Square-Enix Medium-Term Business Plan

Square-Enix has announced their new 3-year plan. Core points in pictures below for all those who can't read 21 pages.

hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/20250514_01_en.pdf

"Big anime tiddies"

If they want money, that's all they need to do

being a mana fan is suffering

They're laying off half their people? Kek

I just want more Team Asano kino but all signs point to it being reduced in scope.

Holy fuck. They learned FUCKING NOTHING from all those failures.

Look squeenix, L2Sale okay? That's all you need. I know you are retarded japs but it's not an accident you can easily find devs talking about how much more money they make when they tell steam to do sales at 80-90% compared to 40-50%.

Continue to lose money

Triple down on troonery

Watch XIV completely fall out of relevancy

Get purchased by Microsoft

Sega is currently in a much worse position than Square Enix. Segas entire f2p sector flopped. Wuthering Waves alone made 8x more money than PSO2 in under a year.

hopefully AI gets all the localizers fired before the entire ship sinks. let those colored hair troons find jobs somewhere else.

Imagine being a Sega fan that doesn't care about Sonic.

we ate pretty well, only complaint being that one isn't on PC

see

remedial schooling

you prove need of it

Okay and how many mobile games didn't?
Freemium market have always been one of high volatility you'd think capital managers would've figured it out by now that not everyone can be the next League of Legends and a lot of that is down to sheer luck, too

That's not being a Sega fan. That's being a Atlus fan. Atlus did not choose to be with Sega. They were forcefully acquired when their holding company folded.

Niggas can't read

this, Hoyo is currently disappointed ZZZ didnt become another genshit

Bunch of mental gymnastics when you could have just said "I don't like my wholesome chungus personarino being associated with Sonic".

it's okay, everyone can explain how your thinking is flawed
but if you feel like the next galileo for it, then i'm happy for you

I just want FF7 part 3 and then FF17 being a direct sequel to fF7

It tragicomic how corporations area always equally surprised and shocked about untapped consumers being limited and explosive growth having an eventual hard cap because new spenders don't just pop up from thin air.

That's every corpo. Besides, in big corporations it takes years before any real change occurs because of how everything has to go through set chain of command and up the hierarchy to get anything done. Most bloated companies are like this where you could have meetings to discuss if they have too many meetings and should they cut back on meetings to improve efficiency.

this is what trusting blackrock DEI shit got you square

Does this mean they will put effort back into XIV?

Sega out of nowhere

OBSESSED

make all your AAA games ps5 exclusive

they all flop

Everyone saw this coming. Ps5 owners don't play games

Funny how playstation became the default normie platform

ehhhh etoooo we are going to extract more money from FFXIV and cut its budget even further dozo please look forward to it

cut its budget

XVI proved that the devs are just retarded. Further cemented by dawnfail.

they're not gonna give more money to your dead tranny game

A pivot away from mass producing gachas that keep flopping and towards a better schedule of releases for stuff like DQ, KH and FF is a good thing

Speaking of, they just cancelled the next KH Gacha too. So who knows what they're going to do next with that since i bet they were going to slip in info about KH4 plot points.

Konami is in a better shape than Sega despite Konami releasing fucking nothing for years

Kek

I asked Chat GPT to tl;dr it for me but it's still mucho texto. Somebody help. Are they making turnbased games again?

no

They need to improve character models and make women sexier in PSO2

The sooner people still playing FF14 realise the game will never be given the time and love it deserves from people with true passion for it, the better. Just move on it's difficult if you've put hundreds of even thousands of hours of your life into the game I know, but better to rip off that plaster now than keep flicking at the corner of it.

Exactly, after FF16 the confidence in CS3 was hit severely but Dawntrail cemented that they are retarded.

Are they making turnbased games again?

This will never ever happen with Squeenix. At most they will do spin-offs or new IPs.

I agree. Vanillaware games need to be dragged onto PC screaming and kicking.

We're going to double down on what put us in this hole because admitting fault would bring much dishonour to famiry

What kind of retard do you have to be a major investor in SE

All this to be thoroughly humiliated by a AA French studio.

So what have Capcom and KOEI figured out the rest haven't?

We need more game of thrones branded final fantasy games.

