Square's losing a LOT (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/12/square_enix_earnings_revision/)


Square Enix Revises Earnings Forecasts For Major Loss

Losses attributed in part to cancellations as company tightens its selection standards.

Posted on 05.12.2011 at 14:06, by Anoop Gantayat

Square Enix announced revised earnings expectations today. The company says that it will incur a net loss of 12,000 million yen for the previous fiscal year. Its previous forecast from February 3 listed a modest net profit of 1,000 million yen.

The revision is due to extraordinary losses, in part from a "tightened selection standard" for games. This will result in 4.5 billion yen in losses related to development cancellations. A press release announcing the revision did not share specifics beyond this.

The company will also incur a "loss on disaster" of approximately 0.6 billion yen related to the Tohoku earthquake. This is for closures and restoration of amusement facilities.

As these are all extraordinary losses, revisions to the company's forecasts for its other areas weren't as extreme. Sales forecasts are down from the original 130,000 million yen to 125,000 yen. Operating income expectations are down from the forecast 8,000 million yen to 7,300 million yen.

Original source File in PDF format (http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/110512.pdf)

Where Square-Enix had initially projected a $12 Million profit, they've done a backflip to the tune of $150 million loss.

I read about this on another forum... and it's rather humorous/saddening at the same time. Methinx it's time SE starts making more original games, instead of remaking FF's or anymore of the damn Prequel/Sequel garbage to earlier FF titles...

Still, not surprised considering the blunders SE made with FFXIII and FFXIV (and I will never forgive Square for releasing The Bouncer, NEVER!!!), that this happened. It happened before after The Spirits Within failed, and they had a chance to get out of the hole, figuratively speaking. Now, they're back deeper than before... if they don't do something big, they're gone...

Would have been nice if they went back to their roots and stayed there.

It only makes sense for them to remake FFVII correctly...

...and yes, I'm serious.

They won't. They'll screw it up... SE's in some pretty dire straights atm...

Square Enix hacked, loses job applications (http://www.crn.com.au/News/257488,square-enix-hacked-loses-job-applications.aspx)


"Psychotic" Anonymous faction implicates its own in hack.

The CVs of 350 job applicants 25,000 email addresses were stolen from video game giant Eidos Interactive in a hack allegedly by a splinter group of the Anonymous online collective.

The hacking trio used zero-day vulnerabilities to crack the website eidosmontreal.com and another for video game Deus Ex according to IRC logs obtained by security blogger Brian Krebs.

Hackers debated whether to upload malware to the sites but instead defaced them and stole information, the logs showed.

Parent company Square Enix played down initial reports that 9000 resumes and 80,000 details of Deus Ex players were stolen.

"We are in the process of writing to each of the individuals who may have been affected to offer our sincere apologies for this situation,” Square Enix wrote in a statement (pdf).

“We take the security of our websites extremely seriously and employ strict measures, which we test regularly, to guard against this sort of incident.”

Hackers indicated in chat logs that they will release the stolen details on file sharing networks.

And they revealed feuding between the Anonymous factions.

The three alleged conspirators inserted personal details of former colleague and faction member "Ryan" into a hacked website.

“It’s psychotic behaviour like I have never seen. It’s like they hate each other but will work together on certain [operations] if it suits them, but then might turn on each other in the end … and then laugh it off,” Krebs said he was told by a source close to the group.

Although, SE has trademarked a "SE masterpieces"...

Square Enix trademarks “SE Masterpieces” (http://scrawlfx.com/2011/05/square-enix-trademarks-se-masterpieces)


Square Enix may be re-releasing their most masterful titles in a single package. The Tokyo-based publisher trademarked the name “SE Masterpieces” in Europe five days ago, on May 11.

The trademark could mean anything. This writer would certainly consider a disc including Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII an “SE Masterpiece.” Or the three Kingdom Hearts titles for PS2.

E3 is less than a month away. Stay tuned.

