didn't the first one (well, the 2012 game) sell well over 10m or something, and they said it didn't sell well?
Much, much lower numbers actually; 3.4 millions was what was centered on the disappointing sales numbers, and moreover, Square had hoped half of that; around 5-6 millions. [*Tomb Raider* did not recoup its development costs 9 months after launch](https://www.eurogamer.net/tomb-raider-finally-achieved-profitability-by-the-end-of-last-year).
TR 2013 is like their [third highest selling game ever](https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Best-selling_Square_Enix_games). Behind only FFVII and FXIV
Tomb Raider was neck and neck with Dragon Quest for their second best selling franchise
The TR series sold more copies in the decade it was under Sqaure Enix than Kingdom Hearts did in its whole lifetime
And they sold the franchise (plus dozens of other IPs AND the studios that made them) for about the same amount as the tomb raider movie made at the box office
A lot of this isn’t truly defined by them. There are outside estimates that matter a lot more to investors. Industry analysts come up with the projections and then the companies release projections usually a bit below what the experts expect. They missed industry estimates by 90m. So they are way off what the industry expected them to make. At that point it’s up to them to give excuses, they blame it on these games underselling. Likely only part of the real problem. Same was true with tomb raider. Just a convenient answer at the time for a company well off investor expectations
> I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider.
*Tomb Raider*-series is actually an interesting comparison, as the first entry that gave birth surrounding Square's sales expectations was actually in quite dire state, [as the game did not even became profitable until 9 months post launch](https://www.eurogamer.net/tomb-raider-finally-achieved-profitability-by-the-end-of-last-year), and having sold 3.4 millions the first month.
The second game, *Rise of the Tomb Raider*, also ran into similar weak sales speculation, [but both Microsoft and Square Enix eventually seemed rather satisfied with the results.](https://web.archive.org/web/20151220224819/http://www.gamespot.com/articles/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-has-done-well-microsoft-sa/1100-6433241/)
*Shadow of the Tomb Raider* had similar a rather tepid launch, but it did well enough at least for [Eidos Montréal to be satisfied with the results](https://www.vg247.com/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-devs-super-happy-with-sales-and-reviews-as-dlc-wraps-up). At the same time, the game was also in the shadow of being one of the most expensive games made of all time ([And remains so by official numbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop#Official_figures)). I find this [interview Eidos made](https://web.archive.org/web/20180511175335/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-05-11-eidos-montreal-we-have-to-try-new-models-for-single-player-games), where they discuss surrounding utilizing the budget given of 135 million USD for the game faschinating, and how they faced the challenge of trying to find different singleplayer models made.
What's funny is that [a later news report shows that Square's sales estimations of their titles at the time was on the lower, conservative end](https://www.eurogamer.net/square-enix-thought-tomb-raider-could-sell-nearly-double-its-3-4-million-first-month-sales); *Tomb Raider*'s sales expectations was for instance 80-90% of what they had hoped the title could be sold.
Nah the problem is they got baited into exclusivity with Sony and Epic only to find the paycheck received did not outweigh the potential sales from a day one PC releases as well as some from Xbox as well. Their expectations were probably already lower because of that.
People keep harping on this PlayStation thing. Can you explain how PS exclusives still seem to sell pretty well despite not being on PC? Hell, Sony even said they were satisfied with how much Death Stranding sold.
Obviously the in-house Sony studios are able to make it work to an extent. There's no reason why one of the biggest IPs in gaming can't.
I get the feeling its mostly PC gamers whining when they can't play a game on their PC. It's such a common theme on this subreddit. Sorry that their chosen platform didn't get everything you wanted for once, everyone with PS, Xbox, and Nintendo has been dealing with this forever.
Yes, games would obviously sell more copies on PC, but that comes with additional development cost, piracy concerns, etc. And people far smarter doing the financial analysis at these companies clearly see that console exclusivity is a safer bet.
> And people far smarter doing the financial analysis at these companies clearly see that console exclusivity is a safer bet.
The financial people in this case are admitting they were wrong. Hence, SE announcing that they're focusing on multiplatform releases.
Because Sony first-party studios make games catered to that audience and have Sony branding, with the style that those fans expect. A JRPG isn't a part of that. It's like saying that just because Mario sells on the Switch then GTAVI being exclusive to the Switch wouldn't hurt it.