Capcom

They know exactly how to generate and fan hype.

KOEI

They have a monopoly on a number of SEA exclusive gachas.

Appealing to minorities groups is the way to go
After all having more perspectives is a huge strength for more inclusive games

?????
You will never reduce SE to be a lesser franchise AA developer, faggot

or you can stop being a retarded child and attack them for what they are rather than parrot shit you child

In terms of what matters to actual gamers: Capcom was once again saved by Monster Hunter and Koei has a decent roster of decent games that have not flopped.

That Hyenas game fucked them hard

gets personally offended on behalf of the public traded billion dollar company

new nier AAA game project

ff7-3 (day 1 multiplat)

kingdom hearts 4

ff 14 expansion

dragon quest 12

final fantasy 17

bazillion switch 2 ports

ps6 versions of various final fantasies

gex 4

they will be fine, it's all going to be a case of actually making sure the games are good

Capcom was once again saved by Monster Hunter

And Resident Evil.

What the fuck did Koei do during the kung flu to get that boost?

actually making sure the games are good

ff7-3

kingdom hearts 4

ff 14

dragon quest 12

final fantasy 17

>>>good

it's all going to be a case of actually making sure the games are good

this, they need to get 90+ games out again consistently, not just once per decade

They are good
Tranny

final fantasy

good

There hasn't been a good FF game in nearly 20 years.

dragon quest

good

lol

I genuinely don't know how many FFVII REwhatever games are out right now.

Capcom drastically reduced their costs with their own Re engine

16 proved that CS3 should only focus on one game, 14. They don't have enough talent to be divided up

What zoomer take is this? Square have had some great AA titles in the past

You mean an offline version of it? Taro's pretty clear on reincarnation being nier 3.

for better or worse

God, fuck up you insufferable retard

That you dont buy and look down on

Don't assume what I like, zoomerfaggot

PSO2 NGS isn't legacy, it's just aids

fuck up

Of course an Indian would shill for SE.

There hasn't been a good FF game in nearly 20 years.

*1 year

You forgot Sony

They need to delete their ethic department for that to happen though.

T-Three more years!

i asked for you to be objective and not continue parroting shit and you resort to this.
when did i stick up for them, address your issues with square rather than spout memes nigga

You are weirdly invested in this.

their last good game was KH2 in like 2004
move on bros

Fuck No, if anything the should be preparing their next mmo, maybe that’s even why yoshi piss stepped down from the board of directors, to focus on that, as he was not yet fired.

and you cant answer simple questions, rather than attack me how about you give an answer lol. your implying i care about this shitty company, i care more about you and why you dont do better anon

the company merged with enix over 2 decades ago and has since lost probably 99% of the people that made Squaresoft good in the first place
it's a miracle this shell is still going

It's evident the company is becoming ever detached from the reason it exists, making games to simply become an asset management hedge fund company.
It's stock is rising while the games it produces are almost non-existent.
Square Soft were releasing multiple titles a year and those titles are still big names to this day almost all of them bangers, Square Enix on the other hand is the absolute negative to what Square Soft was.

PSO2: New Genesis has literally been on life support for 2 years now, barely getting anything but the occasional raid and endless collabs to spend money on gacha rolls. I'm frankly surprised they keep the servers going, I guess the mega whales are still enough to fund them keeping the lights on.

Is Hiroyuki Ito still in the company?

Koei mostly keeps their costs low. Musou game sales are shadows of the the momentum they had in the mid PS2 era but they still sell enough to keep them going, and most entries are simply minor updates with new characters/costumes/stage designs. Not to mention Gust's low cost RPGs, the endless reiterations of Koei's original strategy games that put them on the map back in the 80s/90s like RotK and Nobunaga's Ambition, and the various gachas they have a hand in.

I wouldn't be surprised if Atlus or SEGA had to move heaven and earth just to get Vanillaware to finally get the fuck over their grudge against Nintendo for Muramasa. Bringing them to PC is probably going to require a few more years of badgering still.

cant talk? ur dads dick in your mouth stopping you from talking?

You need to step away from the screen for a while man. This can't be healthy.