Of course, it's open to conjecture as to what games SE considers worthy of putting into a 'Masterpiece collection'. Either way, fact of the matter is, SE is losing a lot of money what with FFXIV being released before completion, in a bid to beat WoW with Cataclysm... and look at what that's done... eight months later, and FFXIV is still a financial black hole to SE.

lol I love reading this shit.

They've already said remaking FF7 would cost them a lot of money. They probably can't take such a hit for as long as it would take to remake it for the potential profit at the end.

HD Kills Final Fantasy VII PS3 Remake (http://spong.com/article/20516/HD-Kills-Final-Fantasy-VII-PS3-Remake)


Every time Square Enix opens its collective mouth, passionate Final Fantasy fans slap it in the metaphorical face and squeal, “We don't care about that WHERE'S FFVII REMAKE?”. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint) the company has resisted the urge to recreate Midgar in HD, and chief of the reasons why is because it would be too hard to do.

That's according to a recent interview with Ultimania magazine (via Lost Gamer), where Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama spoke of the challenges in realising the world of Pulse.

“It's very hard to make games on the PlayStation 3 in the same style as the games in that era had. Making graphics will take enormous time,” explained Kitase on the lack of a Final Fantasy VII remake.

This workload was the reason why Final Fantasy XIII lacks many town areas, according to Toriyama. “Considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve HD, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style. In the limited period of development time, to convey the great story that deserves the name of Final Fantasy, and to convey the battles that entertain players enough, we condensed each element.”

Maybe when HD game development becomes less challenging, we can start to see Final Fantasy games take more creative liberties with towns and other explorable areas. Until then however, we've got the streamlined Final Fantasy XIII to look forward to, in March.

I think that sums up SE's reason as to NO FFVII remake.

That just sounds lazy on their part (Re: no towns in the traditional sense)

There are many RPGs that have traditional towns presented in stunning HD (Like Eternal Sonata, The Last Remnant (Also Square Enix) and Lost Odyssey)

I just think they're full of it. Although I would prefer an FFVI remake more than an FFVII one.

That just sounds lazy on their part (Re: no towns in the traditional sense)

There are many RPGs that have traditional towns presented in stunning HD (Like Eternal Sonata, The Last Remnant (Also Square Enix) and Lost Odyssey)

I just think they're full of it. Although I would prefer an FFVI remake more than an FFVII one.
Agreed. I personally think FFVII is overhyped and full of bugs and demanded too high end of hardware when it was released. And the graphics... Square should've stuck to 2D sprites until they're really ready.

If the "Masterpiece" includes KHII: Final Mix, I would totally be on-board with that.

Agreed. I personally think FFVII is overhyped and full of bugs and demanded too high end of hardware when it was released. And the graphics... Square should've stuck to 2D sprites until they're really ready.

A few Square Enix games require high end hardware at the time of release. FFVII was one (the reason why the N64 deal was scrapped, but who cares...the N64 only had a 2MB memory cache lol), and both MMORPGs (FFXI and FFXIV) were incredibly demanding at their time of release.

I have a very old PC (Pentium 4 3ghz, 2GB RAM, 9400GT gfx card) and can't run FFXIV very well at all (tested the free benchmark) and I played FFXI for a while and even though it is a very old game (much older than my PC), I struggled with running it on the higher settings.

Yet I can play The Last Remnant on my PC on medium settings without any problems whatsoever. Weird for a game that is only 2 years old and looks gorgeous.

That just sounds lazy on their part (Re: no towns in the traditional sense)

There are many RPGs that have traditional towns presented in stunning HD (Like Eternal Sonata, The Last Remnant (Also Square Enix) and Lost Odyssey)

I just think they're full of it. Although I would prefer an FFVI remake more than an FFVII one.

Except those games are mostly linear and didn't have any absurd expectations from fans. If the FFVII remake doesn't look at LEAST as good as Advent Children (real-time graphics of course), then nobody is going to buy it. And if they sacrifice free roam, towns etc, again nobody is going to buy. Don't you think they would have made it already if they thought it would please fans?

