After a long wait, Final Fantasy XVI, the latest installment of the longstanding Japanese role-playing franchise, debuted in late June. Despite receiving praise from players and generating positive reviews, it appears to have failed to satisfy expectations.
The commercial performance of the title has been a contentious issue since its release. Square Enix announced that they had shipped 3 million units in less than a week. While a segment of the community questioned its success, the company broke the silence and expressed satisfaction with the initial sales.
However, it seems that Final Fantasy XVI's performance in the market was unable to meet expectations.
Is FINAL FANTASY XVI a failure?
In its earnings report for the second quarter of 2023, Square Enix reported that revenues increased by around 14% compared to the previous year, but operating profits fell by nearly 65%. This resulted in a nearly 15% drop in the value of the company's stocks.
When the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed last Friday, the price of the Japanese company's shares was ¥6366 JPY, but it dropped to ¥5566 JPY when it opened on monday and subsequently went down to ¥5457 JPY. According to Bloomberg, this is the lowest share price of the company since May 2022 and the worst intraday drop in 3 years.
Apparently, the commercial performance of Final Fantasy XVI led to this phenomenon. According to 3 sources from Bloomberg who attended the presentation, Takashi Kiryu, president of Square Enix, commented in a subsequent call that the JRPG did not meet the company's higher expectations.
According to the information, Takashi Kiryu also mentioned that "the slow adoption of the PS5" was a factor that limited the sales of the role-playing video game. With this in mind, he hopes that the end of hardware shortages will provide opportunities to boost software sales.
Meanwhile, the report also highlights that net sales of the MMO Final Fantasy XIV also decreased, although this is attributed to the absence of a new expansion release since Endwalker at the end of 2021.
In a note, analyst Junko Yamamura stated that "the profitability of the Final Fantasy franchise is weakening and improvements will take time." However, this doesn't mean that the latest installment of the IP is a failure.
But tell us, what do you think about this situation? Let us hear from you in the comments.
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