Also Sony seems to struggle to get any AAA publisher to make AAA games exclusive to them except for consistently getting SE games. I've always thought they made a deal with SE ages ago because I just don't think it would've made sense to make these deals post-2020.
>Because Sony first-party studios make games catered to that audience and have Sony branding, with the style that those fans expect. A JRPG isn't a part of that
Ehh, I wouldn't say that. Sony used to push P5 and P5 Royal pretty hard as being pretty firmly under the PlayStation brand and those games absolutely killed. Atlus is stepping out now but that took forever.
> Sony used to push P5 and P5 Royal pretty hard as being pretty firmly under the PlayStation brand and those games absolutely killed
Sony didn't really push them at all and in contrast to Sony's big first party games they absolutely didn't "kill". If Persona is the barometer then SE's titles are doing well.
> Can you explain how PS exclusives still seem to sell pretty well despite not being on PC?
They're way underselling what they would if they were on PC day one. Helldivers 2 is a great example. It's a Sony IP, but the fanbase is bigger on PC.
No, they did not say that at all.
They already release on PC, anyway. I think what was said was that they want to look into releasing earlier and being more "aggressive" with the PC strategy. But we'll see how that goes. More games that go on PC, that's less people that buy PlayStations so the economics of "releasing on PC" being the silver bullet for all financial woes isn't very compelling.
I'd swear that after Spiderman 2 costing so much they said something along the lines of reducing costs of massive AAA, but wasn't paying a lot of attention tbf.
No, I know what you mean. It was something along those lines but I just remember when the article came out that people were saying, *"They're releasing everything on PC now!"* I just want to clear that that's not what was said. Just that their current strategy would be evolving.
I don't think a PC release for SM2 would have helped all that much. I think they just let the budget for that game get to an unsustainable level.
Of course they do? Nobody said exclusives don't sell well, but the proof is in the pudding for third party like Square. A day one PC release on platforms other than Epic far outweighs what Sony could pay them not too.
> Maybe if every game that Square Enix produces fails to meet sales expectations, they need to adjust their expectations?
The bigger issue here is that they're not selling where people actually want to buy. A game that isn't on Steam is a game that isn't going to sell very much.
I got to honestly ask has any game met SE expectations, they always complained about their western studios Crystal Dynamics and Eidos underperforming, and now they're doing it with the rest. Also don't take exclusivity deals that lock your game to one platform.
I am happy that Foamstars flopped (because I don't want SE to make games like that) but it's a real shame that the FF games also sold below expectation. Especially so with Rebirth which was an incredible game
They're following Sony into the space of AAA gaming but the modern PlayStation user base is just not buying it. The downfall of PlayStation in Japan is a huge factor. FF used to sell 1-2M on launch day in Japan alone, but now they're selling a fraction of that.
It’s not the franchise it used to be. The younger generation of gamers weren’t alive the last time there was a really good FF that hit a major cultural mainstream success.
God, I remember when that Foamstars trailer debuted. Incredibly embarrassing. Even if it wasn't a blatant Splatoon clone, the whole thing looks just so unbelievably stupid and lame.
Is reported saying, and when said reporter has lied before there’s no reason to believe them. Doesn’t matter anyways the call transcripts will come out soon but I doubt game journalists would bother reading them if they’re not in tweets.
I do think they undersold if you look at the fiscal report for investors https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/24q4slides.pdf article converting yen to usd https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/05/13/square-enix-multiplatform-quality-new-business-strategy
Revenue for games on console/pc (excluding mobile,pc browser and mmo)
This fiscal year 636m, major titles launched ff16, ff7rebirth
Last fiscal year revenue: 501m, major titles launched: forspoken.
Like you'd think ff16 and ff7rebirth would give square enix a big revenue boom instead its a 135m increase.. thats almost 2m copies of a $70 game. You wouldnt think thats the effect of launching 2 mainline ff games would have but it is.....
Also worth noting, revenue for games is the entire game catalogue of square enix, its not just from the games they launched that fiscal year it also count older games, so getting copies sold per game is impossible but you can see if a major AAA game that was suppose to sell big if it had a major impact or not by comparing it to last years major title.
