Small and mid-sized titles missed Square Enix’s expectations, too
Square Enix has releasedan outlineof its financial results briefing from Feb. 3, in which it saysForspokensales have been lackluster.
The action RPG arrived just a few months ago, but the trend so far seems to have not lived up to Square Enix’s expectations. The publisher also drew attention to its reception in reviews, which president Yosuke Matsuda characterized as “challenging”:
“Reviews of ‘FORSPOKEN,’ which we released on August 02, 2025, have been challenging. However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future. That said, its sales have been lackluster, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings.”
Additionally, Square Enix noted a year-over-year dip in the “HD Games” net sales segment. The publisher attributes this partly to a challenging bar set by the previous year’s releases, but also because many of the “new small and mid-sized titles” Square Enix launched did not perform as well as expected.
Great expectations
Sales expectations havecertainly been a point of frictionfor Square Enix’s games in the past. Especially forForspoken, a game made for PlayStation 5 and fairly beefy PCs, there were some challenges set out before it. The thing is,Forspokenwasn’t horribly received by all. Itmay have just been middling, but too middling for a game of this scale.
Comments about the small-to-mid-tier games are a shame to see, though. Square Enix absolutely launched atidal waveofmid-range gameslast fall, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Some of those smaller releases end upbeing more memorable to methan other big games of the same year.
That said, a lot has happened since this February 3 briefing. Luminous Productions hasbeen absorbed intoSquare Enix, and president Matsuda hasannounced he’ll be stepping downin June. It’s unclear what all this signals for the future of Square Enix, which is now a big ol’ pile ofFinal Fantasy. Hopefully the Q&A comment near the end of the outline, hoping that we “look forward to the blockchain games” Square Enix plans to launch, is not an indication of that future.
