They shouldn't feel bad: no game sells well on Xbox anymore. The install base is relatively small and the active players they do have, have been trained not to buy games and just play on Game Pass instead.
Ultimately, Square Enix's problem is that they have an identity crisis now. They lost sight of their core audience long ago by veering further and further away from RPGs in favour of action games, to the point where XVI looks more like DMC than FF. At that point, most RPG fans aren't interested, and it seems like action game fans don't want 50 hour cutscene games either, leaving Square with just the most diehard FF fans buying. They went down this path to gain more widespread appeal and grow their audience, but ironically they've just shrunk it instead. The best thing they could do is learn from Expedition 33's success and understand there's still a demand for classic JRPGs, that they can still garner critical and commercial success. They just need to make a deep, satisfying game again, filled with deep strategic options, rich gear sets, many weapons, towns to explore freely, secrets to find, a complex story, party members, etc, the rest will sort itself out after that. Make Final Fantasy Final Fantasy again.
I'll always be 100% physical, unless it's a game that is only available digitally.
It's understandable that there's been a general downturn, as things have been pretty stagnant. The Switch has been winding down its last year in the spotlight with some smaller releases than usual, the Xbox continues to be largely unsellable, and the PS5 has lost most of its momentum due to a barren release calendar.
Moving forward, the Switch 2 will energise things a bit, but with Mario Kart at £75 I can't imagine that's going to push numbers like Mario Kart 8 did at £40 (an increase of 87.5% for anyone interested). Sony at least have Ghost of Yotei later in the year so hopefully that moves the needle a bit. It'll probably be a pretty neutral year until next year when GTA6 drops and breaks records and pushes another huge wave of PS5 and Xbox sales.
@get2sammyb because this isn't about them just making a multiplayer game. It's about them making a live service game at the expense of single-player story-focused games that they're actually known and loved for. This game isn't a passion project; it's shallow, ininspired trend-chasing. I've never groaned so hard in my life than when I watched that reveal trailer and all that wasted story was just for another 5v5 hero shooter. What an absolute waste of everyone's time.
To be fair, I played the beta and I actually enjoyed it. It felt good, looked great, had a nice range of characters and skills, but it's worth remembering that a couple of years ago Sony disrupted their entire strategy to focus on live service gamed, due to certain ones doing so well and making so much money, but we don't need every game to be a live service multiplayer game. Sony are at their best when creating single-player story-focused games, and the failure of Concord (and success of Black Muth Wukong), will be a wonderful reminder to Sony that they shouldn't divert so much resource to live service games that nobody wants at the expense of their core audience.
That being said, absolutely nobody would be mad about a new Killzone or Resistance game.
Comments 3
Re: Final Fantasy 16 May Have Underperformed on PS5, But It's Doing Terribly on Xbox
They shouldn't feel bad: no game sells well on Xbox anymore. The install base is relatively small and the active players they do have, have been trained not to buy games and just play on Game Pass instead.
Ultimately, Square Enix's problem is that they have an identity crisis now. They lost sight of their core audience long ago by veering further and further away from RPGs in favour of action games, to the point where XVI looks more like DMC than FF. At that point, most RPG fans aren't interested, and it seems like action game fans don't want 50 hour cutscene games either, leaving Square with just the most diehard FF fans buying. They went down this path to gain more widespread appeal and grow their audience, but ironically they've just shrunk it instead. The best thing they could do is learn from Expedition 33's success and understand there's still a demand for classic JRPGs, that they can still garner critical and commercial success. They just need to make a deep, satisfying game again, filled with deep strategic options, rich gear sets, many weapons, towns to explore freely, secrets to find, a complex story, party members, etc, the rest will sort itself out after that. Make Final Fantasy Final Fantasy again.
Re: Physical Game Sales See Dramatic Drop-Off in UK as Console Market Struggles
I'll always be 100% physical, unless it's a game that is only available digitally.
It's understandable that there's been a general downturn, as things have been pretty stagnant. The Switch has been winding down its last year in the spotlight with some smaller releases than usual, the Xbox continues to be largely unsellable, and the PS5 has lost most of its momentum due to a barren release calendar.
Moving forward, the Switch 2 will energise things a bit, but with Mario Kart at £75 I can't imagine that's going to push numbers like Mario Kart 8 did at £40 (an increase of 87.5% for anyone interested). Sony at least have Ghost of Yotei later in the year so hopefully that moves the needle a bit. It'll probably be a pretty neutral year until next year when GTA6 drops and breaks records and pushes another huge wave of PS5 and Xbox sales.
Re: PS5, PC FPS Concord's Poor Player Numbers Have Predictably Gone Viral
@get2sammyb because this isn't about them just making a multiplayer game. It's about them making a live service game at the expense of single-player story-focused games that they're actually known and loved for. This game isn't a passion project; it's shallow, ininspired trend-chasing. I've never groaned so hard in my life than when I watched that reveal trailer and all that wasted story was just for another 5v5 hero shooter. What an absolute waste of everyone's time.
To be fair, I played the beta and I actually enjoyed it. It felt good, looked great, had a nice range of characters and skills, but it's worth remembering that a couple of years ago Sony disrupted their entire strategy to focus on live service gamed, due to certain ones doing so well and making so much money, but we don't need every game to be a live service multiplayer game. Sony are at their best when creating single-player story-focused games, and the failure of Concord (and success of Black Muth Wukong), will be a wonderful reminder to Sony that they shouldn't divert so much resource to live service games that nobody wants at the expense of their core audience.
That being said, absolutely nobody would be mad about a new Killzone or Resistance game.