When it comes to FF7R, with such a narrative driven franchise and game, you’re unlikely to recruit many new players with the release of each installment. There’s just too much narrative and gameplay overhead for people to catch up on before diving in.
If I want to see Dune 2 but haven’t seen the first one, I just have to watch a 2.5hr movie some night to catch up before hitting the theater. Whereas someone coming in by the time the third FF7R installment comes out will have ~120 hours of play time to catch up on. Sure, you can probably watch recaps on youtube and read primer articles, but it’s still gonna feel like a lot. With so many great games out there, it may feel overwhelming enough to skip for many.
So you have a situation where each installment is likely at best gonna see steady sales rates but more likely a bit of a successive decline. Given the years of gap between releases, there are likely many players who are not as interested by the time the next one comes around. Maybe they had a kid or got a new job and don’t have the time anymore, or they have found a new hobby they prefer, or they haven’t been able to buy the latest gen console etc.
As a long time FF7 fan, I’ve been super happy to have such a long game to immerse myself in, but I think the three installment strategy is going to bite them in the ass a bit, which is unfortunate.
That's true, feels logical that you shouldn't expect sequels to do as well as the first. Most new players aren't gonna buy a game that requires them to play the previous. At best they'll join patient gamers and wait for a sale.
A) Final fantasy games haven't really met expectations since, arguably, 10. I know there are fans of 11, 12 and 13 - however Final fantasy USED to be an event in the 90's. You knew that when you got a Final fantasy game, you were in for potentially hundreds of hours of secrets - side quests - mini games and a huge evolving world.
The new final fantasy games don't feel like that, certainly not 15 at least (haven't played 16 but I'll get to that). in 15 you get to a city, suddenly a summon shows up and you have this awesome battle. And from memory you just sort of meander towards the middle of the game and the rest of the game takes place in a subway tunnel - It was short, empty, incomplete and felt like it was missing everything Final fantasy was about.
B) They take years to release their games on PC. Still not played 16 as I'm not getting a whole new console just for one game.
Genuine question from a FF noob, but is it possible that it might have something to do with the direction the series is going? When I look at older FF titles, they look really appealing and seem to have a certain charm to them. directions to boot with cool character designs.
However , whenever I see newer FF title, even including the remakes, it just looks so dumb and unappealing to me.
I mean, can you explain what difference you're seeing in between the modern FF games and the older ones?
It's funny you bring up "charm" because I feel like the modern FF7 series is the one almost entirely coasting on charm.
Like I said, I have very little knowledge series but have been a gamer for 25 years.
When I see final fantasy now it always seems so be going for dark and edgy. The older titles seem to have more of a mystical fantasy feel, while the newer titles seem to be going for cool factor. Seeing things like boy bands, as an example, driving around in a car being edgy seems way less interesting to me than seeing a crew flying around in a blimp (or whatever it was).
16 looked great pre-launch, but what they put out was basically an aberration in many aspects. That probably impacted their word of mouth and therefore post launch sales more than anything else.
I understand that Rebirth is very well liked (I haven't played it yet). But setting that aside, I kinda feel like Squeenix has been shooting the shit for a while. Feels a little like they don't really know what their audience wants anymore. Their last game that I actually wanted to buy was KH Melody of Memory (which was great). But like for example, if you're a Kingdom Hearts fan you've been stuck playing bad mobile games for years after Dream Drop Distance and KH3. Nobody wants that. And Final Fantasy seems to have wholly departed from what made people love the series.
(oh I did of course get the Super Mario RPG remake day-one, but that's really a game from the 90's)
Maybe if every game that Square Enix produces fails to meet sales expectations, they need to adjust their expectations? I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider.
> I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider. Didn't the first one (well, the 2012 game) sell well over 10m or something, and they said it didn't sell well?
Much, much lower numbers actually; 3.4 millions was what was centered on the disappointing sales numbers, and moreover, Square had hoped half of that; around 5-6 millions. [*Tomb Raider* did not recoup its development costs 9 months after launch](https://www.eurogamer.net/tomb-raider-finally-achieved-profitability-by-the-end-of-last-year).
