Japanese gaming giant Square Enix may be in serious financial trouble after the launch of Final Fantasy 16. Prior to its launch, Final Fantasy 16 was easily one of the most highly-anticipated new game releases of the year. And when it finally released to the masses, it was mostly well-received. In fact, Final Fantasy 16 earned rave reviews from critics and managed to sell a few million copies, but it seems like it may not be performing as well as expected.
While Square Enix has said it is pleased with Final Fantasy 16's sales, and even though the game has broken some records, other reports indicate that the game's sales are not living up to expectations. The latest report is the most concerning yet, as Bloomberg has reported that Square Enix may struggle to recover the $2 billion in value that it has lost since Final Fantasy 16 launched.
Bloomberg recently spoke to analysts about Square Enix's big profit drop in the wake of Final Fantasy 16's launch. According to the report, Final Fantasy 16 has not been successful enough to undo the damage done by high profile failures like Marvel's Avengers and Forspoken. Separately, IGN sources have told the publication that Final Fantasy 16 sales have "slowed considerably." Analysts in the Bloomberg report said that Square Enix's problems stem from "flooding the market" with lackluster games, while employees at Square Enix have pointed the blame at the company letting producers have too much control over projects.
While Final Fantasy 16 seemingly may not have the legs that Square Enix was hoping for, the company is not giving up on the blockbuster RPG. In fact, Square Enix just recently confirmed that Final Fantasy 16's PC port is in active development, plus it is planning on releasing two major DLC expansions for the game. Time will tell if this effort will be enough to solve Square Enix's financial woes, but the company has other major releases on the horizon to consider as well.
Final Fantasy 14 has a new expansion on the way, plus Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is set to launch in 2024. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has potential to be one of the biggest new releases of 2024 period, so perhaps it will be the beginning of Square Enix bouncing back from its financial troubles. If Square Enix is ultimately unable to resolve these issues, though, perhaps the company will look at selling itself off. The Final Fantasy brand is still huge, after all, and Square Enix has a massive backlog of classic games that other companies would no doubt want to get their hands on.
Final Fantasy 16 is available now for PS5 with a PC version also in development.
