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https://sensortower.com/blog/final-f...e-revenue-2018
Blimey.
I don't know how to handle this kind of information. On the one hand, I don't like mobile gaming, it's not for me. On the other hand, good for SE's finances which is hopefully good for their budget for their AAA console games?Quote:
Originally Posted by said article, for people who are as lazy as I often am
Good for SE and sort of just proving the point that the flagship series isn't really going to go anywhere despite some grumbling. Though this likely does mean that SE might attach a mobile spin-off or two to every IP that comes out from now on. Be interesting to see what the VIIR one will be.
I rarely go off on rants, but moogley boogley this trout fiesta of a game triggers me so hard, so sorry in advance for my ruffled jimmies.
The fact that it did well financially, honestly, if anything, is bad news for anyone hoping for great single player experiences.
Given that SE has long been saying they want to move to a games as service model (i.e. basically games where the base game is either free, or paid for, usually multiplayer, and then you pay for additional content, micro-transactions etc. and then they rehash it every couple of years - just look at what they're doing to Dissidia for a taste of what's to come). The fact that quite frankly an utterly malignant FFXV version of (essentially) Farmville, that is basically just a bunch of timegates that attempt to co-erse you into spending money at every turn, made THAT much money (especially given the rather negative rap it has in the western market) really makes me think we're not going to see many more triple-AAA quality blockbuster games from Square Enix after the next few years have passed - IF this is where they feel the money is.
This isn't just me being a Luddite toward mobile gaming either... games like Final Fantasy Record Keeper, Kingdom Hearts Union X etc. are all solid mobile titles with actual gameplay that aren't just trying to treat you like a blank cheque. A New Empire is like a malignant tumor with no depth that just wants to suck money out of you. Honestly, I'd go as far as to say that Final Fantasy All The Bravest (remember that joker?) was less malignant in terms of monetisation than A New Empire is...
That's even ignoring that saying A New Empire is "loosely based on" FFXV would be the understatement of the year. It has next to nothing to do with FFXV aside from featuring the names and art of some characters, and the whole thing was marketed with "generic scantly clad lady saying trout along the lines of come save her kingdom*." For all the effort SE invested in building the Universe of FFXV, this game is an absolutely travesty of creative licensing...
The naive person in me would like to think that this money would get invested toward the development of new titles or the titles that are ticking along - but given that Yoshi P is always talking about resource struggles when it comes to FFXIV development (the game whose re-release in 2013 singlehandedly returned the company to the black), I highly doubt that - it shows they're no longer reinvesting the money into existing stuff.
Plus when it came to the mainline series, they aimed too high with Fabula Nova Crystallis, they aimed too high with the FFXV Universe, I imagine they're reluctant to aim that high again. I'd be all for them scaling back and focusing on singular narratively contained experiences again, but as someone working in the industry, I really can't see that happening and really feel like we'll be seeing a lot more F2P trash from them with a gem few and far between.
But sadly this seems to be the way a lot of major publishers are going right now.
*Just look at this hot garbage...
brb going to hug a kitten to calm down
Just gonna repeat this:I know some of you disagree with my prediction but I have zero faith in Square Enix. Follow the dollar signs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychotic
If they stopped making single player titles, they would no longer be able to make bank off the name effectively. I still have 100% belief they will not stop making single player titles. Hell, in the next five years? That assumes they will never even release a FFXVI and that FFVII will be their last single player FF title. They're not stupid.Quote:
Originally Posted by PsychoticJust gonna repeat this:I know some of you disagree with my prediction but I have zero faith in Square Enix. Follow the dollar signs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychotic
As a brand, FFXV allowed them to get all that mobile money. But without FFXV, there would not be FFXV: A New Empire.
I'm with BoB on this one, they need the numbered entries to start the hype machine so they can release the crappy cash-in mobile title afterward. I think the only move SE could make that would be rather worrying is if they made XVI or any future numbered entry a mobile title exclusively.
Business wise, the main games need to stick around to promote the other titles associated with it and keep the brand alive within the public consciousness. There is still a bit of a stigma in the market against mobile titles abroad, so I doubt SE would gamble on going full mobile. The worrying thing here is that we may see more crappy spin-off titles like this for all future FF titles.
I'm not entirely sure that's the case. When I briefly looked into the community for this game when I tried it, a hell of a lot of the people talking about it had no interest in the main series FF or even FFXV itself and had never played either. My perception was that there were as many general mobile gamers as Final Fantasy fans playing it.
Square pushed the game incredibly hard through things like BlueStacks (an Android emulator) offering rewards through BlueStacks for playing it for example and I think it picked up followers that way.
Make of that what you will!
I would still argue that current SE wouldn't be foolish enough to stick all their eggs into one basket. They don't quite have the reputation Konami had fostered for years where they disbanded and dismantled development teams whose games failed to perform and dropped any IP that wasn't making bank the second they could. Which in turn didn't make the fact they eventually turned on MGS not too surprising for anyone familiar with the company and brand. Kojima and companies had complained for years about how stifling the corporate money machine was to their developments.