Except those games are mostly linear and didn't have any absurd expectations from fans. If the FFVII remake doesn't look at LEAST as good as Advent Children (real-time graphics of course), then nobody is going to buy it. And if they sacrifice free roam, towns etc, again nobody is going to buy. Don't you think they would have made it already if they thought it would please fans?

Linear? The only one out of those three games I mentioned that I would consider linear would be Eternal Sonata. The Last Remnant has a multitude of side quests and things to waste your time with instead of focusing on the main story. Even though the towns were relatively small, you could still freely roam around them. FFXIII had absurd expectations too, and it was more linear than anyone had ever experienced before in the series.

An FFVII remake could easily look as good as Advent Children did, if not better, and still could include a free roaming world with mini-games etc. This may result in the Xbox 360 version needing multiple discs but this isn't that great of a concern.

Personally I think Square needs to focus on a new RPG. One that will revolutionise the mediocre reputation that JRPGs have developed these days.

EDIT:

It only makes sense for them to remake FFVII correctly on the upcoming consoles...

It was only a year ago that Square-Enix brought in some pretty impressive numbers with games like Final Fantasy XIII (mostly Japan sales), Dragon Quest IX, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Their net income was 102.7 million. So that shows they can pump out some pretty good sales and pretty good games. Also, Final Fantasy XIII went multi-platinum.

Square Enix Reports Record-Breaking Profits - Softpedia (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Square-Enix-Reports-Record-Breaking-Profits-142494.shtml)

The firing of 400 employees probably helped with the profit, but there are some pretty good sales nonetheless.

So if the Final Fantasy VII remake were to demand just as much money - if not, more - to create as Final Fantasy XIII did (which went multi-platinum), I think they could make profit for the FFVII remake... Especially since FFVII is still their highest grossing game. Obviously sales from other titles would help keep Square-Enix afloat, but the FFVII remake would take the cake...(if the same team as the original were to work on it and if it were on the next-gen consoles).

I've read into it, and it seems they took most of the hit from FFXIV, game cancellations, and the tsunami. It was just a bad year.

However, I do agree that all the prequel and sequel crap needs to stop. It's usually a different team working on it (bogus stories and bogus new characters that I want to choke out), and they don't even sell that well....

Honestly, what's the significance of remaking FFVII for updated graphics? Should graphics really be that important to us? When I play FFVII (which is, by the way, not often), the graphics, the sound, the look, and the feel all evoke a particular mood and convey a sense of nostalgia of the times that I first played it. Graphics are always hindered by their time. At the end of the day, the graphics are just a means for the conveyance of the story. We already know how the story goes, so why would we need to see it all over again?

To me, (and I want to stress that this is my observation and my opinion alone) this whole FFVII remake fantasy comes down to one thing: the superficiality of the appearance. This whole thing is just an inability to accept the original game's design, and the vehemence of the fans for a revamp is a latent intolerance of the game's visual design. The idea that "we've got something new, so why not re-do the old and make it better" is hardly new, but what surprises me is the mass vocalizing this opinion. You don't hear crowds shouting for re-recordings of Metallica albums, nor modern orchestrations of Baroque concerti. People don't ask for redesigns of Renaissance paintings just because we have modern technology and more "realistic" (true to life) perspectives. We have to acknowledge that cultural artifacts/concepts such as music, art, philosophies, stories, and even games, exist as historically placed entities. Is there an argument for a remake that doesn't come down to the desire for prettier visual effects? Do we not think about how it would change the very idea of what we have come to know and love? Would you really want to hear the characters with voices? Would you really want an updated battle system? Do you not feel a sense of pleasantness in the past when you hear the MIDI music in the game?

