Square Enix Are Massive Losers !! 

FOR HUGE GAMING DISCOUNTS CLICK HERE: www.instant-gaming.com/?igr=ladydecade Please check out my Patreon!: www.patreon.com/LadyDecade - Thank you so much! Join my Discord server: discord.com/invite/qxN4Nf6kpp

The problem with SE is that they're one of, if not the most arrogant gaming companies of all time. They believe that they're the Mercedes Benz of gaming BECAUSE they make Final Fantasy. Nothing shows this more than their official merch store where, where they sold the string around Aeriths neck for $200, or many of their extremely low quality figures priced way higher than their worth. Their idiocy towards sales numbers has been a problem for over a decade. Even saying that Tomb Raiders sales back in 2011 were too low despite selling 5 million units.

The game companies are turning into shareholder pleasing companies... Guess they never go the memo. Gamers couldn't care less about shareholders and that is the way it's meant to be.

These companies are just so stupid. You can develop superb games with moderate-size teams. They'd be a bit smaller in scale compared to the huge projects, but the cost to make them is much lower because you don't need to spend over half of the budget on coordinating hundreds of devs spread among many different teams. I think making a multitude of great, slightly smaller games will prove to be much more profitable than being a scumbag trying to milk people for all they've got and then losing big money once a major project fails.

not to mention getting games hyjacked from activists who don't play games.

That's actually a really good point about why microtransactions are more accepted these days; I hadn't really considered that games popular among the younger crowd are more like traditional... well... games. As for a video game crash, I think that could be a good thing; let these companies actually learn something, and the rest of us can just focus on our backlogs until the industry gets it together.

Never pre-order, Never buy day 1. 😮‍💨

Well maybe it was their own fault for trying to commit to making their shareholders more money. Rather than the players and fan base buying their products and keeping the lights on. Let em fall and see where the power vacuum takes us. Kinda the trend the last few years isn't it?

Their last CEO was part of the problem he came out with allot of terrible decisions such as investing in NFTs doing way too many live service games that make no sense. Bought development companies that they had no idea how to manage on top of wasting way too much money. This isn't the first time they went through this.

So, the only reason I haven't bought FF7 Rebirth is because I am a PC Gamer. I am not going to pay for a PS5 just so I can play FF7 Rebirth. I bought a PS4 for FF7 Remake but I don't have the capital to buy a console every time there is a new FF7 release.

A) Live service games B) NFTs investment C) Sweetbaby based games like Forespoken D) Price hike and splitting based games on multiple exclusive consoles. Bad decisions along with overbloat staff would definitely cause deficit.

WBs idiocy on full display. "We've had a massive hit with a traditional single player game and massive flop in a live service game, so we've decided to cut back on making traditional single player games." Bold move Cotton. Also maybe Square Enix shouldn't stay exclusive to PS. Limiting the market for their games just to stick it to Xbox is shooting themselves in the foot to help another company out.

Plus with consoles requiring internet to do initial setup just to play hard disc games. Has ruined gaming for me.

Video games are imploding from the inside out. They had their profitable audience all to push them away and at every turn. It makes zero sense. Every genre of entertainment has been affected and the video game industry is the final frontier for destruction.

What did they expect, they made it exclusive to a console with half the install base of PS4. I'm not going to buy $500 box to play one decent game.

Im a huge ff7 fan. But if you are gonna split your games over multiple consoles and then just require me to pay 3 games that has nothing more then loads of filler content and then shit on the og story with overused multiverse shenanigans. Ye I’m out. The og is better anyway. All I wanted was a modern and graphical update.

At this point myself and friends are just done with modern gaming and also entertainment in general. We’ve been going back to retro entertainment, specifically gaming.

Worst thing about it, square have some spectacular games like Octopath traveler, Star Ocean etc. it’s just said seeing a once great developer fall.

Executives, shareholders, and anti-gamers are the trifecta of fucking up gaming. Glad there are decades of catalogs to get back into.

This is all on Square-Enix. All on fucking Square-Enix. Seriously. They should just shut down their ethics department. Not only that but they need to stop investing in stuff like live service games. Stuff like that is doomed to fail. Flat out. They should also put their investment towards franchises that need the exposure like Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest needs it now more than ever and what Square-Enix is doing is simply fucked up. It really is.