Koei games have an AA budget and they do what they're comfortable to do, it's just that simple.

capcom hasn't figured out shit they still relies on nostalgia none of their new ips were successful and now mh re sf nostalgia beginning to fade
they still have the next re game to save their ass but after that everything looks grim

sounds like the optimism isn't quite there. they need to pop off E33 style and get FFXIV back on track.

Square Enix and TBS Television (Tokyo Broadcasting System) announce collaboration to develop original IP game

Wait what

I'd assume so, he directed Dungeon Encounters a few years back

Wonder just how much stuff square will port over to the switch 2.That easy as fuck money for them not to.

Are they going to rush the release of the next XIV expansion?, because with the normal patch schedule the expansion can't be out until December 2026.

again not retorting, just being a retard attacking the poster not the post.

I only heard about this game last month, imagine you have a veteran talent in your company putting out a game after a long hiatus and do no marketing whatsoever cause it isn't FF or DQ. You don't hate Square Enix enough.

How are they going to replace all their gacha that have been shutting down over the past few years? There were so many Final Fantasy mobile games of the late 2010s that are all dead in NA now.

Team Asano games consistently exceeding expectations

Able to release games on a yearly basis

Diversifies with new own games and franchises

Why hasn't he been put in charge of FF17 already? Yoshida had his shot and failed spectacularly spending way too much money only to sell 3 mil units to a platform and fanbase that hates the current incarnation of the brand

People complain about them being scrapped here but I suspect most don't even recognize half those AA titles they released in the past 3 years. Aside from more known franchise slike Mana, those games got close to no marketing.
But yeah it's strange how they had Ito take such a backseat in general. After XII he's barely had involvement in any bigger projects, only acting as supervisor to things like the XII remaster, and I guess now potentially supervising IX remake.

MMOs were 64% of SE's profits from video games.
hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/25q4slides.pdf

never spent a cent on their gachas

unsubbed from XIV

nothin personnel

I just don't understand why nintendo just didn't buy them years ago when they were at their lowest to get sonic

athena is that you? Can you go call slt a pedo in the shf thread pls

So what have Capcom and KOEI figured out the rest haven't?

Koei is because of gachas and making a lot of Nintendo games.

Too much baggage, plus why would Nintendo want Sonic when they have Mario and their other IPs?

Nintendo could buy some IPs from Sega, long as those IPs do not oversaturate the franchises they currently prioritize for target demographic.

All the cool IPs Sega has (which is basically Yakuza and Atlus' games) they're more than happy to develop themselves. The fuck would Nintendo want out of them? Afterburner?

Because why not? Sonic is like the only other guy out there and it's a pillar of gaming. It not being dead to this day should have been instant accuisition priority for bingtendo. You seen that with the right handling the franchise instantly explodes in popularity. Sonic is arguebly more popular than mario right now. They should have bought them out

MH and RE are hard carrying capcom

just do cheap games but fun for ffs!

it's all good news

Somehow I knew it would be.

Get ready for Final Fantasy XIV: DawnGPT

true but even SF6 sold over 4.5 mil which is a lot for a fighting game
with over 56 mil franchise sales

chat are we cooked

SF6 is irrelevant

Yea.

I think I'm done with mh. Wilds was abysmal slop and barely even runs at all

What did you expect from a spin off monster hunter game?
Maybe they'll get their act together on monster hunter 5

SF6 is still the number 1 of its genre, sells DLC chars and merch
Square would deepthroat cock for a game like SF6

So are they just giving up on Kingdom Hearts? That shit apparently hasn't gotten anything in years, and the first piece of news for it is a cancellation. You would think they would at least try to maintain the cult a little bit.

again your dads dick in your mouth stopping you from talking?
the core is always there, this has been happening since p3rd, while i can agree its close to the point where is nothing but slop but there is still hunting in there even if it is trivial as fuck now.
I think its more that it doesnt have the content yet, people hate rise but i find it fun as shit and still challenging since i have access to all the event quests.
i think that wilds is just missing the hard shit and more content, even at thunder cunt was easy to solo and it can still 2 hit you

It's simple
Just pump out endless Bravely Default and Triangle games, they have no budget and they're fun

Dude you really need to stop conceding. You're making the thread worse.