Mobile has certainly become a cornerstone for the company like many others, but as I mentioned in the thread you quoted from, it's not like XV bombed, in fact it's one of the better selling FFs to be honest and while XIV might be struggling to get funding for new content, but the game has certainly been very profitable for SE as well. So I don't see why SE would completely drop these revenue avenues to go full mobile like Konami did. Of anything, this shift, will likely just perpetuate what we've already been seeing for years which is a slower and smaller amount of releases of AAA console titles that are "sure bets", while they flood the market with more mobile titles, the bulk of which are usually just ports of their 16-bit/32-bit library. The more concerning thing here, is what Aulayna mentioned which is that many of these console entries will likely be turned into service model entries like XV was. Get ready to have Chocobo Farm and Wutai questlines in VIIR be relegated to Season Pass DLC.
Honestly it's too early to say how this information is going to affect the business model of the company for the next ten years. One factor no one has even mentioned is the very likely possibility that other companies will see this info and in turn flood the market with cheap titles like this to get a piece of that sweet cheap causal mobile pie and thus prevent anyone from getting real dough because consumers will be inundated with too many choices, at which point companies like Squenix will have to rely on name brand recognition or they'll have to cut into the cheap and easy profits these titles usually give by doing more for PR. Hell this game did have a pretty aggressive PR campaign going for it as we've seen already in this thread, so we don't really know how much that ate into these profits the company is reporting. Not likely a whole lot mind you, but this is a factor to consider as well from a business standpoint.
The other thing to put into account is what the Big 3 will do, or at least Sony and Microsoft. Sony has been fetching a great profit this console generation and I strongly feel that part of this is due to the company getting companies like SE to double down on exclusives and early access for the system. I can only imagine what ludicrous check Sony signed to SE to have access to VIIR a good six months to a year ahead of XBone and Steam. Even if they did decide to go back on this exclusiveness contract for whatever reason, the fact that for years it was known as a PS4 exclusive would have been enough to drive up sales for Sony, so that check has likely already broke even for Sony by this point.
Curious: Is it? I only ask as I swear I remember them announcing that last year they got almost twice the funding as the year before, or something to that extent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
Quote:
Originally Posted by ;ooney BoB
I made that statement based on this information. I don't play XIV nor care enough to follow news on it. So I'll let the actual expert elaborate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aulayna
While it's true to say Square Enix are trying to exploit the 'Final Fantasy' brand on mobile, I don't think the 'FFXV' part of A New Empire is really contributing much. Square's marketing yens are more than enough to push the app to people, and the festering turd itself will get it's claws into suckers and extract their money. The 'success' here does not come from the brand, it comes from an effective monetisation loop coupled with heavy advertising.
Does the brand give some kind of boost to their downloads and revenue? Sure, yeah, but I struggle to believe that that's a large influence. So while it's convenient for them to extract just a little bit more of the cash and dignity out of this franchise, the success of one app - out of a great many attempts that were far less successful - isn't going to affect their future plans for the franchise as a whole. If anything this feels kinda like trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube before you throw it in the bin.
Just curious, has anyone here played A New Empire?
I haven't. I always assumed it was just a pay-to-win or pay-to-build cash cow with familiar character sprites.
As far as "side games" go, I really enjoyed A King's Tale. Even though it was a free to play side game with retro graphics, it still contributed to the lore of Regis' story under the guise of a bedtime story and I felt more enriched playing Final Fantasy XV because of it. Where as A New Empire doesn't seem to have anything to do with the base game aside from using the world for marketing.
I guess I'm glad that Square Enix releases have already been low on my interest list in recent years, because if they weren't already, this news is bound to take them in that direction. I appreciate your optimism that these profits will be put into developing triple A games, but I don't agree. From a business perspective, it seems most reasonable that they would funnel profits back into developing the kinds of games that made the profit in the first place. So expect more mobile garbage and fewer console releases.
Honestly even before I realized this was mobile the thread title disturbed me because it made me think that they're not going to move on from FFXV. This seems like the longest period without a future numbered FF announced. I don't count the time to announce FFXV as being FFXV because the game itself was announced way before that. I don't think we've had any game that could be FFXVI announced.
Honestly, after XII, XIII, and XV all suffered from development hell due to being announced years before any of them actually started development, I find it refreshing SE is finally showing a smidgen of restraint with announcing a game too early. Granted, that because the VII Remake and KHIII are suffering from it but honestly, I feel that game is going to dwarf any excitement the announcement of XVI would cause. If they were smart, they would hopefully announce XVI closer to VII R's release and hopefully after XVI has already been in development for awhile. I'd rather not hear anything new than spend another seven to ten years waiting for a game SE is going to have to rush through development because they announced a title two years before it was ready for any real development.
As for what happens with the development side of things and where all this money is going to go, whose to say. Again, I would point out that XV, despite all the whining you hear on this forum and some of our personal opinions on it, did exceptionally well as all Final Fantasy games generally do. Also ifwhen VIIR does well, I'm pretty sure that will also mean that SE will see value in continuing console titles. They've honestly been pushing for more console titles this gen than they did last gen, so I feel its too soon to start saying the sky is falling.
Oh god I just realized I've become the new Bolivar...
Attachment 75928
I have, and you're spot on. I've played a lot of the FF titles on mobile and it's up there with All The Bravest as one of the worst. It's a cookie cutter mobile base builder game. In fact from what I've read it's basically a FFXV reskin of Mobile Strike, although having never played that I can't confirm but I know it has the same developers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lone Wolf Leonhart
Does that mean that we are going to get A New Midgar with a model with bad Tifa cosplay?
That piece of trout made so much money?
STILL A PIECE OF trout. smurf SQUARE FOR BEING THIS LOW!