The 1998 release of FFVII was a part of the lives of those who played it, and to re-do it would be to inevitably ignite resistance in fans because what FFVII did was operate with a huge scope in an immersing and engaging world, done with the limitations of the time. To see it all again with updated graphics would be for what? And note, of course, that I am not even considering the storyline; love it or hate it, a remake for an updated console (existing or in the works) would have to stay true to the initial feel of the original game, for we are much more traditional than we would like to believe. I feel that we need to accept FFVII as a finished work that engaged with the limitations of its time, whether or not it indeed pushed the boundaries as forcefully as some say. The graphics are a tool to illustrate the story and provide an engrossing backdrop against which the player can engage with the game. Yes, it would be cool to see Midgar and the rest of the FFVII world with an updated color palette and more detailed figures, I'm not contesting that. But such a coolness factor is entirely superficial. The game is finished. We can move on without a remake while still accepting FFVII for all the good it provided us, that it still provides, and that it will continue to provide.

Edit: That being said, if a remake were to be released, it would most likely see high profits because of the superficial values espoused by many fans who endorse such a possibility. But if all we care about is the look, and all Square cares about is cash, then I guess we might just see a remake, and even I have to acknowledge that there is indeed money to be made in such a venture. Despite being an easy cash-cow, I can see it being difficult to create a remake that can hold up to fans' standards/expectations, whether or not you believe the original game to be amazing or mediocre. They might lose the trust of their fans, potentially hurting the company's integrity.

I couldn't of said it better Olde, well done. I agree with everything you've posted, and I'd also like to add:

If SE did a FFVII remake, it would only solidify the growing opinion of SE held around the world not just by fans, but by others in the gaming industry: SE is a one trick pony and the only way that they can accrue any sort of profit, is to remake a game made in 1997, with flashier graphics and (let's face it, they'll more than likely will) altered storyline to fit in with a preconceived notion of what the 'fans' want.

The original development team for FFVII are either on other projects within SE or most probably aren't even working for SE anymore (Indeed Nobuo Uematsu and some other key figures no longer are solely employed by SE but are either freelance or with other companies). Was Advent Children needed? No, it was just a form of getting easy cash for SE at the time. Same with Crisis Core, Before Crisis and the abysmal Dirge of Cerberus (which rewrote what was already set out as explanation for Vincent's background etc).

The majority of 'fans' screaming for a remake, are mostly those who came to the FF series with the PS2 generation of FF's (which, imo, is the worst generation of FF's), and are complaining solely about how bad the graphics are. What Olde stated about the graphics is true: Because there's new technology which makes things a lot prettier, doesn't necessarily mean a remake is warranted. Case in point, I've just started to play GTA: Vice City... and while the graphics aren't on par with GTAIV's... the story, gameplay and the music (which is awesome) all fit together well and have created a well rounded package. The same goes for FFVII, in 1997 it was spectacular. Now, fifteen years later (yes... FIFTEEN), FFVII is still a good game... but imo, doesn't deserve all this obsessive praise.

As Neo Xzhan said in another thread:


See it as you would religion:

It's not god I hate, it's his fanclub that I can't stand.

I can not stress how much I agree with that statement. The rabid fanbase for FFVII, have this idea that all the problems SE are having would be solved with a FFVII remake. Yes, they would accrue a large revenue from said project but would also solidiy the growing opinion of SE by others.

Same goes for this unnamed MMO SE is planning to release in April... With FFXIV in the condition it's in for the past eight months, is just a financial black hole. Instead of making a new MMO, I'd think they'd throw all their resources into fixing FFXIV. Granted due to the Earthquake/Tsunami, all Japanese companies need to earn revenue quickly, is making another MMO or FFVII remake (which there is no conclusive evidence to success that such a remake is underway, as SE has stated numerous times that they have no intention of remaking it anytime soon) the best course of action? IMO, no... Fix what problems you already have SE, before possibly creating more in any other game you make.

i guess you could squeenix needs *puts glasses*
their FINAL fantasy.

Square's losing a LOT (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/12/square_enix_earnings_revision/)



Original source File in PDF format (http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/110512.pdf)

I read that as
"We're never remaking Final Fantasy VII! EVER!!!! So stop whining you stupid fanboys! Especially YOU Master Rebellion!!!"

If the "Masterpiece" includes KHII: Final Mix, I would totally be on-board with that.
I can see this. It would be sweet if they also included the first Final Mix as well but time will tell.