I don't like DLC, but I can tolerate a small amount of it. All of Square Enix's games are way too heavily monetized. The base product for the past decade and half has always been severely incomplete. Their mobile games area also unattractive because SE treats them like quick pump and dump cash grabs. They're heavily monetized, often have out-of-control power creep and most of their mobile games go EOS quite quickly, which makes me not want to get into them in the first place.

Final Fantasy VII Remake - Took over 15 years to make. Final Fantasy XV - Took over 10 years to make. Kingdom Hearts 3 - Took over 6 years to make. Balan Wonderworld happened. Forspoken happened. Tomb Raider sold 38 million copies with 5 games in 9 years = Lara's the problem!

Sony also censored FF7 Rebirth and even remake right before release. Same thing they recently did to Stellar Blade. Pissed alot of people off

What about the almost dozen "live service games " they closed in less than a year in the beginning of the year last year. I believe i read that they would have been profitable that year if it wasn't for those losing so much money.

I hate how westernized Square Enix has gotten. Even Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth felt altered to appeal to mass audiences, losing some of the original's magic.

I feel like the big reason FF7 isnt doing as well is because 1 so many games are coming out in quick succession. 2 helldivers is out. And now stellar blade. 3 ppl are broke. We use all our money just to afford rent. Its ridiculous. 4 the splitting the story between multiple titles. It would have been better if they only used at least 2 titles maybe.

Please stop selling digital illusions. A collection is not only tangible, but an intrinsic component of the hobby..

One of the points brought up was the spread of the FF7 story over three games. This reminded me of the game .Hack where if you wanted the full story, purchasing or having access to all 4 games was a must. Looking back at it, I don't recall ever completing part 4.

They should blame their losses on the previous part being complete garbage. I’d rather pull my eyes out than play another abomination of ff7

I think it was DOA 6 or maybe 5 where I bought the first season pass, only to see one of the costumes sets have the note "This item is not included with the season pass". That pretty much ended my support of buying costumes for the game.

Their best games are their lower budget ones like the Octopath Traveller ones. I also enjoyed Triangle Strategy. I don't think they meant those as HD ones. They should lower their budgets by cutting down on graphics. There is no need currently to push the hardware. FF has gone down saleswise since PS2 days. I'd assume they'd release a PC version,too

Here's why I haven't purchased FF7 Rebirth: I feel like the botched the story of FF7 Remake really effing bad and I have lost the desire to check the rest of this story. I might play it if it gets released in PsPlus or once it gets a very deep discount, but not before. And even the PsPlus possibility is at risk because I'm seriously considering cancelling my subscription on account of Sony's double standards for censorship as well as my own perceived lack of received value on my sub. At best, I can hope to receive 1 game I'm interested in and might actually play once every 4 months. Instead, Sony insists of flooding me with sports titles (that I'm personally not at all a fan of) and other games I have 0 interest in. Gaming used to be fun, but every passing day it feels less and less appealing.

so make exclusive for PS no longer profitable... huh...also piss off fan with woke nonsense and then wonder why it not selling much....

Have you seen the series of tweets by Jacob Navok, a former Square Enix excutive explaining why SE considers FFVII Rebirth's sales to be lacking? It's pretty insightful and it really helps you understand SE's position. (TLDR: People play Fortnite too much and other game companies want a slice of that huge, cash cow pie) I'm really hoping sales will eventually make up the disappointment once FFVII Part 3 releases. The devs, despite their missteps, really do love the game and it shows.

I'm excited to see how Stellar Blade's success will change the very bleak future hinted at by those statements.

Literally everyone i know IRL who loved FF7 with me when it came out in the 90's have the same complaint about how they shafted PS4 adopters by making that Yuffie DLC PS5 exclusive. Then it came out on PC eventually. They screwed themselves -- either should've stayed PS exclusive, or PC simultaneous release. The way they're doing it, most people can wait for a steam sale so of course their launch performance will keep getting worse.