Doesn't matter. Unless they nuke and re-write DT from the ground up, it'll always be a barrier to entry. Best you can hope for is the mobile version or a re-soft-reset.

They're going to milk FFXIV as much as they can through the cash shop while it's still got terminally online Whales then asset strip the studio making it.

Even if they did it wouldn't matter. Square Enix games suck for many other reasons.

They let him step down to save face bro. He was fired.

Fire Hiroi, Kate, Nomura and that fucking tranny on the board of directors they picked up during covid and they might survive the next 3 years.

a Sega fan that doesn't care about Sonic.

Yes that's me
I'm still emulating games I've never played and have enough to last at least one decade

Almost their entire translation team are also political activists if you research who they are and their bios. They're all pronoun faggots, rainbow flag, DEI pushers which is becoming tired to say at this point but that's part of the problem because they are the point of contact between the guys in Japan and the West and the translation team and telling the team in Japan that what we in the West want is more gay shit, more diversity more rainbow pronouns. The only person I can think of recently who was a good translator and just did his job, not trying to inject social justice/ dei activism into the job through subversion was Koji.
He might have held those beliefs but he most certainly did not inject them into the games he worked on.
Kate and the entire ff14 and wider translation team for Final fantasy who worked on ff7r series and the wider team at Square Enix all have this millennial progressive mindset that they should use their position for political activism and then Square Enix wonder why their games don't resonate with the normal crowd of people who buy games when they listen to people like Kate.
It's definitely a culture problem but I think the rot is too deep at this point which is a shame as FF games are still very dear to me, yet what FF14 has turned into from ARR to Dawntrail is just so emblematic of the entire company philosophy at SE.

pachinko and yu-gi-oh cards are too powerful

run that one through another AI to get a shorter description, duh

SE gotta thank God for Dragon Quest and Switch 2. They'd be two steps away from a financial crisis if they still had to rely on the PS5 lol. But, eh, we all know that they're going to fuck it up all when Sony starts sending those PS6 devkits

well shit now that they have a plan now all they gotta do is stop being a shitty ass japanese company! they got it solved! LMFAO

crowning achievement of japan is a coop HZD that looks worse and runs like shit

Attack the post not the poster, this whole thread you have nothing to say lmao

Crapcom

Even if the next expansion is ShB or even early Endwalker quality, I'll still have to slog through the remaining Dawntrail MSQ I quit the game midway through, then all the postpatch bullshit to boot. I already sunk ~30 hours into that shit and I'd be in a BETTER position than anyone starting fresh. The next expansion has to be the best yet or they better start offering free DT skips, otherwise there's no way in hell I'm coming back, and I'm definitely not alone.

It gets sales mogged by mortal kombat

TL;DR We are going to do everything including fishing for more games promoted by Xbox, anything other than make a Nintendo centric titles, we as a company will literally take an old IP like Mana and send it out to die on hardware that nobody will fucking buy it on ever.

21 slides and the words PC only shows up 6 times.

It's actually over for them.

Wuthering Waves

Isn't that a mobile gacha game? Why they fuck would you compare that to an dying genre aka MMOs?

too many , didnt view

just give me a 5 word rundown

seems like SE forgot that they're a VIDEO GAME company. they have one job: make fun video games.

[actually] they are more than that, they also have anime, manga , arcades

They have a similar crowd of people in Asia who play both. People who play FFXIV in China are also people who play Gachas and it's a similar trend in Japan too, people who play PSO2, FFXIV and DQonline also play Gachas, there is a lot of cross audience.
That and MMOs are implementing more Gacha mechanics to try and appeal more to the Gacha crowd of people.
I foresee a future where the two genres will be unified through some game and there won't be any distinction.

still nothing to say cunt? your responses are as empty as not posting you little bitch haahah

Even if they did it wouldn't matter. Square Enix games suck for many other reasons.

This is true. They don't have a good tardwrangler so most of their shit comes off like self-indulgent tripe.

Square Enix learned NOTHING from all of their failures

Lol. At this point these dumb assholes should literally go up to any gamer and ask why they don't like their games.
It's absolutely incredible how they have all of these ways of collecting data and they don't even wipe their ass with any of it.
Like, if I had a fucking life-raft next to me and I didn't know how to swim in the middle of the ocean, I would grab it.
But these guys are clinically retarded.