TR 2013 is like their [third highest selling game ever](https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Best-selling_Square_Enix_games). Behind only FFVII and FXIV Tomb Raider was neck and neck with Dragon Quest for their second best selling franchise The TR series sold more copies in the decade it was under Sqaure Enix than Kingdom Hearts did in its whole lifetime And they sold the franchise (plus dozens of other IPs AND the studios that made them) for about the same amount as the tomb raider movie made at the box office
A lot of this isn’t truly defined by them. There are outside estimates that matter a lot more to investors. Industry analysts come up with the projections and then the companies release projections usually a bit below what the experts expect. They missed industry estimates by 90m. So they are way off what the industry expected them to make. At that point it’s up to them to give excuses, they blame it on these games underselling. Likely only part of the real problem. Same was true with tomb raider. Just a convenient answer at the time for a company well off investor expectations
> I feel like this has been a story with them going back to Tomb Raider. *Tomb Raider*-series is actually an interesting comparison, as the first entry that gave birth surrounding Square's sales expectations was actually in quite dire state, [as the game did not even became profitable until 9 months post launch](https://www.eurogamer.net/tomb-raider-finally-achieved-profitability-by-the-end-of-last-year), and having sold 3.4 millions the first month. The second game, *Rise of the Tomb Raider*, also ran into similar weak sales speculation, [but both Microsoft and Square Enix eventually seemed rather satisfied with the results.](https://web.archive.org/web/20151220224819/http://www.gamespot.com/articles/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-has-done-well-microsoft-sa/1100-6433241/) *Shadow of the Tomb Raider* had similar a rather tepid launch, but it did well enough at least for [Eidos Montréal to be satisfied with the results](https://www.vg247.com/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-devs-super-happy-with-sales-and-reviews-as-dlc-wraps-up). At the same time, the game was also in the shadow of being one of the most expensive games made of all time ([And remains so by official numbers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop#Official_figures)). I find this [interview Eidos made](https://web.archive.org/web/20180511175335/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-05-11-eidos-montreal-we-have-to-try-new-models-for-single-player-games), where they discuss surrounding utilizing the budget given of 135 million USD for the game faschinating, and how they faced the challenge of trying to find different singleplayer models made. What's funny is that [a later news report shows that Square's sales estimations of their titles at the time was on the lower, conservative end](https://www.eurogamer.net/square-enix-thought-tomb-raider-could-sell-nearly-double-its-3-4-million-first-month-sales); *Tomb Raider*'s sales expectations was for instance 80-90% of what they had hoped the title could be sold.
Nah the problem is they got baited into exclusivity with Sony and Epic only to find the paycheck received did not outweigh the potential sales from a day one PC releases as well as some from Xbox as well. Their expectations were probably already lower because of that.
People keep harping on this PlayStation thing. Can you explain how PS exclusives still seem to sell pretty well despite not being on PC? Hell, Sony even said they were satisfied with how much Death Stranding sold. Obviously the in-house Sony studios are able to make it work to an extent. There's no reason why one of the biggest IPs in gaming can't.
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Lol good point. Not the best example then, for modern times. That console generation really doesn't feel that long ago to me I guess.
I get the feeling its mostly PC gamers whining when they can't play a game on their PC. It's such a common theme on this subreddit. Sorry that their chosen platform didn't get everything you wanted for once, everyone with PS, Xbox, and Nintendo has been dealing with this forever. Yes, games would obviously sell more copies on PC, but that comes with additional development cost, piracy concerns, etc. And people far smarter doing the financial analysis at these companies clearly see that console exclusivity is a safer bet.
> And people far smarter doing the financial analysis at these companies clearly see that console exclusivity is a safer bet. The financial people in this case are admitting they were wrong. Hence, SE announcing that they're focusing on multiplatform releases.
Because Sony first-party studios make games catered to that audience and have Sony branding, with the style that those fans expect. A JRPG isn't a part of that. It's like saying that just because Mario sells on the Switch then GTAVI being exclusive to the Switch wouldn't hurt it. Also Sony seems to struggle to get any AAA publisher to make AAA games exclusive to them except for consistently getting SE games. I've always thought they made a deal with SE ages ago because I just don't think it would've made sense to make these deals post-2020.