I don't understand, they (Square Enix) release their newest games only on Playstation and then they complain about the sales numbers? Why not sell your games on every single platform and every distribution platform, so you can reach 10 times the numbers of consumers.

I think you really hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the sales are tied to the exclusivity of the PS5. Many of my friends don't own a PS5 but want to play FF7 Rebirth said they were waiting for the PC version. I mean dropping half a grand on console just to play one game is expecting too much 😅

For years, we were told a remake of FF7 was coming. Then we got a terrible sequel being called a remake instead. Now that I know they have no interest in faithfully retelling the original story, I have no interest in playing it. What's more, I feel actively deceived by SquareEnix for lying to me and saying this was a remake to dupe me out of my money. They broke it up into multiple installments that I now know not to buy and will never trust SE as a company again.

I think one of the issues with FF7 Rebirth is that a lot of people felt tricked by FF7 Remake. The thing they were clamoring for over the years was a remake, not a remake with changes to the story. I know that I was cautious when they said it was all Midgar, and I decided not to buy it after hearing that they changed things. I do plan to give it a chance eventually, but I'm going to wait until they are done with it.

The costs of video games nowadays are not compesated by the amount of entertainment they provide. MTXs suck, because they are mostly overpriced. As for FF7 Rebirth... no. Just no. The "Remake" is a reboot. Even if I wanted to play Rebirth, I won't buy a PS5. I'm done with Sony. And I'm also tired of modern games. I work a lot for my mo ey, and I can't see the value in games anymore. Especially when certain companies don't even make them for me because I'm a straight white male gamer.

Gen Z ruined the video game community, matter fact Gen Z ruined everything including movies, music, sports, social media, consumer products and most importantly society.

It serves them right in assuming the original fans of FF7 did not want a 1 to 1 remake, I hope we never see a part 3 to FF7 reboot.

They goofed OG FF7 fans by turning a beloved rpg into a live service kingdom hearts fan fiction. Then they make the surprised pikachu face when rebirth underperformed.

I'm coming from a completely selfish place here when i say that i kinda hope square gets bought out by capcom so i can get my parasite eve 1&2 remakes(screw the 3rd birthday)

I like the outro music. Anyone know what it is?

I dont understand this video. You're rambling abt how mtx is ruining the industry, then you start comparing MK & tekken to Final fantasy titles (what kind of logic is this btw), while also ignoring none of squenix SP games are ridden with MTX. What are you even trying to say in this video?

I think the fact it's PS5 exclusive is what's lowering the sales. With how the economy is today, not everyone can afford a PS5. DEI is probably the icing on the poocake.

Oh it will be the Shenmue 3 of the modern era. Or more accurately, the Lightning Returns. All you shippers are going to rue the day you demanded your ships be made canon, and the original story be cast aside.

So…are we getting part 3? Or should I count it as cancelled?!?

At 11:35, FFXV was less hyped? What? Do more research bruh. Not true. I do believe they have to stop exclusivity imo. But technically these are all speculations. You have to wait until May 16 for what SE officially says.

Well, this is what happens when you pay grifters to destroy your games and remake 10 times the same freaking game.

While these Final Fantasy sales woes certainly aren't nothing, they pale in comparison to Square Enix's inconceivable mishandling of The Avengers. They are gifted a license for the hottest media property at the time and practically flush it down the toilet, creating a (dull) live service platform when they could have instead built a (brilliant) cinematic campaign.

Imagine that live service and DIESG driven games would tarnish and siphon the successes of other IPs, oh wait...

So much justification for Rebirth trending down, instead of the actual explanation that people were dissatisfied with the treatment of Remake's narrative and didn't come back for a second slice, with those that did experiencing incredibly mixed signals. I know it isn't the whole picture, but they REALLY try to dance around the fact that a significant chunk of legacy players across multiple franchises are tired of being disappointed by baffling direction. Square needs to, and has depended on, their old IP's providence to carry them. It seems that as the people who made those old IP's age and change standing, Square is left as a company that really consistently struggles to understand why it even became successful in the first place.

