Square Enix tells us what to expect from now on.

**Correction** · 2013-05-13 15:24

Alternate title: "Squeenix wakes up and smells their spiralling development costs."
Best to be sitting down, this is grim stuff.

Link to slides.

Key takeaways:

¥13.7 billion loss this last fiscal year. You might remember their last estimate was a ¥10 billion loss.
They're going to spend less on development per game than ever before. This means more on mobile and more social games, while they get more control over their HD console development costs. This is partly expected at the end of a console's lifetime, but this muddies the waters considerably for titles people still expected to see this gen (Versus).
They're going to focus on regional development (Read: If a game isn't expected to sell well outside of Japan forget about it). In other worse, lol Type 0, and more focus-group tested titles from Eidos IPs.
Layoffs and a clamp down on years in development is a given.
Lots and lots of restructuring up and down the development pipeline. See above about layoffs.
Spend more on marketing. Don't forget they threw their sales and marketing under the bus for Hitman and Tomb Raider not hitting their projections. They are promising more frequent, more in-detail updates released to consumers rather than force them to wait years between vague non-news sentences burped out by Nomura. Sound familiar? They promised this in 2010.

tl;dr tweets

Spoiler: show

Note that the target revenue next to the FFXIV tweet is for company wide operating income, not just the revenue from one title (because that would be fucking stupid).

The slides

Spoiler: show

Now all we have to do is wait for E3.

You really have to wonder if they have any unnanounced HD titles to show at E3 or at their separate, private conference. It might just be 2 hours of Thief 4 and XIV ARR footage.

**Takiwaki** · 2013-05-13 15:31

If 14 does not do well they are basically screwed.

**Lucavi** · 2013-05-13 15:34

I'm sure you'll see 50 mobile phone games and some new IOS support announcement.

That's where the money is (IE: that's the only place they can still thrive given their shitty method of delivering main-line titles not on a mobile phone).

**Headspace** · 2013-05-13 16:13

They could just remake FFXII.

I don't care for it, but it'll sell..

edit: Mean FFVII, but XII works just as well.

**Odin'sLaw** · 2013-05-13 16:19

well guess verses just got cancelled officially (that game must have cost 20 mil+ by now)

**DeathbySnoosnoo** · 2013-05-13 17:06

/sigh never gonna get another proper FF game

**Grey Jorildyn** · 2013-05-13 17:31

Expectations setting currently at: Low.

**Shiyo** · 2013-05-13 18:01

Oh I can't wait for FF14 just to be a complete WOW clone so they can pull the "we want to cash in on free money so let's copy a MMO with 8mil subs" strategy western devs(even though they're JP devs they seem to want to pretend to be western and copy WOW) love to pull. FF14 already seems like a complete WOW clone to me from what people have told me, so yeah I don't doubt this at all.

**Tyrath** · 2013-05-13 18:02

SE is a western dev?

Hurray mobile games >_<

**Correction** · 2013-05-13 18:14

Originally Posted by Tyrath

SE is a western dev?

From now until they start reaching their revenue projections you can expect them to act like one. Small IP stable milked yearly, no real risks taken, lots of mobile shovelware and marketing pushes galore. Right now E3 is the only thing you can hang your hopes on :D

**Fawkes** · 2013-05-13 18:24

Can't wait for the FFVII remake for ipad.

**Salodin** · 2013-05-13 19:20

Originally Posted by Fawkes

Can't wait for the FFVII remake for ipad.

And we'd all pay for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

**Souj** · 2013-05-13 20:03

They're going to focus on regional development (Read: If a game isn't expected to sell well outside of Japan forget about it).

So how can they get worse at this than they already are?

**Correction** · 2013-05-13 20:36

Originally Posted by Souj

So how can they get worse at this than they already are?

Fewer physical releases is one way, even less support for PC is another. And depending on how much you care about other platforms, you can expect zero support for the Wii U, OUYA or Vita going forward.

**Kirin** · 2013-05-13 20:59

I don't necessarily mind mobile titles as long as they are not FF1-4 related and actually tailored for use without a controller.

And not 20+ bucks...

I'm not taking all of this as bad news, considering new CEO and all that fun stuff. Hopefully they're turning their sights on more revenue via lower mobile title costs and actually marketing titles (Bravely Default...cough cough) to avoid this "regional development" talk to an extent.

There is also probably a bit of a knee-jerk reaction here to turtle up for the short term and see how some projects (ARR/Game Engines) filter out before really evaluating how they want to proceed in the 2-3 year cycle that will open PS4 development. I wouldnt worry too much about these unless ARR does not seem to take off and Versus continues to toil in development hell past TGS.

**Aristio** · 2013-05-13 21:50

If game developers understood that flashy graphics and "omg so realistic" don't make a good game anymore, we would stop getting shit games like Dead Space 3.

Every game developer/invester should be forced to watch zero punctuation and extra credits every week.

**Lonely** · 2013-05-13 21:55

I'm glad they are looking at investing in smartphones, i'd gladly buy four heroes of light/bravely default/star ocean 1 and 2/ FFTA1 and 2 enhanced ports on my iPhone. Those games could easily transit over to touchscreen and would be welcomed. As for more original games I would gladly pay 20-30$ for more games the same quality as FF Dimensions, i'd love to see some sequel/prequel/spinoff of FF2/5/6/original tactics that bring back the old retro-ish 2D final fantasy story/gameplay and allow us to revisit those worlds, chao rings titles are pretty sweet too.

The social games sucks and i'll never drop money on those. All the bravest was a fun game for 4 dollars but lol at the dlc.

Cassalot · 2013-05-13 21:57

Originally Posted by Lonely

I'm glad they are looking at investing in smartphones, i'd gladly buy four heroes of light/bravely default/star ocean 1 and 2/ FFTA1 and 2 enhanced ports on my iPhone. Those games could easily transit over to touchscreen and would be welcomed. As for more original games I would gladly pay 20-30$ for more games the same quality as FF Dimensions, i'd love to see some sequel/prequel/spinoff of FF2/5/6/original tactics that bring back the old retroish 2D final fantasy story/gameplay and allow us to revisit those worlds, chao rings titles are pretty sweet too.

The social games sucks and i'll never drop money on those. All the bravest was a fun game for 4 dollars but lol at the dlc.

I agree with everything in this post, with the amount of time I spent on FF1/2/3/4/T while waiting for shit at work I'd absolutely love to see more ports or original iOS games.

**Enkidu** · 2013-05-13 22:07

Wow I'm just really surprised that they have such high expectation for FF14... I think it's an okay game, but okay MMO's are like a dime a dozen right now, and some of them are free. I wonder what kind of numbers they actually expect.

Mobile games though, really? I always saw them as more of a distraction between big game releases. It's obviously only profitable for them because their big games are generally pretty shitty though, which is sad.

**Don Katsu** · 2013-05-13 22:16

Originally Posted by Enkidu

Wow I'm just really surprised that they have such high expectation for FF14... I think it's an okay game, but okay MMO's are like a dime a dozen right now.

How many of them are on the PS3?

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