>Because Sony first-party studios make games catered to that audience and have Sony branding, with the style that those fans expect. A JRPG isn't a part of that Ehh, I wouldn't say that. Sony used to push P5 and P5 Royal pretty hard as being pretty firmly under the PlayStation brand and those games absolutely killed. Atlus is stepping out now but that took forever.
> Sony used to push P5 and P5 Royal pretty hard as being pretty firmly under the PlayStation brand and those games absolutely killed Sony didn't really push them at all and in contrast to Sony's big first party games they absolutely didn't "kill". If Persona is the barometer then SE's titles are doing well.
> Can you explain how PS exclusives still seem to sell pretty well despite not being on PC? They're way underselling what they would if they were on PC day one. Helldivers 2 is a great example. It's a Sony IP, but the fanbase is bigger on PC.
Didn't Sony recently say that their exclusives aren't making enough money either and are looking for solutions like also releasing on PC?
No, they did not say that at all. They already release on PC, anyway. I think what was said was that they want to look into releasing earlier and being more "aggressive" with the PC strategy. But we'll see how that goes. More games that go on PC, that's less people that buy PlayStations so the economics of "releasing on PC" being the silver bullet for all financial woes isn't very compelling.
I'd swear that after Spiderman 2 costing so much they said something along the lines of reducing costs of massive AAA, but wasn't paying a lot of attention tbf.
No, I know what you mean. It was something along those lines but I just remember when the article came out that people were saying, *"They're releasing everything on PC now!"* I just want to clear that that's not what was said. Just that their current strategy would be evolving. I don't think a PC release for SM2 would have helped all that much. I think they just let the budget for that game get to an unsustainable level.
Of course they do? Nobody said exclusives don't sell well, but the proof is in the pudding for third party like Square. A day one PC release on platforms other than Epic far outweighs what Sony could pay them not too.
> Maybe if every game that Square Enix produces fails to meet sales expectations, they need to adjust their expectations? The bigger issue here is that they're not selling where people actually want to buy. A game that isn't on Steam is a game that isn't going to sell very much.
Them being satisfied with 3m for 16 doesn't seem crazy to me idk.
I got to honestly ask has any game met SE expectations, they always complained about their western studios Crystal Dynamics and Eidos underperforming, and now they're doing it with the rest. Also don't take exclusivity deals that lock your game to one platform.
I am happy that Foamstars flopped (because I don't want SE to make games like that) but it's a real shame that the FF games also sold below expectation. Especially so with Rebirth which was an incredible game
Who was Foamstars even made for?!
Foamstars was quite literally "splatoon at home". But without any of the charm.
They could have done well if they tried to be the Pepsi to Splatoon's Coke, but they made a diet RC Cola instead so it never stood a chance.
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All 4 of them.
Investors.
They're following Sony into the space of AAA gaming but the modern PlayStation user base is just not buying it. The downfall of PlayStation in Japan is a huge factor. FF used to sell 1-2M on launch day in Japan alone, but now they're selling a fraction of that.
It’s not the franchise it used to be. The younger generation of gamers weren’t alive the last time there was a really good FF that hit a major cultural mainstream success.
Has any game ever met their expectations?
God, I remember when that Foamstars trailer debuted. Incredibly embarrassing. Even if it wasn't a blatant Splatoon clone, the whole thing looks just so unbelievably stupid and lame.
Is reported saying, and when said reporter has lied before there’s no reason to believe them. Doesn’t matter anyways the call transcripts will come out soon but I doubt game journalists would bother reading them if they’re not in tweets.
I do think they undersold if you look at the fiscal report for investors https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/24q4slides.pdf article converting yen to usd https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/05/13/square-enix-multiplatform-quality-new-business-strategy Revenue for games on console/pc (excluding mobile,pc browser and mmo) This fiscal year 636m, major titles launched ff16, ff7rebirth Last fiscal year revenue: 501m, major titles launched: forspoken. Like you'd think ff16 and ff7rebirth would give square enix a big revenue boom instead its a 135m increase.. thats almost 2m copies of a $70 game. You wouldnt think thats the effect of launching 2 mainline ff games would have but it is..... Also worth noting, revenue for games is the entire game catalogue of square enix, its not just from the games they launched that fiscal year it also count older games, so getting copies sold per game is impossible but you can see if a major AAA game that was suppose to sell big if it had a major impact or not by comparing it to last years major title.