*WHISPER* me this Square Enix 😂

NFT = Nothing's Fucking There

Nobody wanted a JJ Abrams style reboot of FFVII with multiverse shenanigans and KH Destiny BS, except shippers who think their ship is more important than the integrity of the original story. If they had done a faithful one and done remake, things would have been different.

More and more as time goes on am I thankful that I'm old and my newest console is the PS3. I play mostly retro games. When a game was a finished product. And there are so many games that never left Japan that have been translated in the last decade that I'll never feel the need to move on with the market of modern gaming. It is getting sort of sad though. Greed ruins everything.

Square Enix shouldn't have sell off Tomb Raider and Deus Ex intellectual properties to bet it all on the development of Forspoken. They got woke and went broke.

I've read several comments predicting that sales will be bad for FF7 part 3 or that game 3 probably won't live up to the previous games. Is that because they think Aerith fans won't buy the next game or is the rest of the story just not as good?

Rebirth is failing because it’s a PS exclusive and everyone is waiting for it to come out on Pc

Was waiting on SQENIX to realize how dumb it is to make console exclusives.

Part of rebirths struggles are that lots of people just didn’t take the plunge on the PS5. There’s a lot of folks who just got into retro gaming bc they were turned off by 600 dollar consoles and 80 dollar games. Also Square-enix gave the writing of its biggest game to total hacks. That didn’t help. The FF7 remakes are a war crime.

One thing that never gets mentioned about Live Service games is that, unless you happen to be that one successful one a year, the whole system is a death spiral. The games get made with lack of content because "it can be patched(or sold) later" and a ton of microtransactions. A lot of that stuff drives people away and when playerbases drop the support for the game gets pulled. There is no winning with Liver service games unless you are the ONE shining star that manages to stand out. But most publishers don't want to even invest enough to make the game good enough for that. Not to mention the vastly inflated costs of game development. Most of these rising costs are just a self inflicted and completely unnneccesary problem that could easily be kept in check with better management(and not paying CEO's millions each year) but that would require effort these publishers are not willing to put in. And just to add, the sooner Sony dies off the better, they have been the peak of anti consumer and narcissism in recent years and have actively made gaming as a whole worse so nothing of value would be lost.

yea.. ill stick to my retro games its gotten unbearable dlcs micro transactions loot boxes pay to win have fun younger generation

I agree, timing is everything the reason that Rebirth did not sell into account is that PS5 install base smaller but also they took 3 years for a sequel this is sort of a problem specially when during the lockdown PS5 we’re unavailable

The AAA games these days are never even complete they require you to download patches and updates and this is where they charge any content they deem indecent even if that's the reason you bought the game.

My take is all the scalpers bought PS5s and Sony thought they were winning the race. Every developer then bet on the fact that those console sales were huge, despite nobody actually playing them. This is now the consequence of that action.

Much respect to this video. However, The PS1 was SAVED by the release of final fantasy vii. at the time, it was failing to sega dreamcast, which hosted titles such as ready to rumble boxing and marvel vs capcom 2. Dreamcast only ended up failing for the same reason as N64, another arguably great system involved in the battle at the time. The Dreamcast controllers had EXTREMELY SMALL BUTTONS that hurt anyone who didn't have gamer callouses, which discouraged new play and left many Dreamcasts rotting in garages.

PS5 as a console and a gaming experience is just too expensive considering Sony also increased the price of their PS Plus online service, their game peripherals and their games as well as the eye watering 500 dollar mark for the basic console itself for a rather minor benefit in graphics? Plus 2 years of scalping and scarcity that Sony handled very badly. Plus Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not a remake but rather a REBOOT that is losing the hearts and minds of those that wanted a more original FF7 experience. This was especially noticeable in Japan. Too many greedy gamer hating missteps and mistakes from both Sony AND Square Enix lately. They have bared their fangs at the gamer base population for far too long and now the gamers are showing their teeth as well. The customer IS always right!😎

I swear lady decade is the best journalist I've come across. She always has unique insights, does an incredible job of digging up the history and data on a topic, and delivers it all in a wonderfully worded package. I'd like to see her view points on other topics some day, should she tire of this medium or need to take a break from it.

