Square Enix has faced a number of challenges recently, finding it difficult to compete with the other giants of the industry today. Despite owning a wealth of valuable gaming IPs, the Japanese publisher is currently struggling to return to its former glory, but the studio has outlined major changes to address the situation.
Among other things, Square Enix is now focused on exploring its existing IPs and launching them across multiple platforms. However, a new report from a major shareholder outlines just how dire things have been recently, outlining inefficient cost management and other problems. According to the report, major flops like Forspoken cost significantly more to make than blockbusters like Final Fantasy 16.
This information comes from 3D Investment Partners, which owns a nearly 15% stake in Square Enix. 3D Investment Partners’ latest report highlights everything the shareholder finds disappointing about the company today when compared to other Japanese giants like Capcom and Bandai Namco.
3D Investment Partners published a 100-page report on Square Enix recently, revealing that Final Fantasy 16 cost around 9.1 billion Yen to produce. In comparison, Forspoken has a budget of 13.7 billion Yen. When converted to USD, the former cost around $58 million, while the latter cost over $87 million to produce.
On the other hand, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth wound up costing twice as much as Final Fantasy 16, with 3D Investment Partners pointing to a development budget of 18.5 billion Yen. In terms of USD, this remake likely cost around $120 million.
The shareholders’ biggest gripe seems to be the fact that Square Enix is doing a poor job of managing the costs of its games, especially compared to competitors. A comparison from the same image above highlights how the Final Fantasy publisher’s typical AAA productions cost over twice as much as Capcom’s AAA offerings. Of course, this is something CEO Takashi Kiryu has also acknowledged in the past.
Nonetheless, it may come as a shock that Forspoken costs twice as much to make as Final Fantasy 16. The latter was generally well-received and even sold 3 million units within the first seven days of its release. Perhaps future investments should use this particular entry as an inspiration for effective cost management and budgeting without compromising scale and overall quality.