I foresee a future where the two genres will be unified through some game and there won't be any distinction.

It's already here.
youtube.com/watch?v=YZkychhbZOE
youtube.com/watch?v=gONX1LzZMXw

Why do Japanese companies have the worst people in charge of them? How does this happen?

People forget that resident evil was always a normie money maker franchise even long before 4 for some reason just because all the multi-player endeavors that aren't outbreak were embarassing

what happened...

Why do Japanese companies have the worst people in charge of them?

seniority is everything in japanese work culture, so old people are going to be promoted into positions of power instead of competent ones

Clive killed both Square Enix and Tekken

Team Asano should leave Square Enix and form their own studio. Can't use HD-2D anymore but they'll find a way. Square Enix needs to die. It's beyond saving.

This just proves it that SE are once again moving away from the idea of being a company that is motivated to make games and into hedge-fund asset management.
They are barely releasing games, yet their stock price continues to rise based on speculation. It's really quite indicative of the concept of the "market" when a company can continue to grow in market capital even when the very reason for their existence, to be a game developer is deeply in question.

I can only guess they have high expectations for the FFXIV mobile launch. I don't see much else SE has releasing soon that would excite shareholders.

They are just more successful

Monster Hunter has a religious following in Japan and since World has also been a massive success there as well. Comparable to the likes of Call of Duty, Fortnite and other very big players.
All while SF6 is the defacto one and only fighting game that matters - and games like Resident Evil , DD or DMC break new records with each new release.
KOEI meanwhile make a bank pandering to China with their Three Kingdoms and Warrior sloppa. Each title in itself might not sell +5 million copies but they shit out multiple of those games each year so no surprise big money is being made.

SEGA meanwhile won Metacritic publisher of the year. Metaphor, P3R, Yakuza and the likes are all very well liked. But overall they sell a fraction of what Capcom and KOEI make.

Kill Yourself now nigger

Asano isn't even a dev team. All of their games are made by a different dev team.
They couldn't exist without SE's backing.

Valkyrie Chronicles?

i hate ethics department

Japanese EA continues to be Japanese EA.
Hopefully they go under at some point so their IPs can be sold off to companies that'll actually do something good with them.

Oh did they remove that white cowgirl outfit from Ashley in the remake? I never finished the remake for some reason, might have been that the 100% randomness of zombies came out and I just decided fuck it, not worth the effort to essentially play a slotmachine where the game is actively rigged against you if you play well

He would have left in April if that was the case.

Are these companies that could do something good with them in existence right now?

Team Asano should do what a lot of the ex-Squaresoft devs did: form a new studio and ask Nintendo for work.

wuwa won.

So what have Capcom figured out the rest haven't?

genuinely nothing. I am convinced that capcom is just as bad as EA, Activision, Ubisoft etc.
the KEY difference is just that the core foundations of their franchises are stronger, and therefore take longer to destroy. not for lack of trying on capcoms part, Wilds was genuinely a fucking bad game with a good core foundation. removed all friction from the gameplay and instead inserted 900% friction in all other aspects of the game such as being forced to slowly walk and talk and all the other story focus garbage that forces you to a crawl.

funny how the game has skippable cut scenes because of people's complaints in world, but they literally didn't get the message because there's much more unskippable walking and talking in wilds than there's unskippable cutscenes in world.

Can someone translate these investor slides for me? What does it mean? More idiotic decisions or back to golden age? Is it over or are we back?

Over.

How is "shifting from quantity to quality" bad?

What Squenix thinks is quality, often isn't, and some of their smaller titles were better than their AAA slop.

we're putting more AI in games

we're making more non-gaming media to get normalfags and tourists to notice us

we are hiring more HR

we are investing 100 billion into the above subjects

I think they're better off developing for PC this generation.

Happens everywhere not just japan

Seems like Square's 5 creative studios are split on focus. 1 is now 100% SD games/mobile focused, 3 are 100% HD games (ie console and PC focused releases), one (most likely referring to CS3) is split between MMO and HD games and the knowledge bank is more shared between studios than before where they were more siloed.