The main reason... Not firing nomura hahahaha

Square Enix is in Hubris City. If one of those canceled games is Final Fantasy Tactics WotL Pixel Remaster, I'm gonna flip!

Notice as she says a FF7 REBOOT ( what we have )as opposed to a FF7 REMAKE ( faithful to the letter ). That right there is a huge factor in why people are sticking the proverbial 🖕up Square-enix ( not to be mistaken for Squaresoft ) rear 🕳.

Lady Decade, the problem I have with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is there is 35% of the game that I paid a premium price for because I purchased the Deluxe Edition that I can not play because the developers made it way to difficult! It frankly just isn't fun to play. I put in 506 hours trying to achieve everything this game had to offer, and for me, it was just impossible to do being a player that has aged to where my reflexes and reaction time have slowed down. Let's face it we all can't stay in our teens, 20s and 30s forever. Rebirth has over 30 mini games that mostly push for perfection with very little room for error and some with absolutely no room for error. I am no stranger to tough games. I have been playing video games for 50 years now. Final Fantasy 7 O.G. was my favorite game of all times... I can still beat that game in 44 hours and enjoy everything that game has to offer. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth of my opinion is overly bloated with ridiculous content. It is laced with woke crap. The developers made it way more difficult than Remake. I enjoyed F.F. 7 Remake. It was challenging but not ridiculously hard like they've done with F.F 7 Rebirth. This game just isn't fun and a waste of money for me since it is impossible for me to enjoy all this game has to offer. I beat the game that has an hour long boss fight at the end, which is just nuts and of course they took a game with a awesome story and made this version so convoluted it is just a disaster. They took an F.F. 7 O.G. that was a masterpiece and turned it into a disaster with Remake, and Rebirth only to make money by ruining something that was an incredible game in its day and even now. Personally, Square Enix deserves everything they get. How about making the game enjoyable not so ridiculously difficult.

Just writing a preemptive comment about how I agree with everything being said in this video, but I still love & adore Final Fantasy 14 despite it all.👍

Imagine making ff7 for 25 years and then wondering why people are buying less copies.

I just enjoy FFXIV... It's like my gamer retirement home 👴

I have a very serious question that I think all of us should ponder about if we don't respond to this: is Square Enix more likely to stay in business over the next few decades if they yield to the gamers' demands or the investors'? Because the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy is a HUGE YIELD to us. No, we do not have Rebirth's budget number available to us, but much of the concern about Squre Enix's survivability is coming from people who played the game, not people who didn't. As someone who loves it myself, this game is not low quality or small. Oh my god, it is the biggest demonstration of a massive budget I have ever seen! Looking at it alone I would peg it as being above two hundred million if not more. So if we want to see more potential classics from them (or at the very least great games) in the future, do we wanna see them yield for a bit to the lowest common denominators? Or do we think catering to our desires is more likely to make them secure? This is probably a question more aimed at people who have better market analysis skills or more information.

To be honest AAA games piss me off. Too many voice actors. They try too hard to be like a tv show.

I think part of the problem with Rebirth's sales is also that the fanbase of the original is getting older and has either moved on from gaming, doesn't care about it, or just has limited time. I mean, I'm 35 and loved the original, but can't get myself to finish Rebirth. I have other hobbies that I care about more, fitness, a full-time job, social obligations; and I don't even have a family. An 80+ hour filler bloat-fest doesn't appeal to me

square epic has never been that lol, squaresoft was, enix was, the moment they merged back in the day they started making sub par titles. not many games meet the qualifications to be called a AAA game, and no being made by a top dev doesnt make it a AAA title by default and being a big dev doesnt make them a AAA dev by default... as for the subpar games, ill use final fantasy, which went down hill fast with 12 not even being a finished title with a "to be continued" ending lol and the following installments being boring with most characters carbon copies of previous ones lol

Old man Gamer here. Shareholders are def killing gaming. While gaming will not die, indie devs will be the ones standings. Embrace 2d hd title like star ocean and that to me is future of gaming. Less cost, good graphics, better stories.

