One of Square Enix's major shareholders has doubled down on its criticisms of the publisher, to the point where it's publicly released a 100-page presentation (yes, really) in an attempt to highlight its perceived problems.
The shareholder in question is Singapore-based activist investment fund 3D Investment Partners, which as alluded, has been critical of Square Enix in the past. 3D Investment Partners currently owns a 14.36% stake in the Japanese publisher.
3D Investment Partners had previously stated that it would seek to influence Square Enix's by making "significant proposals to management". However, judging by its latest actions, the fund clearly remains unhappy with how the publisher's performing.
The aforementioned presentation effectively asks fellow shareholders to take action alongside 3D Investment Partners, and "pursue constructive dialogue" with Square Enix's bigwigs.
So where's this criticism coming from? Well, it's no secret that Square Enix as a whole has been dragging its feet for at least a few years now — at least in a financial sense.
While other Japanese publishers like Capcom have enjoyed year-on-year growth for what feels like an age, Square Enix just can't seem to escape stunted game sales and ballooning development costs. The result has been a series of disappointing financial reports — the kind that shareholders will inevitably question.
Specifically, 3D Investment Partners points a finger at underperformance in both the console and mobile gaming sectors, while also calling out a number of cancelled projects, which have led to some significant write-offs.
The fund's bottom line is that most of these issues stem from poor management — and it's not confident in the current regime's ability to turn things around, despite leadership's recent efforts to explain its future plans (which have been deemed rather vague and unhelpful by 3D Investment Partners).
While a company the size of Square Enix doesn't need to immediately scramble and try to repair this relationship, it's not a particularly good look for the company, and this kind of public criticism can become a problem if other investors start taking sides.
Obviously, with regards to game sales, Square Enix has been trying to expand its reach with Switch 2 and Xbox ports of titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth — but it remains to be seen whether this approach has any real impact on the publisher's all-important profit margins.
What's your take on Square Enix these days? Does 3D Investment Partners have a point? Is the publisher mismanaged? Consider the stakes in the comments section below.