In a recent financial report, Square Enix stated that Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Foamstars did not meet revenue expectations.

The company mentions unmet expectations so frequently that among players, the opinion has gained popularity that these expectations are simply unreasonably high.

Jacob Navok, former head of business development at Square Enix, dedicated a thread to this on X and explained that this belief is a misconception and that the expectations are not inflated.

Navok stated that sales expectations are not arbitrary, and in fact, Square Enix's game performance is just low. He emphasized that the main issue is that these expectations were set when Square Enix anticipated growth in its audience — during the period between 2015 and 2022 when F2P (free-to-play) games were still gaining popularity.

Now, when players have limited money and time, AAA game developers have to compete not only with similar games but also with live-service games for the attention of the player base.

Navok concluded that publishers and developers effectively have only one lever to somehow improve the situation: pricing. Therefore, he believes that the cost of games will continue to rise. As an example, he cited the prices of various editions of Star Wars Outlaws.

Another option is to reduce platform fees, so that out of 70 dollars, companies would receive not 50 but 55 or even more. However, this is not something to hope for in the near future.

Finally, we will see some changes into the business processes, for better or for worse.

Main image: alphacoders.com

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