Like it’s been said half of the reason that FF7 Rebirth isn’t doing so well is because right now it’s a PS5 exclusive until it comes out on PC. Remake had both the PS4 AND PS5 before going to PC. There are people out there still recovering money wise from the pandemic and a lot of people still don’t have the ps5 system. The world is still recovering from supply and demand and people just not buying. Here in the US we are dealing with inflation and corporations that don’t want to give their employees a decent paying jobs they are able to comfortably. Yeah I’m not surprised at this at all.

Square Enix's losses is a huge win. FF7 Rebirth- Flopped Forspoken- Flopped The DioField Chronicle- Flopped Stranger in Paradise Final Fantasy Origin- Flopped NEO The World Ends with You- Flopped ActRaiser Renaissance- Flopped Harvestella- Flopped Infinity Strash: DQ The Adventure of Dai- Flopped Tactics Ogre: Reborn- Somewhat Flopped All Square is doing is literally using any money they make back from their failures just to milk the Final Fantasy 7 remake games, FF14, and for the next Kingdom Hearts. Also, they heavily market so called big games like FF7R and Forspoken and they end up failing hard, where games like Octopath Traveler 2 and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line barely got any marketing/advertising considering they are great games. Square chasing trends, taking risks and westernizing their games, going woke, and turning everything into a cinematic "action RPG" is why they have been failing badly. They have lost their fans, lost their Japanese spark, and keeping their games true to their roots. Them wanting to "improve the quality of their games" isn't going to help when they keep making unrealistic expectations. No matter what excuses they say, the end result for them will just be more of the same. Plus, they keep getting yanked at the neck by Sony's dog leash.

5:50 Harada, you've been making games with those features for 18 years. Your problem isn't hardware specs increasing, it's managing peoples' time and unaccountable expenses that aren't being tracked. You don't have to make the most hardware intensive, highest resolution game the console can run, consumer demand for higher quality textures and models, and increased resolutions, peaked out 8 years ago, somewhere between the PS3 and PS4. Don't punish consumers for your lacking business practice, clean house.

This is going to carry over to the movie industry too you only get to see a part of the movie the rest of it you have to keep paying to you can get to the end to see the final part of the movie and if you don't you got to walk out of the theater for the people that do pay that's what it's like what the hell is this world coming to nothing but greed everywhere

PS4 sales are greater than pc and smallsoft console combined. The sad part is mobile gmaing beats all them together AAA games can only sell well enough to cover their costs on mobile. All the most popular games are on mobile pc noobs

you forgot to mention: Foamstars, BABYLON'S FALL, BALAN WONDERWORLD, and Garbage of Paradise.

perhaps the developers/publishers need to start creating games in which the plot features predatory corporations bleeding their customers dry with aggressive micro-transactions, then the real micro-transactions won't be so immersion breaking

AAA gaming needs to just dial back a bit, and we need more game companies being made by people that love games, not people that professionally just chase money.

They were stupid for releasing their games only to PS5, even Soyny was stupid for not releasing into PC day one

If this is the case, then I dread to think how Kingdom Hearts 4 will play out should Square Enix continue to walk this path.

Instead of failing to effectively rewrite the plot to FFVII, and delivering one massive BLOAT of a game, maybe they should've given the fans what they actually wanted which was the same plot/characters with a graphical overhaul. Could've saved tens of hours of each player's time and tens of millions of dollars in production.

no mention of how they used to be strategic in gameplay and now mostly a button smasher. Also a straight up remake would of been stronger than the 1st game ending with you killing fate and already fighting sepheroth at the end of existence

I get so annoyed when people try to say that Square Enix is responsible for any of the games that made Squaresoft popular. Square Enix is just the company that bought Squaresoft and murdered it.

I just hope square enix goes under so someone like Nintendo picks up and bring us back the golden age of final fantasy 1-10 that’s all I want for 2025

This far into FF7 Remakes release (in terms of how long Remake and Rebirth had been out) it was already multi-platform, whereas Rebirth is still only on PS5... wonder where all the sales went?

They're going to lose a lot more fucking money if they don't fix their goddamn website that they janked up so final fantasy XIV players can actually pay for their subscriptions and play their flagship game. Instead of blaming the players making them quit the game permanently