Square Enix has commented on the launch sales of Forspoken during an earnings report, calling its performance lackluster at launch. Forspoken is an action-adventure game made by Luminous Productions, the development team behind Final Fantasy 15, and it came out on PS5 and PC in January 2023 to mixed reviews.
The PS5 version of Forspoken currently has a rating of 64 on Metacritic, with the user score far lower at 3.5. Forspoken was criticized for having a generic open world in addition to its story and various gameplay systems lacking refinement. Now, publisher Square Enix has commented on the launch sales of Forspoken, giving fans an insight into its market performance in the opening months of 2023.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has dubbed the sales of Forspoken as lackluster, while claiming to have received positive feedback on the parkour and combat elements of the game. The same report also shares details on the positive qualities of Forspoken’s developer Luminous Productions, reiterating that it will be merged with Square Enix beginning May 1, 2023.
There could be several different reasons for Forspoken’s launch sales being lackluster, and it may be difficult to point the finger at any one event. For starters, Forspoken launched in a relatively busy month, as January 2023 saw the release of Dead Space, One Piece Odyssey, the current-gen version of Monster Hunter Rise, and the ports of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable.
Additionally, Square Enix released a surprise demo for Forspoken in December 2022, allowing fans to get a hands-on experience with its gameplay features. Unfortunately, some fans criticized this Forspoken demo for being noticeably blurry in performance mode on PS5, with many comments also being directed towards its surprisingly high system requirements on PC. Finally, reviews for Forspoken were scarce ahead of its launch, which can sometimes hint at the publisher not having enough confidence in the final product.
Overall, Forspoken may go down as one of the most disappointing AAA releases of 2023 so far, as some fans left negative scores online to share their issues with the game. Forspoken was review bombed on Metacritic with many users citing complaints regarding its writing and the characterization of Frey, the protagonist of the story. It should be noted that some fans did list out a few positive aspects, such as the combat and traversal mechanics of Forspoken, but it doesn’t seem like it was enough to balance out the shortcomings.
Forspoken is available now for PC and PS5.
Source: VGC
