There have been many struggles within the gaming industry this year and last, and several key companies that one would figure are the “cornerstones” of the industry have been especially struggling. One of those companies is Square Enix, which is the “home of RPGs” in many respects and has been around since nearly the beginning of gaming in one form or another. However, in 2024, it’s been dealt one massive blow after another, and Final Fantasy 16 is the latest “wound” that it has taken. You might recall that despite this game being a mainline title, it didn’t do “as well as expected” on console. Thus, the hope was that the PC/Steam numbers would help bolster things.
However, a new report posted by Tech4Gamers suggests that this hope was misplaced. The PC version of the title arrived in September, and the new report states that it only sold 289,000 in the period since launch. That’s not good for various reasons. First, it shows that Square Enix didn’t do enough to hype up Final Fantasy 16 on PC/Steam, and second, there wasn’t much interest in it coming to the platform.
There are many reasons that this could be the case, including that fans weren’t interested in the “darker, more mature” storyline and feel that the game offered. They also might not have been a fan of the shift to an action-RPG-style combat system versus the classic turn-based style that the series has had in its mainline titles for a long time.
It could also be that gamers just had other titles they wanted to buy, and this wasn’t on their radars. No matter the reason, the report indicates that Square Enix intentionally has been hiding this result and that its stock has taken another hit recently.
You might recall that a certain other title within this franchise launched this year. It was the second entry to the “Remake Saga,” and it hasn’t done well, either. In fact, it hasn’t even sold as much as the original game, even with the positive praise from critics and massive word-of-mouth about how much more expansive and overall fun the title is.
With these two games lack of sales, Square Enix has had to not only do layoffs, but massive restructuring. The company has also noted that it’ll adopt a more multiplatform approach in the future to try and bolster sales.
Whether it works or not is debatable, but they obviously can’t keep doing these singular launches, as they’re not doing enough.