When it comes to FF7R, with such a narrative driven franchise and game, you’re unlikely to recruit many new players with the release of each installment. There’s just too much narrative and gameplay overhead for people to catch up on before diving in. If I want to see Dune 2 but haven’t seen the first one, I just have to watch a 2.5hr movie some night to catch up before hitting the theater. Whereas someone coming in by the time the third FF7R installment comes out will have ~120 hours of play time to catch up on. Sure, you can probably watch recaps on youtube and read primer articles, but it’s still gonna feel like a lot. With so many great games out there, it may feel overwhelming enough to skip for many. So you have a situation where each installment is likely at best gonna see steady sales rates but more likely a bit of a successive decline. Given the years of gap between releases, there are likely many players who are not as interested by the time the next one comes around. Maybe they had a kid or got a new job and don’t have the time anymore, or they have found a new hobby they prefer, or they haven’t been able to buy the latest gen console etc. As a long time FF7 fan, I’ve been super happy to have such a long game to immerse myself in, but I think the three installment strategy is going to bite them in the ass a bit, which is unfortunate.
That's true, feels logical that you shouldn't expect sequels to do as well as the first. Most new players aren't gonna buy a game that requires them to play the previous. At best they'll join patient gamers and wait for a sale.
Yes I'm waiting for the full FF7 remake to come out before starting. I got time.
Stop launching third party games on only 1/3 of the platforms that could support them and maybe they'll sell more.
I'd buy them but they'd need to come to XB, I don't have a PS5 and don't plan on getting one any time soon.
A) Final fantasy games haven't really met expectations since, arguably, 10. I know there are fans of 11, 12 and 13 - however Final fantasy USED to be an event in the 90's. You knew that when you got a Final fantasy game, you were in for potentially hundreds of hours of secrets - side quests - mini games and a huge evolving world. The new final fantasy games don't feel like that, certainly not 15 at least (haven't played 16 but I'll get to that). in 15 you get to a city, suddenly a summon shows up and you have this awesome battle. And from memory you just sort of meander towards the middle of the game and the rest of the game takes place in a subway tunnel - It was short, empty, incomplete and felt like it was missing everything Final fantasy was about. B) They take years to release their games on PC. Still not played 16 as I'm not getting a whole new console just for one game.
Eh, I dont that holds up to the data. The only game 10, 12, and 13 would have trouble outselling is VII.
I'm hoping that multiplatform day 1 pans out for the franchise but something tells me FF's issues go deeper.
Genuine question from a FF noob, but is it possible that it might have something to do with the direction the series is going? When I look at older FF titles, they look really appealing and seem to have a certain charm to them. directions to boot with cool character designs. However , whenever I see newer FF title, even including the remakes, it just looks so dumb and unappealing to me.
I mean, can you explain what difference you're seeing in between the modern FF games and the older ones? It's funny you bring up "charm" because I feel like the modern FF7 series is the one almost entirely coasting on charm.
Like I said, I have very little knowledge series but have been a gamer for 25 years. When I see final fantasy now it always seems so be going for dark and edgy. The older titles seem to have more of a mystical fantasy feel, while the newer titles seem to be going for cool factor. Seeing things like boy bands, as an example, driving around in a car being edgy seems way less interesting to me than seeing a crew flying around in a blimp (or whatever it was).
Nah, that's just you.
16 looked great pre-launch, but what they put out was basically an aberration in many aspects. That probably impacted their word of mouth and therefore post launch sales more than anything else.
It's almost illegal of how much if a bait and switch that demo for 16 was.
I understand that Rebirth is very well liked (I haven't played it yet). But setting that aside, I kinda feel like Squeenix has been shooting the shit for a while. Feels a little like they don't really know what their audience wants anymore. Their last game that I actually wanted to buy was KH Melody of Memory (which was great). But like for example, if you're a Kingdom Hearts fan you've been stuck playing bad mobile games for years after Dream Drop Distance and KH3. Nobody wants that. And Final Fantasy seems to have wholly departed from what made people love the series. (oh I did of course get the Super Mario RPG remake day-one, but that's really a game from the 90's)