Image didn't post

why do corpos keep falling for the AI meme?

We are talking about the one corporation that remained committed to the NFT meme.

Square Enix is doomed

only two more weeks

Governments sometimes give cash to corporations for using new tech. idk if that's the case for the majority of companies using this shit, but the more relevant reason is that no one wants to be the retard that gets left behind like Sears did in the internet boom so they embrace new tech immediately.

Enhance productivity

I think I've read that phrase on almost every slide that has been posted.
If only they could 'Enhance Creativity' for what they are supposed to be in which is a creative industry selling to the public and not pure business to business operations.

What game did they release that sold well to make line go up?

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Dragon Quest III HD-2D.

The company announced a significant increase in dividends per share and a planned stock split, indicating a strategic move to enhance shareholder value and market positioning.

never heard of stock split but it might be like split fiction

folder posting here of all places

It's gotta be a bot.

Remember when SE haters, like Barry, used to spam SE stock doom threads every single day?

I remember.

Rebirth released in Spring 2024 which doesn't align with the graph timeline here
but the Dragon Quest that was recent wasn't it? It can't be the valuation from the sales of Dragon Quest how much did it sell?
If so that's impressive.

if they're doing so well, why are they on a 3 year plan for restructuring?

i liked this waifu and i was really interested in her past during the time skip. idk why they didn't tell it. XVI was so shit

I love square enix but as a bizraeli it's just a correction, and with a PE of 80 an unjustified one at that.

Guy who posted this here, im thinking this means another project from CS3 on the level of XVI is probably in the works to the chagrin of those who may have wanted them to all in on XIV ig. But desu that seemed likely from the interviews they've given the fact that they're publishing smaller titles as well as the fact they upgraded the XIV engine and hired a ton of people for both XVI and XIV recently it seems like they'll be like the KH and Remake teams in CS1 going forward, two halves of a larger whole sub studio in Square Enix.

hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/pdf/20250514_01_en.pdf

they're finally making the Square-Enix Remake

Please don't become a soulless MMO gacha factory

Please don't become a soulless MMO gacha factory

Please don't become a soulless MMO gacha factory

How bad is the report?

i liked this waifu and i was really interested in her past during the time skip. idk why they didn't tell it.

They did though. She even has her own companion quest that relates to it.

Maybe you should actually play games instead of just watching streams.

I remember

Even if 2025 and 2026 are barren of releases I hope they use these years to at least begin promoting some of their upcoming games to give some idea of what to expect when

Life must be unpleasant and hard with the constant shadow boxing huh?

As the other Anon said they literally did if you played and completed the side quests. I don't blame you for not playing them as they are MMO structured for most of the game and it's only in the last section of the game where the side quests feel unique enough to justify their existence.
Jill does open up more to Clive though, did you play this part? It's very romantic if you complete it, you also need to complete it for the DLC.
youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Coo5CBWgk

it should've had much more attention given to it. cut 30 side quests and add a section of her past and the game improves a lot.

everyone playing alone together

damn that's so mediocre

don't think i got this part, unless i forgot. didn't play the dlc either.
i mean in the main story it should've been a lengthy playable section with additional flashbacks.
they skipped Clive's too but he is the playable protagonist so you get enough of him just by playing through the game.
when they mentioned her past i was really interested in it and then they didn't give me much. she was very underused.

I've said it before but Square probably won't have much to genuinely big and new show until mid to late 2026 maybe early 2027 even. I think FFXVII is a SGF or pseudo E3 2027 reveal, putting it 4 years out from XVI release similar to the gap between XV and XVI's announcement.

This is the failing of focus on a singular character unlike in a JRPG where it has a party and multiple protagonists.
Although personally I do think given if you complete the side quests, read the letters and talk to Jill often she does give the player a lot of attention and is more involved but it's not the same as having her in a permanent party with you as you would in a traditional FF game.

I hope this is one aspect SE has learned for the next game because it's really something I missed the most, because I'm playing through and it just feels silent with Clive on his own in large parts, it's no coincidence a lot of people enjoyed the Cid and Clive segments the most because the conversation exchanges between them felt natural as you were progressing through the game.